The research is based on a community intervention project—Living More With Knowledge: Health Literacy—with a qualitative and quantitative approach, with ethnographic aspects through participant observation by one of the researchers. At the end of the first year of the project, a qualitative study was carried out, with the application of a questionnaire survey to a sample of 143 participants from different groups aged between 50 and 90 years old. The questionnaire survey aimed to assess the participants perception of the activities developed. To the questions regarding the usefulness of the topics addressed for daily life, the acquisition of new knowledge, the way the topics are addressed, the relationship and interaction of health professionals with the participants (cognitive and emotional), 99% of the respondents considered it very good and good. All respondents expressed interest in continuing to participate in the activities. The number of participants doubled, as well as the request of institutions to collaborate in the project.
TopAffections, Feelings And Emotions In The Therapeutic Relationship
Affect in the therapeutic relationship promotes the humanization of person-, family- and community-centered care by enhancing the bond and empathetic interpersonal relationships through verbal and non-verbal communication (Martins, 2020, p. 23). According to António Damásio (2017, p146), affect is a “vast tent under which I place not only all possible feelings, but also the situations and mechanisms that are responsible for their production.”
Feelings are described by António Damásio as: “mental experiences that accompany the organism’s various states of homeostasis, whether they are primary (homeostatic feelings such as hunger or thirst) or caused by emotions (emotional feelings such as fear, anger or joy)” (Damásio, 2020, p.114). For this author, feelings assume a determining role in “the unfolding of life in our organism, mentally, whether we are apprehending, remembering, imagining, reasoning, judging, deciding, planning or creating” Damasio (2017, p. 146). (Figure 1)
Figure 1. Source: Based on, Damásio (2017); Martins (2020) Damásio defines emotions as “a set of involuntary internal (e.g., contraction of smooth muscles, change of heart rate, breathing, hormonal secretions) and external (facial expressions, postures, etc.) actions provoked by real or remembered external stimuli; these actions aim to support homeostasis, for example reacting to threats (with fear or anger) or making known a success (with joy)” (Damásio, 2020, p. 114) And he classifies emotions into three types: primary and universal emotions, secondary and social emotions, and background emotions. (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Classification of emotions
In the therapeutic relationship the health professional should be aware of his facial expressions and those of the users, since they reveal cognitive and emotional states (Ekman, 1999) that may interfere in the therapeutic relationship allowing the professional to adapt his intervention in order to lead the interaction to the best path. (Figure 3).
Emotions are like a propulsive engine that makes us act and face life. According to Goleman (2010) each emotion plays a key role and prepares the body for a different type of response. All emotions are important for balance and well-being. Knowing how to recognize emotions in the moment is key to being able to manage and control them. (Figure 3)
Figure 3. Manifestation of emotions