Emotion Processing and the Role of Compassion in Psychotherapy from the Perspective of Multiple Selves andthe Compassionate Self

Emotion processing is an important factor for successful psychotherapy. Clients tend to suffer from maladaptive emotions,which contribute to states of confusion, rumination, and stagnation. The therapist should demonstrate adequate empathy andunderstanding of the client’s complaints to help the client to recognize and respect their own emotions and desires. In most cases,there is more than one desire, and each desire should be confronted. The compassionate self exercises are helpful to distinguish andintegrate confused states. In this report, the author introduces a case in which the therapist helped a client to process emotionalexperiences by leading the client to pay attention to her own emotional responses. The client accessed multiple desires for eachemotion and recognized the context for each. To integrate multiple desires and contexts, the therapist used multiple selves exercisesfrom Compassion Focused Therapy. The compassionate self exercises play a role in integrating complicated emotions and indirecting the client toward making an adequate choice independently. On its own, processing emotional experiences can induceadaptive and healthy desires; however, using compassionate self exercises helps the client to integrate complicated emotions and toapproach their own values in a more direct way