Alissa Jerud, PhD

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The ART & Science of Emotions

Like the weather, our emotions change all the time and we often cannot control which ones we feel or when we feel them. Some emotions may be more pleasant or easier to navigate than others, just as sunny days are typically favored over rainy, stormy ones. However, no matter what is going on around or inside of us, we don’t have to let storms (rain or emotional) prevent us from acting in ways that are congruent with our values.

Indeed, when faced with a rainy day, we can either shut ourselves inside until the rain abates, or we can accept that it is raining and go outside anyway to carry on with the day that we had planned. And when choosing the latter option, we can opt to race out the door without any rain gear in hand or we can regulate our temperature by donning appropriate gear before heading out and by adjusting it as need be while outside. Further, when our rain gear inevitably fails to protect us sufficiently from getting wet, we can either let our discomfort knock us down - potentially making ourselves even more wet and uncomfortable - or we can learn to tolerate the discomfort that we feel so that we can proceed effectively.

Interestingly, the same is true of our emotions. Instead of trying to run away from painful feelings, we can accept them when they surface and choose to continue doing the things that matter to us even though we might not feel like doing so. We can also regulate our emotions by doing things to reduce our vulnerability to experiencing intense, negative emotions in the first place; and by using skills that can help us change challenging emotional states when they strike, instead of simply succumbing to whatever our emotions insist we do. And when stressful events occur and we begin to experience our emotions as overwhelming, we can use skills to help use tolerate our distress, rather than resort to maladaptive coping mechanisms that often intensify our misery.

As a therapist specializing in treating anxiety and related disorders, I strive to help my patients embrace these science-backed ART (Accept | Regulate | Tolerate) skills and challenge them to transform their way of being in the world by applying these skills in all aspects of their lives. This is no easy feat, however, and is something that even I have to work on every day in and out of the office in my role as a mom, a wife, a sister, a daughter, and a friend. Accordingly, I created this page with the intent of helping those who have courageously committed themselves to trying to overcome their fears and/or to living the most meaningful, effective lives possible. To this end, I will post articles related to the treatment of anxiety and emotion regulation difficulties here. In addition, I will share personal stories about my own attempts to use ART skills to navigate my emotions in hopes that others will benefit from these real-life tales.