Editorial: Advances in Emotion Regulation: From Neuroscience to Psychotherapy

Emotions are the gift nature gave us to help us connect with others. Emotions do not come from out of nowhere. Rather, they are constantly generated, usually by stimuli in our interpersonal world. They bond us to others, guide us in navigating our social interactions, and help us care for each other. We love our partner, we get angry with a friend, we feel sad for the loss of a parent, and so on...Paraphrasing Shakespeare “Our relationships are such stuff as emotions are made of.” Within our relationships, emotions express our needs and desires. When problems happen in our relationships, emotions arise to help us fixing such problems (Frederickson, 2013). However, sometimes emotions can become dysregulated and pathology begin. It is now widely accepted that almost all forms of psychopathologies are associated with specific dysregulated emotions or dysregulatory mechanisms (Grecucci et al., 2016a). If it is true that problems occur within relationships, it is also true that the solution occurs there. We are hurt in a relationship, and we are healed in a relationship. That is why and how psychotherapy works. Emotions that becomes dysregulated inside our relationships, can become regulated in an ad hoc designed therapeutic relationship where the therapist helps the client to express, face and regulate her/his emotions, and channel them into healthy actions. The idea behind this research topic is to gather contributions for the first time from both affective neuroscientists and psychotherapists to shed light on the ways our emotions become dysregulated in life and can become regulated through psychotherapy. We present novel approaches and strategies to regulate emotions that are strongly grounded in affective neuroscience and experimental research. We strongly believe it is time that researchers in affective science and clinicians make a collective effort to deepen the understanding and the practice of how emotions can be usefully elaborated in clinical settings. The Topic is divided in two sections, the first more experimental and the second more clinical.

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