Facilitating Adaptive Emotion Processing and Somatic Reappraisal via Sustained Mindful Interoceptive Attention

Summary & key facts

This paper argues that emotions live in the body as well as in thoughts, and suggests a way to help people use body sensations to understand and change emotional reactions. The authors propose training people and clinicians to pay steady, kind attention to inner bodily feelings (what they call mindful interoceptive awareness) so those sensations become clearer and can be reinterpreted in healthier ways (called somatic reappraisal). They give clinical examples, a short script for group practice, and resources for clinicians, but the idea is presented as a clinical framework rather than as a proven treatment.

Key facts:

• Emotions involve both body signals and mental stories, and problems can happen when bodily signals are ignored or not linked with those stories.
• The authors propose that carefully sustained, nonjudging attention to inner body sensations makes those sensations more detailed and changeable.
• They call the process of noticing body sensations and reinterpreting them 'somatic reappraisal', which means using body awareness to form new, more helpful meanings about feelings.
• The paper explains how therapists who focus mainly on body work or mainly on talk therapy might lack skills that combine both approaches.
• The authors include clinical examples, a sample mindfulness script for groups, and suggested resources so clinicians can learn and try this approach.
• This article presents a theoretical framework and practical tools, but it does not claim to be definitive proof that the method works for specific illnesses.

Abstract

Emotions are by nature embodied, as the brain has evolved to quickly assess the emotional significance of stimuli and output signals to the body's viscera and periphery to aid adaptive responses. Emotions involve both implicit bodily and explicit narrative processes, and patients may experience transdiagnostic distress when bodily signals are not attended to and holistically integrated with explicit narratives about experience. Similarly, therapists may be trained in more implicit body-based approaches (i.e., massage/bodywork, physical and occupational therapy, and nursing/medicine) or more explicit narrative-based approaches (i.e., psychotherapy), and may lack training in skills that integrate both levels of emotion processing to aid healing and growth. To address these gaps, we propose a framework where the bridge between implicit bodily sensations and explicit narratives lies in cultivating mindful awareness of bodily sensations associated with emotions. This process brings subjective awareness to notice inner body experience (or interoceptive awareness) that is often outside of conscious awareness, so that it may be understood and re-integrated in more adaptive ways, which we call somatic reappraisal. Using clinical theory and example vignettes, we present mindful interoceptive awareness for adaptive emotion processing as a framework to cultivate and enhance somatic reappraisal. Mindful interoceptive awareness brings more focused and sustained attention to inner body experience; likewise, internal sensations associated with emotions become more granular, vivid, and can shift in ways that facilitate somatic reappraisal. Learning to sustain interoceptive awareness when engaged with mindfulness qualities of nonjudgment and compassion promotes an experience where new associations between emotions, meanings, and memories can be made that generate insights that are holistic and integrative. A clinical vignette is used in this paper to provide examples of this approach in psychotherapy. An example script for use in mindfulness groups is included, and resources are suggested for clinicians to gain more experience. Mindful interoceptive awareness for adaptive emotion processing is a clinical process that can be learned and applied by a range of clinicians to treat mental and physical health conditions that may benefit greater embodied awareness.

Topics

Pain Management and Placebo Effect Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

Categories

Health Sciences Medicine Psychiatry and Mental health

Tags

Artificial intelligence Cognitive psychology Computer science Consciousness Embodied cognition Interoception Linguistics Mindfulness Narrative Neuroscience Perception Philosophy Psychology Psychotherapist

Conditions & symptoms

Anxiety Chronic Pain Depression PTSD Anxiety or worry Chronic pain Feeling disconnected from others Sadness or low mood