Working with Clients who are "Too Emotional"

Edge of the Couch

Now, we don’t believe that clients can be “too emotional” but many clients come to therapy with narratives around emotion that may make them feel that they are being too much when they are emotional in session - crying is a weakness, anger is a bad emotion, I’m a cry baby, stoicism is best etc. As clinicians we have to sit with the full spectrum of emotionality from clients, but we can sometimes be shocked by our own reactions to client emotional expressions (and many programs don’t specifically train clinicians for sitting with big feelings).
We also have to be aware of our own beliefs about feelings. Do we think that there is such a thing as too much crying? How do we feel when we are sitting with someone who is extremely angry? Is anger a bad thing or a good thing, in our opinion? How can we feel regulated and balanced when clients may be swinging more wildly?