Emotion Efficacy Therapy: A Brief, Exposure-Based Treatment for Emotion Regulation Integrating ACT and DBT

In this groundbreaking guide for clinicians, psychologist Matthew McKay and Aprilia West present emotional efficacy therapy (EET)--a powerful and proven-effective model for treating clients with emotion regulation disorders.

If you treat clients with emotion regulation disorders--including depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), bipolar disorder, and borderline personality disorder (BPD)--you know how important it is for these clients to take control of their emotions and choose their actions in accordance with their values. To help, emotion efficacy therapy (EET) provides a new, theoretically-driven, contextually-based treatment that integrates components from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) into an exposure-based protocol. In doing so, EET targets the transdiagnostic drivers of experiential avoidance and distress intolerance to increase emotional efficacy.

This step-by-step manual will show you how to help your clients confront and accept their pain, and learn to apply new adaptive responses to emotional triggers. Using a brief treatment that lasts as little as eight weeks, you will be able to help your clients understand and develop a new relationship with their emotions, learn how to have mastery over their emotional experience, practice values-based action in the midst of being emotionally triggered, and stop intense emotions from getting in the way of creating the life they want.

Using the transdiagnostic, exposure-based approach in this book, you can help your clients manage difficult emotions, curb negative reactions, and start living a better life. This book is a game changer for emotion exposure treatment

Author: Matthew McKay, Aprilia West
Publisher: Context Press
Published: 06/01/2016
Pages: 232
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 9.90h x 6.90w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781626254039

About the Author

Matthew McKay, PhD, is a professor at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. He has authored and coauthored numerous books, including The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, Self-Esteem, Thoughts and Feelings, When Anger Hurts, and ACT on Life Not on Anger. McKay received his PhD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology, and specializes in the cognitive behavioral treatment of anxiety and depression. He lives and works in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Aprilia West, PsyD, MT, is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in treating anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and trauma. She first became interested in the concept of emotion efficacy working as a former advisor, organizational consultant, mediator, and executive coach to members of Congress, Fortune 500 companies, entertainment industry professionals, and international advocacy campaigns, where she observed the impact of emotion reactivity and dysregulation on performance and quality of life. During her doctoral training, West developed emotion efficacy therapy (EET) with Matthew McKay, PhD, as a way to provide clients struggling with low emotion efficacy with affordable access to rapid change. West holds a PsyD in clinical psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA, and a master's degree in teaching from the University of Virginia.