Robert Plutchik theory. 22 October 2017. Wiki Media Commons.

Basic emotions

There are numerous theories as to how many basic emotions we have such as: theory by Paul Ekman, The James-Lange Theory of Emotion, The Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion, Schachter-Singer Theory, Richard Lazarus’ Cognitive Appraisal Theory, and others.

Basic emotions are the building blocks of more complex experience of emotions.  It is very difficult to define definitively the ‘gospel truth’ of emotions but we can identify them in a manner that can help us to better understand what it is that we are feeling and also what healthy emotions can possibly look like.

We can look at emotions in opposites, much like an antonym in vocabulary, or as in a colour wheel, or even in temperature such as hot and cold.  We often refer to these opposites as positive and negative emotions.  A friend and colleague of mine, Katie O’Shea renamed these as Connective and Life Enhancing Emotions and Protective and Life Preserving Emotions.  

Protective Emotions

Shame and Guilt

Shame and guilt though similar are different but can fit into the same category.  This emotion brings to our attention when we have or others have done something harmful.  This emotion can work for us even before we have done something we should not have done, it can show us ahead of time that by doing a certain behaviour we can bring harm to someone either emotionally or physically.  Often this emotion is referred to as a part of our conscience.  This emotion brings to our attention behavioural changes we need to make.  When we are skewed in our emotions that is when we need help.  Guilt and shame when felt too much we feel as though we were bad versus our behaviour was bad.  Some of what we feel with this emotion includes morals which sits in spirituality or religious beliefs.

Self-Pity

When we didn’t do anything wrong but something harmful has happened to us we need to feel sorry for ourselves.  As the saying goes, lick your own wounds, we may need to do so in order to pay attention to how we have been hurt and what we need to pay attention to so that we can tend to ourselves and receive the healing, rest and emotional nourishment that we need.  Where self-pity is unhealthy is when a person gets stuck in this feeling and continues to play the victim.  Don’t pay attention to those who may say, “Don’t feel sorry for yourself”, as this may prolong your wound.  Paying healthy attention to a physical wound is important so physical infection does not settle in so it is with emotional wounds.  If you push emotions away they will stay and not heal.  Pay attention to those emotions and care for yourself giving yourself what is healthy and needful.

Disgust

Understanding disgust is when we are repulsed where we react to eliminating something from us that is toxic, poisonous or dangerous.  Disgust can be experienced when we taste something that is experienced as repulsive and we spit it out and withdraw from that thing.  We can experience this when someone does something that is morally depraved or what we call “sick” or a food that is rotten, or a puss that might be oozing out.  Disgust is experienced when we quickly feel the need to remove ourselves from that experience or behaviour.  We need to pay attention to this feeling as it tells us when we need to remove ourselves from that situation or people otherwise we will become like them in some manner.

Fear

Fear lets us know when we are in danger.  Not all fear is a correct assessment of the situation but healthy fear we can see in the example when a person is standing on the edge of a building 10 stories up and they know that to take a step off of the building that they will fall and die.  Healthy fear also understands that jumping in front of a moving train will kill them.  Unhealthy fear is when we experience some form of this emotion when there is no danger present.  Fear gives us the energy to respond to a danger that is present whether emotional or physical, usually this response is a flight response.

Anger

Anger gives us the energy to fight when faced with a danger whether emotional or physical.  Again, this emotional response may not be correct due to incorrect perceptions of the brain.  On the scale of 0-10 when we experience a 5 or more we reject the person rather than the deed and when it is under a 5 we reject the deed rather than the person.  Anger has different intensities from annoyance to wrathful hatred.  Anger can be expressed through bodily expressions, facial, tone of voice, volume of voice as well as words chosen to be expressed.  Anger has been referred to as a secondary emotion because it is an emotions that fights to regain power, for example I am angry because I was afraid, much like a fearful dog cornered becomes vicious.  

Sadness and Grief

Sadness and grief show us that we have lost something or someone that is valuable to us.  The more important that person or thing was to us the more intense the sadness.  Healthy sadness and grief come when we embrace the feelings versus try and push them away.  We need to reflect on the wound of loss once embraced we should be able experience gratitude because we are noticing the good that we once had either in a relationship or a thing such as a job.  Sadness can also show us that we need to love and appreciate the relationships we make and have as well as respecting things that we have.  Complicated grief arises when childhood attachments and connections were not of good quality.  

Negative emotions or feelings can be helpful when we need to protect our life from danger but when they are working at the wrong time then our life can become troublesome.  When we ask, “Why am I feeling this way?”  “Can I ever feel different?”  “Is there any hope of me feeling better?”  The answer is yes.  There is no magic wand or special pill but there are clinical and therapeutic ways that can help us regain our life.  Check out some of the therapies below that can help you.

>> EMDR Therapy

>> Homeopathy 

At New Hope Counselling Centre we can help you to improve your emotional state, marriage, healthy living, bringing you hope for a better tomorrow.  Call us today!

Serving Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville, Milton, Mississauga, St. Catharines and surrounding areas.

Are emotions and feelings the same?

There are many words to describe how we feel but feelings are not the same as emotions.  Feelings can be described as emotions plus cognitions which equals feelings.  Emotions are core Nervous system and Limbic system responses that are physically felt.  The more we can become attuned to our body the more we can experience and be connected to our emotions for the purpose of healing and living life to the fullest.  

SUDS scale helps us to identify the intensity of what we are feeling

Although there are basic emotions that can be identified but further to that emotions can be understood in their intensity through the use of  adjectives that gives us the clues as to its intensity and quality.  To further and better quantify our emotions it is best to use what is called the SUDS scale or the Subjective Units of Disturbance Scale.  Through the use of this scale we can better subjectively and experientially determine what our emotional experience is like.  The scale starts at 0, which means totally calm and peaceful but yet fully aware sliding all the way up to 10 which represents the most intense of emotions.

What are the basic emotions?

There are many prevailing theories and observations, but I will share my thoughts concerning this subject as a clinician in my next post, Understanding Basic Emotions.

Gradients of emotions

When we experience emotions we do not experience only one at a time.  According to the senior researcher Dacher Keltner and faculty director of the Greater Good Science Center he states that through their research that there are 27 dimensions of distinct emotional experiences found when a study of 800 men were you used as they watched over 2,000 video clips that were developed by researchers.  In other words we experience emotional states that are quite colourful and complex rather than experiencing emotions one at a time as in isolation.  We experience emotions in different intensities and in different combinations.

Emotions are powerful!  They are a part of our vital force our soul but when they are in disarray then we can experience many unpleasant things like depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, and anger management issues.  To better understand yourself and develop emotional self-regulation such therapies listed below will help us with just that:

>> EMDR Therapy

>> Homeopathy 

At New Hope Counselling Centre we can help you to improve your mood and emotions as well as the quality of your relationships.  We offer you hope for a better tomorrow.  Call us today!

Serving Burlington, Hamilton, Oakville, Milton, Mississauga, St. Catharines and surrounding areas.

Are you looking for alternative approaches to resolving or enhancing your mental health?  More and more people are seeking a more holistic and natural approach to mental health.  According to the Fraser Institute in 2016 they stated that 79% of Canadians have used at least one alternative therapy sometime in their lives.

Many issues can be addressed to some degree using talk therapy styles (counselling) to remedy emotional and relational struggles, but all too often talk is not enough.  Through a couple of decades of practice the best clinical results occur when both talk type of therapy and (CAM) Complimentary and Alternative Medicine approaches are utilized.  A combination of numerous approaches proves to show the best results in helping to resolve mental health issues.

Clinical experience for us has shown that the best approach to resolving relationship issues, adult attachment issues, anxiety, panic attacks, depression, PTSD, grief, and many other issues is to approach therapy and counselling from a two-pronged approach.  Using EMDR and Homeopathy.

EMDR Approach

EMDR (Eye Movement and Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapy that stimulates the two hemispheres of the brain which facilitates and accelerates the relearning of emotionally adverse and traumatic events. This bilateral stimulation of the brain done through an 8 phase process resolves the majority of a person’s issues given within the adverse life event(s).  It is said to be an AIP model, Accelerated Information Processing.  This moves past traditional talk therapy because of its speed in brain processing.  This may not be right for everyone but once a person is prepared it is marvellous in its lasting results.

SPECT imaging and fMRI results of EMDR have been documented to show the radical and effective changes it does to the brain and ultimately the person’s life.

Homeopathic Approach

From a natural holistic, CAM, approach emotions and feelings can be both regulated as well as processed to bring healing and resolution.  Within nature there are powerful means by which we can help shift mood, balance hormones, and shift the electrical aspects of the brain and nervous system.

Through clinical practice it has been evidenced that those that have utilized both EMDR and a naturopathic approach to treatment have successfully resolved their issues.  Some of these issues are both physiological and in nature such as:  anxiety, IBD issues, PTSD, depression and anger, liver and bile flow issues, lung and fear issues, ADHD and brain and nervous system function, and much more.

Other effective therapies provided

• Emotional Freedom Techniques 
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
• Psychosomatic Energetics
• Psycho Dynamic 
• And much more

The CAM or holistic natural approach to resolving relational, mental, and emotional issues proves to be very effective in healing and bringing resolution to the spirit, mind, body, and relationships.

Issues addressed

Resolving your mental health issues is a must because it will not only hinder your quality of life ly and emotionally but also it will eventually impair your physical health. Some medical doctors have stated that unresolved emotional issues are at the root of 70-95% of all chronic illnesses and degenerative diseases.   These unresolved emotional issues and mental illnesses often have their root cause in such abuses and traumas as: 

• sexual assault and abuse
• physical assault 
• verbal and emotional abuse
• monetary abuse
• neglect in childhood
• medical or dental trauma

We offer individual therapy and counselling to people in person as well as though distance counselling.  We are here for the Oakville, Ontario community for in person, face to face counselling or through distance counselling methods using Skype or FaceTime.  We have aided many from Oakville, Ontario with lasting results.  

Our physical office is but a short drive from Oakville to our office in Burlington you will find it worth the drive. If you only interested in relief to help you feel better we can do that for you.  If you desire to dig deeper and resolve your issues from the roots on up we can do that for you as well.  Call today or book online which ever is the most convenient for you.