When to Use Emotion-Focused Coping to Deal With Stress
Key takeaways:
Emotion-focused coping is a strategy to manage emotions that involves changing your feelings about a stressor.
The benefits of emotion-focused coping typically include less stress, anxiety, and depression, and improvements in overall well-being.
There are many ways to practice emotion-focused coping, including meditation, journaling, and finding social support.
There are many different ways to cope with emotions and experiences. In the 1980s, researchers introduced the concept of coping strategies, which are ways to effectively manage stress.
At the time, coping strategies were divided into two groups: emotion-focused and problem-focused. One deals with the problem head on, while the other focuses on dealing with your emotions about a stressor. Today, researchers recognize more coping strategies, but these two groups remain the most popular.
Both problem and emotion-focused coping strategies offer benefits. But some stressors may need a more emotion-focused approach.
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What is emotion-focused coping?
Emotion-focused coping is a type of coping strategy. It involves managing your feelings about a stressor, rather than trying to change the stressor directly (problem-focused coping). To do this, you’ll often use cognitive and behavioral strategies, such as meditation or social support.
People are more likely to use emotion-focused coping when they feel like they cannot get rid of or change a stressor.
Strategies for emotion focused coping
There are many different ways to practice emotion-focused coping. Here are five common emotion-focused coping tools.
1. Meditation
Meditation involves focusing the mind in order to experience greater calm and well-being. There are many different ways to practice meditation. Beginners may benefit from using videos or guided meditation apps.
You can also practice meditation by focusing your attention on:
Specific parts of your body
Sounds
Images
A calming word or phrase
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When other thoughts or sensations arise, simply let them go and direct your attention back to your practice.
2. Journaling
Journaling is the practice of writing about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. It can help you:
Clarify your thoughts and feelings
Better understand yourself
Name your strengths and successes
Find solutions to problems
Journaling can be done by either freely writing or following a prompt. Traditionally people use paper and pen. But today there are many apps available to guide you through journaling as well. It can help to make journaling a regular habit by doing it every day around the same time.
3. Reframing your thoughts
Reframing your thoughts is another emotion-focused coping strategy. It can be particularly helpful if you have a negative or stressful thought that you can’t seem to let go.
You can practice reframing by considering a positive aspect of a situation. For example, a difficult challenge could also be viewed as an opportunity to grow.
Another approach to reframing is examining evidence. This involves taking a thought and considering whether the thought is true or not.
An example might be thinking that your boss is mad at you because she didn’t say hello. You might ask yourself “What is the evidence for this?” And, “Are there other possible explanations that I’m not considering?”
You might remind yourself that your boss could have been upset about something else. Or, you might have misread her mood altogether. This can help you view your experiences in a more helpful way.
4. Seeking social support
A positive and reliable support system is associated with better health and greater resilience to stress. A good support system offers connection, listening, and feedback. These can be helpful when running into a stressor or problem.
Negative forms of support can be harmful though. So, it’s important that you find people you can turn to who can listen and offer help, compassion, and a non-judgmental space.
If you don’t have a good support system, consider attending a self-help group or finding a group activity for people with similar interests.
5. Practicing forgiveness
Forgiveness is an intentional choice to let go of anger and resentment about a given situation. Forgiveness is not the same as letting someone off the hook. And it may not be a helpful strategy for everyone, especially if you’ve been hurt by someone.
Forgiveness is a process that takes time, but making the decision to forgive is the first step. From there, the following can help aid in forgiveness:
Cultivating empathy for yourself and the other person (when appropriate)
Journaling your feelings
Releasing expectations
Remembering that everyone makes mistakes
Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries
Benefits of emotion focused coping
Emotion-focused coping offers many benefits. The specific benefits depend on the type of emotion-focused strategy you use:
Journaling may lessen depression and PTSD symptoms, as well as improve mood. It is also linked to physical health benefits like better liver and immune system functioning and lower blood pressure. Studies show that if you stick with it, journaling can lead to positive long-term results.
Meditation has been shown to help limit stress, anxiety, and depression. Some studies have also found physical health benefits of practicing meditation, like less pain.
Forgiveness can lead to more positive emotions about a situation or relationship and lower anger, stress, depression, and anxiety.
Having deep and meaningful social relationships is linked to better mental and physical health. A good support system can offer support during times of stress and when things are going well.
Are there disadvantages to emotion focused coping?
Some forms of emotion-focused coping can be harmful. Negative types of emotion-focused coping include:
Self-criticism
Rumination (dwelling on the negatives in a situation)
Venting
Occasional self-criticism, rumination, and venting may be harmless. But when these behaviors are done often, they can lead to more unwanted emotions. These behaviors can also raise anxiety and depression and lower self-esteem. People who engage in these behaviors may not even be aware of the negative effect.
Using emotion-focused coping can also be a disadvantage when you have more effective options. Emotion-focused coping contrasts with problem-focused coping, which involves directly trying to remove or change a stressor. This type of coping is often more helpful when you feel that a stressor is within your control.
Examples of problem-focused coping include:
Confronting a person about a disagreement
Developing a study plan for a big exam
Staying away from bars during early alcohol use disorder recovery
Both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping strategies are valuable. Some situations may benefit from an emotion-focused approach and others may need a problem-focused approach. In some cases, you may need to use both types of coping strategies to deal with the same stressor.
How long does it take to feel the change from emotion-focused coping?
It’s impossible to say how long it will take to see a change after adopting emotion-focused coping techniques. Every person is different and will have different experiences changing their coping behaviors.
For a long time, experts believed that it took 21 days to build a new habit. But researchers now think it actually takes up to 66 days to create a new habit. So it may take more than 2 months of consistently engaging in a new behavior for it to become routine. This information may be helpful as you try to adopt new coping behaviors; if you stick with it, the results will be worth it.
What should you do if emotion-focused coping isn’t working?
If you’ve tried emotion-focused coping for a while and are not feeling better, or if you feel worse at any point, consider professional treatment. A mental health professional can help you figure out whether you are going about coping in the most effective way. They can also give you direct guidance on how to move forward.
Emotion-focused coping techniques are often incorporated into many therapy approaches, such as:
For a referral to a mental health provider or program, contact SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) or visit the online treatment locator tool.
The bottom line
Emotion-focused coping involves taking actions to ease an intense emotional response to a stressor. It includes various coping strategies, such as meditation and journaling. If you are engaging in emotion-focused coping, you should see a drop in your stress levels and less difficult emotions over time. If you do not see any benefits or if you feel worse, it may be helpful to find a mental health professional. They can help you get the most out of emotion-focused coping.
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References
Akhtar, S., et al. (2018). Forgiveness therapy for the promotion of mental well-being: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence & Abuse.
American Psychological Association Dictionary of Psychology. (n.d.). Coping strategy.
American Psychological Association Dictionary of Psychology. (n.d.). Emotion-focused coping.
American Psychological Association Dictionary of Psychology. (n.d.). Problem-focused coping.
American Psychological Association Dictionary of Psychology. (n.d.). Rumination.
Baikie, K. A., et al. (2005). Emotional and physical health benefits of expressive writing. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2022). Journaling for your health.
Freeney, B. C., et al. (2017). New look at social support: A theoretical perspective on thriving through relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Review: An Official Journal of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.
Gardner, B., et al. (2012). Making health habitual: The psychology of ‘habit-formation’ and general practice. British Journal of General Practice.
Harvard University Stress & Development Lab. (n.d.). Positive reframing and examining the evidence.
Holtforth, M. G., et al. (2019). A randomized-controlled trial of cognitive–behavioral therapy for depression with integrated techniques from emotion-focused and exposure therapies. Psychotherapy Research.
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. (2022). Meditation and mindfulness: What you need to know.
Ozbay, F., et al. (2007). Social support and resilience to stress. Psychiatry.
Stanislawski, K. (2019). The coping circumplex model: An integrative model of the structure of coping with stress. Frontiers of Psychology.
Worthington, E. L., Jr., et al. (2004). Forgiveness is an emotion-focused coping strategy that can reduce health risks and promote health resilience: Theory, review, and hypotheses. Psychology and Health.
For additional resources or to connect with mental health services in your area, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357. For immediate assistance, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988, or text HOME to 741-741 to reach the Crisis Text Line.
