As a therapist, you will probably be familiar with the idea that negative emotions can lead to aggressive words or actions. Often this is because people have an underlying belief that projecting those feelings onto an external target – through anger, shouting, or generally aggressive behaviour - will improve their own mood. The problem is that taking things out on other people can cause social and practical problems, and it seems that ‘mood freezing’ can help.
Why do we take out our stress and frustration on other people?
This has been called variously venting, catharsis,
redirection, and displacement, but the idea that frustration and other negative
emotions come out as aggression has been around for many years. Many theorists support the idea that it’s an attempt to regulate our own emotions: broadly speaking, if we let the anger out, we feel we have somehow got rid of it. It's a
kind of emotional pass the parcel: better, we think, than ‘bottling it up
inside’.
What is mood freezing?
In 1984, experimenter G. K. Manucia deliberately made people
feel frustrated but then gave them pills which he said would ‘freeze’ their
mood, so that in the short term it couldn’t be changed no matter what they did.
In fact, the pills were placebos that had no effect at all. Despite this, people
didn’t vent nearly as much after taking them.
In 2001, Bushman, Baumeister and Phillips carried out a
similar study which supported the original findings. Whether people had been led by the experimenters to believe that venting was a good way to release their
negative emotions, or whether they already had what the experimenters called ‘high
anger-out tendencies’ didn’t matter. Without the mood freezing pills, they
vented when they got frustrated. With the pills, the amount of venting was significantly reduced.
Both sets of experimenters believed this worked because people generally vented in the expectation that it would make them feel better. Once they believed their mood was 'frozen', it could have no effect, so they didn’t bother.
And, once people were convinced that aggression wouldn’t make
a difference, they were willing to try other solutions such as relaxation, distraction
techniques, and simply waiting the situation out.
How can we use mood freezing to help our clients?
Handing out placebo ‘mood-freezing’ pills probably isn’t an
option for most therapists, but you could certainly use post-hypnotic
suggestion, or perhaps an anchor, to allow the client to ‘freeze’ their mood when
appropriate and make aggression pointless. Combine this with teaching
alternative responses to gradually prevent the frustration from taking hold.
Alternatives to venting
Sadly, there is no one method of coping positively with
frustration and stress that will work for everyone. Your client may have to try
a few things till they find their best solution. But the effort is worthwhile,
and mood freezing will help to reduce venting while they try things out.
Here are some ideas to explore with them:
- Work on making the best of whatever happens. Identify the frustrations they can control and work on those. As they do this, the factors beyond
their control should become less disturbing.
- Ask them to retire to a quiet place before they get to the point of exploding. Count to ten. Go
for a walk, preferably in natural surroundings. Parks, streets with trees and
greenery and undeveloped areas with natural plant growth will do so they don't
have to go miles from home. See this article (LINK) for how this can help improve mental
health.
- Ask them to predict the consequences of different choices -
this is something you can talk through in sessions. Use that quiet time to work
out how different approaches are likely to end and choose the response with the
best long-term outcome. Use ‘future pacing’ and suggestion work to reinforce and rehearse their
choices.
- Encourage clients to talk to family and friends about how they are feeling.
Direct discussions usually work better than letting resentments build up over
time. But help them to choose the right moment, which is not when they are
feeling frustrated and angry. Teach some communication skills like safe
conversation or assertiveness so they can express their needs in a positive and
respectful way.
- Identify the client’s triggers for frustration and anger
where possible – the client may be aware of them but if not, you can use regression
or parts to identify them. Use desensitisation techniques such as collapsing
anchors or rewind to reduce the impact of the triggers.
- Ask clients to keep a thought diary about what was going
through their minds just before their frustration or aggression kicked in. Were
they upset because someone criticised them, or because the other person
verbalised what they were thinking about themselves? Help them to challenge those self-critical
thoughts.
- If you’re a movie hero or soap character, it might be fine
to punch someone on the nose when they upset you or to smash household objects
in a temper tantrum. In real life it's different, and aggression has emotional,
legal and social consequences. Asking clients what the cost of their anger has
been in terms of relationships, job losses etc can help to provide 'away from' or 'push motivation which helps them start the process of change.
- Ask them for a vivid description of what life will be like
without these problems – what will they see, hear, feel, and do? Use this to provide 'towards' or 'pull' motivation to draw them towards their goal.
- Work to reduce their stress levels generally. Develop self-care programmes that are practical and effective for your client and encourage them to use them regularly.
Bushman at al (2001) said that they were ‘not asserting that affect regulation is the only link between negative affect and aggression' (P14) but their work supported the notion that it was one factor, especially among people who believed that aggression would make them feel good. And they added that their results offered ‘positive hope for reducing aggression’ (P14).
Freezing negative emotions in place might seem counterintuitive but, for some clients, it could provide the breathing space they need to get things under control.
Bushman, B.J., Baumeister, R.F. and Phillips, C.M. (2001).
Do people aggress to improve their mood? Catharsis beliefs, affect regulation
opportunity, and aggressive responding. Journal of Personality and Social
Psychology, [online] 81(1), pp.17–32. Available at: http://www-personal.umich.edu/~bbushman/bbp01.pdf
www.waldenu.edu. (n.d.). Psychology 101: What Is Mood Freezing? [online] Available at: https://www.waldenu.edu/online-bachelors-programs/bs-in-psychology/resource/psychology-101-what-is-mood-freezing.
----------------------------
Author: Debbie Waller is an experienced hypnotherapist and hypnotherapy trainer. She is the author of The Hypnotherapist's Companion and Their Worlds, Your Words and a co-writer of the Hypnotherapy Handbook, all of which are available from Amazon.
Find out more about Debbie's services on
Yorkshire Hypnotherapy Training - multi accredited hypnotherapy practitioner training, taster days and foundation levels.
CPD Expert - accredited CPD and other therapy training (online and workshops options), expert and qualified hypnotherapy supervision
Comments
Post a Comment