I honestly don't remember if I figured this out from therapists or from reading something, but I do find naming emotions useful in understanding them and managing them better, and also communicating about them to other people. It's most useful for recognizing and communicating the relative strength of them. I tend to have very strong emotions sometimes, and I would like to be more in control of those strong emotions. The first step to that seems to be understanding them, and understanding for people often comes from language.

For example: anxiety--when I have a pelvic exam I am terrified. (I have a phobia). When I see a bug I am a little nervous. (no phobia. I just don't like them). Both "terrified" and "a little nervous" are on the anxiety scale. I would consider it huge progress if I could get from "terrified" even down to "scared" on vaginal exams. "A little nervous" and I would consider the phobia fixed.

The specificity is important when explaining my anxiety to therapists and doctors. If I say "I don't like pelvic exams" they say "so what, nobody likes them." But if I say "I am terrified of pelvic exams," they seem to understand it more.