How to Find and Release Feelings

There are various ways to release pent up feelings like venting to a friend, exercising, going for a walk, moving to mindless hard rock music, and even smashing a few dinner plates. Releasing feelings on the surface level of your consciousness is less difficult than finding feelings that are at the root level of many undesirable behaviors. Journaling or writing streams of consciousness can sometimes aid an individual in this pursuit. Writers find this avenue successful basically because a writer also feels the need to express emotions on paper; however, it is possible for everyone to dig deeper into their subconscious with a therapist trained to help individual release hidden feelings.

Things You'll Need

• Therapist
• Transportation or Computer for Online Counseling

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Instructions

Carl Rogers Client Centered Therapy

• 1

  Find a therapist trained in client centered therapy. A client centered therapist works to develop an atmosphere of trust between therapist and client. The client feels safe enough to begin talking to the therapist. The therapist offers the client 'genuineness', congruence or what the therapist is feeling throughout the session is expressed outwardly as well, and transparency. Even negative feelings about a client, if any exist, are expressed. The therapist shows a non-possessive feeling of love for the client and is able to, after a time, be empathetic enough to understand the client enough to metaphorically walk in the individual's shoes.

• 2

  Listen to the therapist's replies. Once there is a working therapeutic bond between client and therapist, the client feels trust grow and begins to journey farther into experiences, beliefs, and attitudes. This may begin a process of personal discovery. The client may also begin to build a better self-concept because of the acceptance displayed by the therapist. It is possible that the positive interactions between client and therapist will help the client become more positive about the self which will equate to being more positive in general.

• 3

  Keep talking. As client centered therapy progresses, the bond between client and therapist is cemented to such an extent that defenses shatter and the true reason for the client's inner discord may be communicated. Before this happens the client may feel frustrated that the therapist did not offer advice, condone, or admonish behavior as the individual seeks immediate evaluation or validation. However, it is within this therapeutic process of listening, accepting, and expressions of empathy that the client releases buried feelings to the therapist. This communication, present between client and therapist, becomes a genuine feeling of unconditional love that allows the floodgates of self-awareness to open.