Exploring Emotional Experience: Empowering Y...

Exploring Emotional Experience: Empowering Youth to Make Healthier Choices

Author Name : Nelson Camp M Ed

The concept of "Emotional Experience" (EE), which the author defines as a young person’s anterior emotional knowledge derived from lived or rehearsed situations, is an essential learning process that’s often overlooking in the classroom. The article asserts that youth often make unhealthy decisions—such as substance abuse, engaging in violence, and experiencing unintended pregnancies—due to a lack of emotional experience and resilience. Without emotional experience, adolescents struggle to accurately assess the long-term consequences of their actions, leading to problematic behaviors. Drawing upon Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and dramatherapy techniques, this article emphasizes the importance of exploring emotional responses to challenging situations in safe, controlled environments.