A New Method of Psychological Support for Children: Emotion Personification Therapy

A new psychotherapeutic method called “emotion personification therapy” (EPT), or Emotion Personification Therapy, was developed in 2020. The essence of this method, created by coach Katerina Markova and colleague coach Olga Rodiontseva, is that a child can engage in therapeutic dialogue with their own emotions.

It is known that many forms of problematic behavior in children are driven by strong negative emotions that children find difficult to manage on their own. Through therapeutic dialogue with a feeling, a child quickly “negotiates” with it, learning emotional regulation.

The method is built on principles of anthropomorphism and personification, using tools from cognitive-behavioral therapy (A. A. Beck) and avatar therapy (J. Leff). During sessions, the child communicates with a coach in the form of an animated character playing the role of their unpleasant emotion. Gaining an outside perspective on how the emotion manifests, the child begins “corrective” communication with it, which they internalize and reproduce independently when the emotion returns.

Our hypothesis is that when we give a child’s emotion an image and a voice, making dialogue with that emotion possible, we create conditions in which the child can “process” the emotion very effectively and quickly. This happens through rationalization and the emergence of a competing feeling in the child. For example, when dialoguing with fear, a child may develop a new emotion — compassion toward the fear. This new emotion, like a rational view of the feeling, weakens the fear.

At present, this approach is not used in routine practice; however, experimental research and data analysis are underway. On average, one session using this method appears sufficient for a child to achieve meaningful relief regarding typical childhood experiences and stress.

Preliminary data suggest that EPT may be a promising psychotherapeutic method for helping children with anxiety challenges and depression. Full-scale scientific studies lie ahead.

Author: Psychocoach Katerina Markova