What is an Affect Storm?

When feelings ("Affect") run high in a particular situation, a person’s ability to mentalize is at risk of being impaired. If family members are present, this can be ‘infectious’, leading to ‘emotional knee jerk’ reflexes all round.

In family sessions one can then observe heated interactions, with the participants blaming each other:

“you never….” or “you always”

Here the therapist’s task is to reduce the heat, so as to help family members to recover some degree of successful mentalization.

What to do in an affect storm

See Simmering Down, Taking a break and Therapist's use of Self.