International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2025 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa LETTERS TO THE EDITOR LETTER TO THE EDITOR Short-Term Interventions for Overcoming Emotional Confusion: What to Do When Having Many Problems Is Yet Another Problem? Skrypynets S. M. 1 1 Uzhhorod National University, Uzhhorod, Ukraine Received: 09.05.2025; Accepted: 17.06.2025; Published: 30.06.2025 Abstract Background and The full-scale war in Ukraine causes the population to experience numerous Aim of Study: stressors that are layered on top of each other (forced displacement, losses, constant threats and existing traumas). This leads to emotional confusion (a state of reduced control of one’s own emotions), fatigue, narrowing of attention and impaired self-validation, which complicates self-understanding and self-care. All this poses numerous problems for the psychotherapist. This is because standard psychotherapeutic programmes may not be effective enough when clients are overwhelmed by the intensity of their problems. At the same time, assistance has to be provided within an extremely limited time frame. The aim of the study: to propose an integrated short-term intervention strategy for psychological counseling and psychotherapy to address emotional confusion in clients who have experienced multiple crises during wartime, utilizing the strengths of trauma-sensitive mindfulness, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and self- compassion-based approaches. Conclusions: The integrative approach allows therapists and clients to create a snapshot of current difficulties. It involves the sequential application of elements from different modalities: grounding techniques (EMDR/Mindfulness), internal state description (DBT), external stressor inventory, identification of key maladaptive beliefs (EMDR), and the use of stabilization or reprocessing techniques. This structured, brief intervention helps clients describe their condition, understand the sources of emotional confusion, practice self-compassion, and prioritize problems. Implemented over 1–2 sessions, this approach helps clients move beyond emotional confusion and motivates adaptive change, thereby instilling hope. Keywords: emotional confusion, short-term intervention, dialectical behavioral therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, mindfulness, multiple stressors, war trauma Copyright: © 2025 Skrypynets S. M. Published by Archives of International Journal of Science Annals DOI: https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2024.1.6 Conflict of interests: The author declares that there is no conflict of interests Peer review: Double-blind review Source of support: This research did not receive any outside funding or support Information about Skrypynets Serhii Mykhaylovych (Corresponding Author) – the author: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-4505-0524; serhii.skrypynets@uzhnu.edu.ua; Postgraduate Student of the Department of Psychology, Psychotherapist, Psychiatrist, Accredited Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapist, Supervisor, Uzhhorod National University, Uzhhorod, Ukraine. Dear Editor, When a person is dealing with a recent stressful event, impulses relate to the event. The ability to self- they are usually aware of why they feel unwell, and they compassion serves as a way to regulate emotions, helping can understand how their thoughts, emotions and you to maintain balance and clarity of mind. 57 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2025 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa However, the situation changes dramatically when the process of “affect labeling” is proven to reduce an number of adverse events rapidly accumulates. These emotion’s disruptive impact by downregulating events usually cause traumatic and post-traumatic stress amygdala activity and engaging prefrontal regulatory reactions (Melnyk et al., 2020). regions (Lieberman et al., 2007). Brief grounding Consider a collective, impersonal case common in practices, such as the “4 Elements” procedure from psychotherapy practice: a woman is experiencing EMDR protocols, are used before and after this step to sleepless nights due to rocket attacks, her daughter died maintain stability (Shapiro, 2018). six months ago while trying to leave the occupied Step 2: Identifying External Stressors and Contextual territories, her husband has lost his job, she is having Validation problems at her own job, she is caring for her bedridden Following DBT logic, we then ask the client to list the father, has diabetes, and experienced neglect and abuse external, factual events they believe contributed to their as a child. At some point, the accumulation and cross- state. This provides crucial contextual validation, helping influence of these problems create a new wave of them, the client recognize that their intense reaction is an and the overall ability to act effectively and regulate understandable response to overwhelming emotions drops significantly. Research confirms that circumstances, thereby reducing self-blame. Safety is multiple traumatic events tend to cause a more severe maintained through a “STOP” rule, allowing the client to course of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, primarily pause at any time. through the formation of dysfunctional beliefs and Step 3: Identifying Core Maladaptive Beliefs negative expectations (Brewin et al., 2017). The next step is to identify the blocking negative belief Since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, such that impedes adaptability. Using an approach inspired by cases have become increasingly frequent in the practices the EMDR protocol (Shapiro, 2018), the “target” of psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists becomes the entire picture – the feelings and the events. (Mykhaylyshyn et al., 2024; Stadnik et al., 2023). This We ask, “When you look at this entire picture, what state of being overwhelmed can be termed “emotional negative belief about yourself fits best?” Common confusion”. Due to exhaustion and high levels of stress, responses like “I am hopeless” or “I am at my limit” attention narrows and the capacity for self-validation reveal the perceptual lens that obstructs adaptive action. diminishes, making it difficult to clearly understand Step 4: Intervention and Adaptive Shifts one’s own feelings and needs. Prolonged chronic stress Once a key belief has been identified, several biologically undermines cognitive functions, impairing interventions are possible. An EMDR-certified therapist attention, memory, and cognitive flexibility (McEwen, may proceed to work through the whole picture or a key 2017). Critically, assistance must often be provided memory (Shapiro, 2018). If EMDR is not available, the within very limited timeframes, sometimes in just one or DPT skill “Effective Thought Review and Couple two counseling sessions. Relaxation” offers a simple but effective alternative When faced with emotional confusion stemming from (Linehan, 2015). It involves combining adaptive thoughts numerous problems, therapists must navigate the client’s (e.g., “I am strong”) with calming breathing. This process limited cognitive capacity to help them describe their is supported by the development of self-compassion, state and understand which “mountain streams” led to the which serves as a powerful psychological buffer against “flood in the valley”. The adage “Divide and conquer!” distress and despair (Neff, 2023). offers a clue: we must help to disentangle the web of Step 5: Instilling Hope through Action problems. Finally, the session concludes by collaboratively There are robust approaches available, including planning one or two small, achievable actions. This final dialectical behaviour therapy (Linehan, 2015), trauma- step is designed to restore a sense of control and self- sensitive mindfulness programmes (Treleaven, 2018), efficacy. By focusing on concrete, immediate steps, we self-compassion approaches (Neff, 2023) and eye activate the core components of hope – agency, and movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy pathway thinking – which is a powerful predictor of (Shapiro, 2018). psychological recovery (Snyder, 2002). We propose integrating conceptual elements from these approaches to create a momentary “snapshot” of the Conclusions client’s current difficulties. This allows them to describe The integrative approach allows therapists and clients to their state, explore the causal origins of their emotional create a snapshot of current difficulties. It involves the confusion, practice self-compassion, prioritize problems, sequential application of elements from different and instill hope by choosing effective immediate actions. modalities: grounding techniques (EMDR/Mindfulness), The proposed framework integrates several key steps that internal state description (DBT), external stressor can be realized within one to two sessions. inventory, identification of key maladaptive beliefs Step 1: Describing the Current State and Grounding (EMDR), and the use of stabilization or reprocessing We adapt the DBT skill of describing and acknowledging techniques. This structured, brief intervention helps emotions (Linehan, 2015). In a state of emotional clients describe their condition, understand the sources of confusion, isolating a single emotion is difficult. Instead emotional confusion, practice self-compassion, and of requiring precise labels, we ask the client to use any prioritize problems. Implemented over 1–2 sessions, this available words and associations to describe their state approach helps clients move beyond emotional confusion (e.g., “horrible”, “despair”, “my head hurts”). This and motivates adaptive change, thereby instilling hope. 58 International Journal of Science Annals, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2025 рrint ISSN: 2617-2682; online ISSN: 2707-3637; DOI:10.26697/ijsa Ethical Approval Melnyk, Yu. B., Stadnik, A. V., & Pypenko, I. S. (2020). The study protocol was consistent with the ethical Resistance to post-traumatic stress reactions of guidelines of the 1975 Declaration of Helsinki as vulnerable groups engaged in pandemic reflected in a prior approval by the Institution’s Human liquidation. International Journal of Science Research Committee. Annals, 3(1), 35–44. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2020.1.5 Funding Source Mykhaylyshyn, U. B., Stadnik, A. V., Melnyk, Yu. B., This research did not receive any outside funding or Vveinhardt, J., Oliveira, M. S., & Pypenko, I. S. support. (2024). Psychological stress among university students in wartime: A longitudinal study. Conflicts of Interests International Journal of Science Annals, 7(1), 27– The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests. 40. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2024.1.6 Neff, K. D. (2023). Self-compassion: Theory, method, References research, and intervention. Annual Review of Brewin, C. R., Cloitre, M., Hyland, P., Shevlin, M., Psychology, 74, 193–218. Maercker, A., Bryant, R. A., Humayun, A., Jones, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-032420-031047 L. M., Kagee, A., Rousseau, C., Somasundaram, Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitization and D., Suzuki, Y., Wessely, S., van Ommeren, M., & reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, Reed, G. M. (2017). A review of current evidence protocols, and procedures (3rd ed.). The Guilford regarding the ICD-11 proposals for diagnosing Press. https://www.emdr.com/product/home- PTSD and complex PTSD. Clinical Psychology study-book-course-book-test/ Review, 58, 1–15. Snyder, C. R. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2017.09.001 mind. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 249–275. Lieberman, M. D., Eisenberger, N. I., Crockett, M. J., https://doi.org/10.1207/S15327965PLI1304_01 Tom, S. M., Pfeifer, J. H., & Way, B. M. (2007). Stadnik, A. V., Melnyk, Yu. B., Mykhaylyshyn, U. B., & Putting feelings into words: affect labeling de Matos, M. G. (2023). Peculiarities of the disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective psychological well-being and social adaptation of stimuli. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428. young students and cadets in wartime https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467- conditions. International Journal of Science 9280.2007.01916.x Annals, 6(1), 22–30. Linehan, M. M. (2015). DBT skills training manual (2nd https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2023.1.7 ed.). The Guilford Press. Treleaven, D. A. (2018). Trauma-sensitive mindfulness: https://mindsplain.com/wp- Practices for safe and transformative healing. W. content/uploads/2020/09/DBT_handouts.pdf W. Norton & Company. McEwen, B. S. (2017). Neurobiological and systemic https://davidtreleaven.com/ effects of chronic stress. Chronic Stress, 1. https://doi.org/10.1177/2470547017692328 Cite this article as: Skrypynets, S. M. (2025). Short-term interventions for overcoming emotional confusion: What to do when having many problems is yet another problem? International Journal of Science Annals, 8(1), 57–59. https://doi.org/10.26697/ijsa.2025.1.6 The electronic version of this article is complete. It can be found online in the IJSA Archive https://ijsa.culturehealth.org/en/arhiv This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en). 59