The Uses of Emotion Maps in Research and Clinical Practice with Families and Couples: Methodological Innovation and Critical Inquiry

• Date: 01 March 2015
• Author: Jacqui Gabb,Reenee Singh
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12096
• Published date: 01 March 2015

The Uses of Emotion Maps in Research and Clinical

Practice with Families and Couples: Methodological

Innovation and Critical Inquiry

JACQUI GABB*

REENEE SINGH

†

We explore how “emotion maps” can be productively used in clinical assessment and clin-

ical practice with families and couples. This graphic participatory method was developed

in sociological studies to examine everyday family relationships. Emotion maps enable us

to effectively “see” the dynamic experience and emotional repertoires of family life. Through

the use of a case example, in this article we illustrate how emotion maps can add to the

systemic clinicians’ repertoire of visual methods. For clinicians working with families,

couples, and young people, the importance of gaining insight into how lives are lived, at

home, cannot be understated. Producing emotion maps can encourage critical personal

reflection and expedite change in family practice. Hot spots in the household become vis ual-

ized, facilitating dialogue on prevailing issues and how these events may be perceived

differently by different family members. As emotion maps are not reliant on literacy or

language skills they can be equally completed by parents and children alik e, enabling

children’s perspective to be heard. Emotion maps can be used as assessment tools, to

demonstrate the process of change within families. Furthermore, emotion map s can be

extended to use through technology and hence are well suited particularly to working with

young people. We end the article with a wider discussion of the place of emotions and

emotion maps within systemic psychotherapy.

Keywords: Emotion Maps; Family Relationships; Visual Methods; Family Systemic

Psychotherapy; Clinical Practice

Fam Proc 54:185–197, 2015

INTRODUCTION

Emotions have had a somewhat vexed history in the field of systemic psychotherapy.

Much of the earlier systemic thinking appears to have marginalized emotions,

perhaps as a way of distinguishing systemic psychotherapy from psychoanalytic

approaches. At the same time, pioneers in the field like Salvador Minuchin (1975) and

Virginia Satir (1972) relied on techniques like enactments and sculpts that were based

on working with emotions in the room. More recently, emotions have been seen as rela-

tional, embodied, and culturally determined (Bertrando, 2008; Fredman, 2004). In this

article, attention is focussed on how to bring to the fore and work with emotions as

*Dept of Social Policy and Criminology, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

†

Family systemic psychotherapist.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jacqui Gabb, Dept of Social Policy and

Criminology, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK. E-mail: jacqui.gabb@

open.ac.uk

185

Family Process, Vol. 54, No. 1, 2015 ©2014 The Authors.

Family Process published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of Family Process Institute

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use,

distributionand reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

doi: 10.1111/famp.12096