Emotional avoidance is the attempt to control or block emotional experiencing. Individuals who engage in emotional avoidance might feel that emotions are intolerably painful to experience and/or express to others. They may also believe that having and expressing emotions is weak, selfish, or embarrassing, and might have thoughts like “I should just get over it” or “I’m overreacting”. Some engage in a lot of distraction (e.g. scrolling social media, excessive napping, over-working) to try to avoid experiencing emotions. Over time, emotional avoidance can make it hard to label how you’re feeling and may lead to emotions feeling more intense when they do occur, which can make it challenging to regulate emotions or problem-solve. With CBT and exposure therapy, you’ll learn to recognize how certain patterns of thinking and acting may be contributing to your suffering. With coaching, you will learn to gently challenge these thoughts and make small, gradual changes in your behavior so that you can feel more present and able to enjoy your life, even when challenging emotions arise. With skills drawn from DBT and Emotional Resiliency treatments, you will also learn how to understand what your emotions are trying to communicate to you, learn how to communicate your emotions to others, and learn how (and when) to accept or change emotions depending on what’s effective in a particular situation.