Regulating Emotion, Regulating Selves: A Critique of the Emotion Regulation Discourse in Psychotherapy

The discourse of emotional regulation is a dominant narrative in contemporary psychotherapy and clinical social work practice, framed as essential to psychological well-being and adaptive functioning. However, through a critical theory and narrative therapy lens, emotional regulation reveals itself as a technology of neoliberal governance that individualizes distress and obscures sociopolitical contexts. Drawing from Foucauldian ideas, feminist theory, critical social work, and narrative therapy practices, this article critiques emotional regulation as a disciplinary discourse that upholds normative ideals of an emotionally self-governing subject. It highlights how such discourse disproportionately burdens marginalized communities and pathologizes resistance, dissent, or grief. Narrative therapy offers a politicized and relational alternative that centers meaning-making, deconstructs emotional norms, and foregrounds social justice. Implications for anti-oppressive therapeutic practice are discussed.