Compared to Traditional Therapy

Blocked Emotion therapy has the same goal as traditional talk therapy in that both therapies target unresolved past trauma and dysfunctional coping styles through research based methods. But the approach and overall feel is very different to traditional talk therapy.

Blocked Emotion Therapy a successful approach that can be used on it's own or coupled with traditional therapy.

In the rest of the article, we will address the five main differences you will experience in Blocked Emotion Therapy when compared to Traditional Therapy.

Therapist Lead

Auditory Approach

Top-Down Method

Power Through

Thought Based

In a typical therapy session, the client tells their story and then the Therapist takes the lead, gives answers, and creates a game plan for the client.

Health practitioners can offer great insights, but if they are not careful, they can foster a dependency and implant a belief in the client's mind that they are incapable of making good decisions. (1)

In Blocked Emotion Therapy, the coach helps the client discover their own answers and clear any resistance to making the change. The coach’s opinion does not trump the client’s intuition.

Blocked Emotion coaches understand that building and supporting personal awareness and fostering a skill of decision making is vital to long term recovery outside of sessions.

Most clients know what needs to be changed but stay stuck because the current space feels more safe and is somehow protecting them.

Blocked Emotion Coaches gently help their clients uncover the beliefs that keep the client stuck by asking questions, listening, and encouraging the client to look deeper. They then help the client release what's blocking them from easily and effortlessly step into the change they want to make.

Client led sessions create a very personalized experience and supports problem solving skills which builds confidence in self.

There are three ways a person learns new information. (2)

1) Auditory - communicating through written or vocalized words.

2) Visual - watching another person perform the task.

3) Physical - going through the motions themselves.

For most typical therapy sessions, the therapist mainly relies on auditory approaches. Only recently have some therapists started adding physical and visual techniques in sessions.

In almost every Blocked Emotion Therapy session all three learning methods are incorporated.

The Coach helps the client speak their feelings, feel the feelings in their body, and visualize processing those feelings.

Using all three learning methods maximizes the client’s ability to learn, adopt a new way of seeing life, and creates a faster change.

Change can be accomplished in one of 2 ways; Top-Down or Bottom-UP methods. The Top-Down method is used by most traditional therapists.

This is where changes are made to the physical world and eventually the exterior evidence teaches the client to feel differently about themselves. For example, if you started an exercise program and started eating better you eventually would start to think and feel more positively about self.

The Top-Down Method is relatively straight forward and can make the client feel like their making noticeable progress quickly, but without internal changes, they must fight against the old beliefs and habits that have been there so long. Clients can get burnt out quickly trying to prove to themselves they are different.

Blocked Emotion Therapy uses the Bottom-Up method and addresses the deep subconscious beliefs that are driving the behavior. Once the root belief is removed, the unwanted behavior is simultaneously removed as well. For instance, if you started to think and feel more positively about yourself, you would naturally enjoy caring for yourself through exercise and food that felt good and served you.

The Bottom-Up method may require more effort in the beginning, but in the long run, will allow for a faster and easier transition.

Most therapies depend on high willpower and a drive to push yourself to do things that go against your nature.

This approach works really well for those driven by a challenge and get excited at the idea of tackling a problem.

But for those that struggle to separate themselves from the problem and have a hard time seeing themselves positively, this can make them feel even more overwhelmed, guilty, and depressed..

Change needs to be made from a space of self-love and self-care instead of self-hate and self-punishment.

If the drive to change comes from a space of self-hate, there will be another part of self that will refuse to comply. Our main drive is to feel safe, and if we don’t feel safe with ourselves, we are going to cope by either rebelling or avoiding.

For many, the idea of being gentle doesn’t make sense as a reliable tool for change, but it’s actually the only way for any real change to take place.

We can see the profound effects of this principle in how children respond to growth when they are raised in a home where they feel safe. Children who are raised by secure parents in an environment where they feel loved and accepted are more likely to feel comfortable taking risks and exploring new ways of living in comparison to children who are raised in homes where they are neglected or are over corrected. (3)

Blocked Emotion Therapy leans into this principle by encouraging clients to foster love and acceptance for self. There is a time to step outside of the comfort zone, but this should be an exciting choice to serve self rather than to punish.

There is a time to step outside of the comfort zone, but this should be an exciting choice to serve self rather than made out of self-hate.

We all have beliefs about ourselves and the world we live in. These beliefs make up who we are and impact our choice and how we handle life. They also are at the core of why we think and feel the way we do.

To find those core beliefs, most traditional therapists choose to focus on their client's thoughts. This approach really works well for clients who are driven more by logic over emotion and can quickly articulate their reasoning.

But for those that are more emotionally driven, trying to dissect and follow thought patterns can be time consuming and overwhelming.

Emotionally driven individuals use their feelings as their main guide in decision making. For instance, even if something makes complete sense, an emotionally driven person will not move forward if it doesn’t feel right. (4) For these individuals, choosing and emotion focused approach is very helpful. 

Blocked Emotion Therapy’s focus on emotions allows clients who are emotionally driven to get to core beliefs quickly and to navigate that headspace with ease.

Another benefit in focusing on emotions is that the whole experience feels more impactful because an emotionally driven individual will naturally be more motivated by feeling their way into an answer rather than being told through logic.

Blocked Emotion Therapy's focus on emotion is a great option for the highly sensitive and emotionally aware population.