Well, from my perspective, this was an important part of therapy that I did in my early 20s, which included some breakthrough work. I was brought up in a violent home and both of my parents actively discouraged any expression of emotion -- verbal or even facial. My siblings, who did no therapy at all, still have POKER FACES. Which is useful for gambling trips to Vegas, but not so useful in social settings.

So it was vital for me to learn to identify emotions both inside myself and shown by others. It was also good for me to discover gradations of those emotions. Before this kind of therapy, all I could recognize in myself or others was WHITE...happy and BLACK...angry -- both were mostly suppressed.

Before this therapy, I was kind of a Mister Spock and after this therapy, I was able to name emotions and say...I was feeling ennui, feeling wistful, feeling peaceful, feeling joyful, feeling restless, lots of different feelings. Once there were shades of grey, my emotions became changeable and manageable. Before, I was a hostage to my emotional state.

Before this therapy, my feelings were either deeply buried/inscrutable or overwhelming and endless. Those extremes started to melt away, though I still have problems today being either flooded by emotions or completely numb.

I think the management and awareness of emotional states are a giant predictor of an individual's success and happiness. I'm still working towards this kind of equanimity.

I'm not pleased to admit that for a period of about a year, I had a chart of the VARIOUS emotions in my bedroom and I stared at these before I went to sleep. I always thought that there was some ideal "healthy" family where kids would be exposed to these myriad emotions as they grew up and learn to name and manage their feelings. I don't believe or long for this any more because I did it for myself, later in life. And I'd like to think it helped me get where I am today.