Another way to try to explain why experiencing the feeling during therapy is important is because you've already tried to understand the feelings or behaviors intellectually. Understanding them intellectually didn't work to change the feelings, and the behavior they cause, the way you want to change it. So if you actually experience the feelings you need to change, and the therapist explains how to change it right then, it can help you understand more genuinely. It is an emotional understanding instead of an intellectual understanding.