Changing Emotion with Emotion: The Best Sequence Depends on the Target Concern

Abstract Background Lingering anger and sadness about a interpersonal interaction is a common problem. However, resolving those feelings may depend on the sequence in which feelings are experienced. Method Using 167 participants, two experimental groups were identified based on presenting emotional concern: individuals with predominantly lingering anger about an interpersonal interaction (i.e., angry group, n = 70), and individuals with predominantly lingering sadness about an interpersonal interaction (i.e., sad group, n = 97). Participants completed written interventions to facilitate anger and sadness in one of two randomly assigned conditions (i.e., anger-before-sadness condition or sadness-before-anger condition), which differed only by the order in which participants were guided to feel anger and sadness. Results In the angry group, those guided to feel anger-before-sadness reported a greater decline in the intensity of their presenting anger than those guided to feel sadness-before-anger ( d = − 0.56). In contrast, in the sad group, those guided to experience sadness-before-anger reported a greater decrease in lingering sadness than those guided to experience anger-before sadness ( d = − 0.26). Conclusions Strategically ordered sequence of emotion states seems to have a synergistic impact in facilitating change, which has implications for how therapists might best choose to guide client process in psychotherapy.