What is EAET therapy, and how can it help me?

Emotional Awareness and Expression Therapy (EAET) is a type of therapy that helps you get in touch with emotions you may have pushed down or avoided—especially emotions tied to past trauma, relationship stress, or unmet emotional needs. Sometimes, these unexpressed feelings can show up in the body (like chronic pain or stomach issues) or cause emotional distress like anxiety or depression.

EAET helps you understand and release those stuck emotions so they don’t quietly run your life from the background.

In this therapy, you’ll learn to:

• Notice and name difficult emotions like anger, fear, shame, or sadness.

• Understand where those emotions come from—often linked to earlier life experiences or conflicts in close relationships.

• Express those feelings in a safe way, often through exercises like role-play, imagery, or speaking aloud to someone (real or imagined) in the session.

What happens in sessions?

Your therapist may:

• Help you connect a physical symptom—like chronic pain or stomach issues—with an emotional experience you might not have fully processed.

• Guide you in identifying core emotions underneath stress—like realizing that your headaches often flare up after arguments or feeling stuck in people-pleasing patterns.

• Support you in expressing feelings that were never voiced, especially in important relationships. This might involve imagining a conversation with a parent, partner, or someone from your past and saying what was left unsaid.

• Help you learn to sit with emotions rather than avoid them, building confidence that you can feel difficult things and still be okay.

EAET is especially helpful if you’ve been dealing with physical symptoms that don’t have a clear medical cause, or if you tend to keep your emotions inside. It can help you feel more connected to yourself, relieve emotional and physical pain, and improve how you relate to others—by making space for feelings that may have been buried for a long time.