Abstract Emotions in relationships help individuals navigate complex social and emotional contexts and shape individual and relational well-being. An important aspect of therapy is helping clients navigate potentially strong emotions in themselves and others to foster healing and connection. Although a sizeable scholarly literature exists regarding emotions and their experiencing, processing, and regulation, more is needed to understand experiencing more generally within the concept of therapy in terms of their inner awareness and how they see themselves. This is especially true when considering that there may be optimal levels of experiencing that help facilitate positive change. Using data from 63 heterosexual couples, this study examined the intersection between experiencing and other indicators of experience (moment-to-moment feelings towards partner and skin conductance) during a therapy-like interaction. Findings revealed that men experiencing greater emotional engagement exhibited significant psychophysiological arousal changes. In addition, women with higher experiencing modes during discussions of their partner’s issues reported more positive moment-to-moment feelings and higher couple satisfaction. We discuss the potential implications of thesis findings, especially those for therapists.
Iverson et al. (Wed,) studied this question.