Introduction to
Evolutionary Integrative Psychotherapy - EIP

EMOTIONS

EIP incorporates from psychoanalysis the concept that blocked emotions can lead to psychic distress, and that unblocking them can be therapeutic. In EIP, the emotions that are blocked in any individual are those that were disapproved of, shamed, or punished, in that person's past. The emotions most likely to be blocked in society today are anger, sadness, and dependency (feeling a need to taken care of), although others are possible (including sex).

EIP screens directly for these blocked emotions using the ITSI (Integrative Therapy Structured Interview) whenever a client's presentation and history do not show obvious evidence of one of them. When an emotion is blocked the ITSI responses are very impoverished (identifying such responses is part of supervision and training in EIP) and this is pointed out to the client. This begins the unblocking process and also socializes the client to one of the core assumptions of psychotherapy, which is that emotions are vital and necessary parts of human experience, rather than character flaws or dysfunctions to be eliminated.

In the initial phases of the unblocking treatment, clients are directly encouraged to feel and express any emotion that is blocked and are praised for doing so, and in the later phases of treatment they are taught to modulate and integrate the emotion and express it in increasingly functional ways. In this way EIP borrows the psychoanalytic concept of repression, but changes the emotions assumed to be blocked and uses cognitive-behavioral techniques including education, suggestion and positive reinforcement to treat the blockages.