Corrective emotional experience

My approach is relational. All therapeutic processes will move forward in the secure and warm relationship between the therapist and the client. My job here is to be your “secure base” which is described as a key factor for the healthy emotional development in attachment theory. American-Canadian psychologist, Mary Ainsworth and , British psychologist, John Bowlby explained that the presence of a secure attachment figure allows an infant to explore the internal/external world with a sense of security. Through this exploration, we develop the stable sense of self and the healthy sense of the relationship with others and with the world. The absence of the emotional experience with a secure attachment figure may contribute to our anxiety, low self-esteem, depression, poor stress management skills, poor interpersonal skills, and emotional dysregulation in our later life.

If we experienced some attachment trauma derived from insecure attachment style in the past, it is important for us to re-experience the new pattern of the interpersonal relationship which provides us the sense of the security of the self and the others. This enables us to re-explore our internal and external world from a different, healthy angle. It is called corrective emotional experience.


American-Hungarian psychoanalyst, Franz Alexander described corrective emotional experience as the essential principal for the successful therapeutic process. He stated, “The patient, in order to be helped, must undergo a corrective emotional experience suitable to repair the traumatic influence of previous experiences. It is of secondary importance whether this corrective experience takes place during treatment in the transference relationship, or parallel with the treatment in the daily life of the patient.”