FAQ

Emotional Logic (EL) provides a mental framework in which unpleasant and seemingly random emotional states can be understood to have useful and reasonable purposes. To learn this mental framework, so that it positively helps the way ongoing and past situations are understood and talked about, involves letting go of the meanings that people have previously attached to their experience of unpleasant emotions – their own unpleasant emotions, and those witnessed in others. This is the ‘lifelong learning’ core of the ‘Approach’ taken by Emotional Logic to personal development. It was developed by a GP in England during the 1990’s as an alternative to counselling and medication for common mental illnesses and socially disruptive behaviour. It has been extensively piloted in primary healthcare, carer support, counselling, pastoral support and education, and piloted in translation in many diverse cultures. Its widespread effectiveness shows that emotional processing is core to human identity shared across all human diversity, and that this is central to the development of a strong and resilient personal identity.

The Logic is the process of adjusting to change. You can make reasonable choices about how you do it and where you want to be in the process. Emotion, e-motion, is ‘energy in motion’. It is your personal chemistry getting organised inside to move you and your relationships in life in some new direction. (Emotion is rapidly-changing social physiology.)

Emotion enables you to get on and do what is needed to make the next logical adjustments when facing change. Reason and emotion thus are in a partnership, rather than seeming to be in conflict with each other. Adjusting to change, including facing disappointments and setbacks, is an emotional process. You are not a victim of your own emotions, however, but learning Emotional Logic enables you to make better decisions when you understand how your unpleasant emotions have meaning and useful purposes as part of the process of adjusting.

A questionnaire called the Emotional Logic Development Profile (ELDP) has been validated in adults aged 16 – 80 showing improved emotional resilience correlating with improved anxiety and depression. The method was also shown to be safe as well as effective. Outcomes for teenagers in a secondary school receiving Emotional Logic for behavioural support show clear improvement in ability to concentrate in class, reduced confrontation and improved relationships. There is extensive anecdotal evidence from adults and families of identity and behaviour change.

Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is a term first coined when psychologists were realising that there are different mental and behavioural skills that count as types of ‘intelligence’ not measured by a single test of ‘General IQ’ (Intelligence Quotient). EQ tends to mean recognising emotions in self and other people, and allowing time for them not to disrupt life. Emotional Logic (EL) is a more recent development. It identifies how unpleasant loss emotions connect together to energise a single adjustment process to losses hidden within disappointments and setbacks in life. By recognising the in-built useful purposes of these unpleasant loss emotions, people can be kinder to themselves and explore more constructive ways to live. Emotional Logic (EL) is therefore more purposeful than EQ.

Research has progressed since the late 1990’s piloting Emotional Logic in a wide range of settings to reduce anxiety and depression, following the Medical Research Council guidelines for complex interventions. Quantitative evidence of safety and effectiveness has been gathered from primary healthcare, and qualitative from secondary community colleges. The extensive theoretical research underpinning Emotional Logic comes from the psychology of attachment theory, from the neuroscience of emotion and learning theory, from Vygotsky’s approach to discovery learning, from the physiology of emotion as a complex non-linear dynamic system affected by social relationships, and from Milan systemic Family Therapy. This has been gathered into a unified whole by the Founder of Emotional Logic as ‘Emotional Chaos Theory’. This describes how personal and social order can emerge unexpectedly from emotional chaos by consistent feedback learning about how unpleasant emotions are part of an overall and reasonable adjustment process.

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an intervention for anxiety and depression that identifies unhelpful habits of thinking, and then teaches behavioural methods to break those habits. There is a core assumption that emotion is a side effect of thinking (an ‘epiphenomenon’). Therefore in theory emotional distress should resolve if thought habits improve, enabling people to function better. CBT’s effectiveness has therefore been measured mostly by ability to go to work or perform daily tasks. However, many people say that although they are able to function, they do not feel well.

Emotional Logic, by contrast, identifies habitual patterns of grieving for multiple small losses (un-named personal values). These emotional habits affect a person’s sense of identity, which creates the negative thought patterns identified by CBT. Giving people insight to their emotional habits, and improving their understanding about the in-built useful purposes of unpleasant emotions, liberates a person to develop a stronger identity that includes emotion. Well-being improves as a side effect of increased social effectiveness through empathic connection with other people’s emotions also.

No. It is lifelong learning for personal development. It is a guided way to learn about the useful purposes of the way you feel. Many counsellors include Emotional Logic in their work, but they have to learn to move from a counselling mode to a lifelong learning mode, which some find difficult. Some counsellors say that they can get as far with Emotional Logic to understand the client’s problems in one session as in five of non-directional counselling. This is because Emotional Logic directly influences a person’s sense of identity, and improves their ability to make a values-based action plan that builds relationships. Activating one’s Emotional Logic improves a sense of empowerment to engage with life constructively.

Becoming mindful of our physical emotions and our mental feelings about them is the starting place for an Emotional Logic response to managing times of change and uncertainty. We encourage people to become mindfully aware how certain unpleasant emotions move us to find safe places, so that we are better able to think and plan reasonable responses. ‘Mindfulness’, however, may extend that meaning of ‘awareness’ into a meditational method for calming and tranquillity. This encourages people to remain in their safe places – ‘staying with’ emotions rather than harnessing them to their in-built useful purposes. We need also to be able to come out of our safe places, and constructively use those emotions to engage effectively with a risky and unpredictable world. This is what Emotional Logic prepares people to do. Mindfulness is therefore about regulating emotion, calming and behavioural self-control. Emotional Logic is a solution-focused way to build active relationship and resilience for personal growth in social settings.

You can learn alone via books, videos and online resources or with others online or face to face. We have a wide range of materials for all ages so please contact the office and we can talk you through various options.

Some of our resources are free or cost just a few pounds. We have our website and YouTube channel with lots of free videos. Getting Going with Emotional Logic is our lowest price, online resource. Training days cost a bit more as we have to pay for a venue and for our trainers. All of our products are priced as cheaply as possible to enable everyone to be able to engage.

Yes. All of our personal learning sessions are confidential.

The good news is that people of almost any age can learn Emotional Logic. We are used worldwide in schools and have materials to teach children from about 4 or 5 years old and upwards. Age and academic ability shouldn’t matter. Emotional Logic is a conversation based technique and there are many different ways to learn to suit different people.

Yes, in fact we would encourage friends and families to learn together. We have worked with many families and couples over the years. Emotional Logic is great at helping people communicate at a deeper level and really understand each other’s point of view.

We have a range of materials to enable learners of all ages and all academic abilities to learn Emotional Logic. We work alongside and develop our materials with professional medical and education practitioners and have worked with children and adults with a range of disabilities and varying needs over the years. Please contact us if you would like to explore this further.

Yes. We currently have materials available in English, French, German, Russian, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew and Ndebele.