Therapy
The difference between venting and processing, and how each can play a role in therapy.
Venting and processing are both common in therapy, and they serve different purposes. Venting is expressing frustration or distress, often by telling the story of what happened. Processing involves exploring the experience in more depth, including what you felt, what it meant, and how it connects to your history and needs.
Venting can bring relief, particularly when you need to be heard. Being listened to is meaningful, and it contributes to a sense of safety in the therapeutic relationship. There is nothing wrong with starting a session by telling the story.
If sessions consist mostly of describing events, the same stories can repeat from week to week without much change in how you feel or respond. The feeling may be expressed and then return, because the underlying pattern has not been touched.
In Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT), we slow down to notice what you feel in the moment, including the body sensations and the more vulnerable emotions beneath a reaction such as anger or frustration. We identify the attachment needs within those emotions and we create new emotional experiences. Many therapeutic approaches identify emotion intellectually, and EFIT aims to deepen emotional experience so that you can feel it and make sense of it in session.
Most sessions include a bit of both. A story often leads into processing, and processing sometimes needs a pause to take a breath. I pay attention to pacing and I will not push you toward deeper emotion before you feel ready. If you are curious about the difference in practice, you can read about feeling stuck despite insight.
A free 15-minute consultation call is a low-pressure way to start and to see whether we are a good fit.
Book a Consultation