How Emotional Suppression Affects Men — Behaviour, Relationships, Leadership & ICF Coaching

Emotional Suppression In Men Is Often Mistaken For Emotional Strength

Many men learn very early that strength means staying controlled, solving the problem, carrying the pressure and showing as little emotional disturbance as possible.

They learn to say:

“I am fine.”
“It does not matter.”
“I will handle it.”
“There is no point talking about it.”
“I just need to move on.”

From the outside, this can look like confidence, resilience, discipline or maturity.

Sometimes it is.

But sometimes the man is not regulating his emotions. He is disconnecting from them.

Emotional regulation means that you can recognise an emotion, understand what it is signalling, respond to it intelligently and choose how to express it.

Emotional suppression means that you block, minimise, conceal or push away the emotional experience before you have understood it.

The difference matters.

A man who regulates anger can remain calm and decide what action is appropriate. A man who suppresses anger may appear calm while resentment, shame, helplessness or humiliation continues operating underneath.

That hidden emotional pattern can influence his communication, relationships, leadership, decision-making, physical tension, self-worth and behaviour without him consciously recognising what is happening.

What Is Emotional Suppression?

Emotional suppression is the learned habit of preventing an emotion from entering conscious expression.

The emotion may still be present in the body, in internal dialogue, in mental imagery and in behaviour. What disappears is the person’s open acknowledgement of it.

This is why emotional suppression is not the same as having no emotion.

A man may suppress sadness and become irritable.

He may suppress fear and become controlling.

He may suppress shame and become defensive.

He may suppress loneliness and bury himself in work.

He may suppress vulnerability and communicate only through facts, advice, criticism or silence.

The emotional experience has not vanished. It has changed form.

In ICF coaching, this distinction is important because a client may describe a communication problem, relationship conflict, leadership challenge or loss of motivation while the deeper behavioural pattern involves an emotion he has not yet permitted himself to recognise.

Why Do Men Suppress Their Emotions?

Emotional suppression in men is rarely created by one event. It usually develops through repeated messages about what a man is supposed to be.

1) Boys Learn Which Emotions Are Socially Acceptable

A boy may be comforted when he is physically injured and criticised when he cries too long.

He may be told to toughen up when he is frightened.

He may be teased when he appears sensitive.

He may discover that anger earns more respect than sadness, fear, confusion or emotional pain.

Over time, he does not merely learn to hide particular emotions from other people. He may stop identifying those emotions within himself.

He can still experience the body tension, agitation or heaviness. He simply has no clear emotional language for it.

2) Vulnerability Becomes Associated With Shame

Shame is not only the feeling that something went wrong. It can become the belief that revealing a need, limitation or emotional wound will lower your standing in the eyes of other people.

A man may therefore learn that saying “I am hurt” is dangerous.

He may believe that admitting uncertainty will make him look incompetent.

He may experience asking for help as evidence that he has failed.

He may believe that emotional openness gives another person power over him.

This is where suppression becomes an identity-protection strategy.

He is no longer hiding only an emotion. He is protecting an image of himself as capable, dependable, rational, successful and in control.

The connection between emotion and identity is explored further in Emotional Triggers and Identity Threat.

3) Performance Becomes A Substitute For Emotional Worth

Some men learn that they receive recognition primarily when they perform, achieve, provide, solve or win.

They are valued for what they do more than for what they experience.

Achievement can then become a form of emotional protection.

When shame, inadequacy or fear appears, the response is to work harder, earn more, take greater responsibility or become indispensable.

The man may appear exceptionally driven while privately feeling that he cannot slow down without becoming insignificant.

This pattern is examined in more depth in Case Study: The Hidden Emotional Pattern Behind Overachievement.

4) Control Feels Safer Than Emotional Contact

Emotions can feel unpredictable when nobody taught you how to recognise and work with them.

Control then becomes the preferred strategy.

The man controls his schedule, environment, conversations, finances, work standards, routines or relationships because external structure gives him relief from internal uncertainty.

This does not automatically mean that he is deliberately controlling other people. In many cases, control is how he prevents himself from feeling exposed, helpless or overwhelmed.

5) The Man May Have Learned That Nobody Is Available To Receive His Feelings

Expression requires more than courage. It also requires an expectation that somebody can hear the experience without ridicule, panic, judgement, dismissal or immediate advice.

If earlier attempts at openness were ignored or used against him, silence can become a reasonable protective response.

He may want connection and simultaneously expect emotional exposure to end in rejection.

The Hidden Behavioural Sequence Behind Emotional Suppression

Emotional suppression often follows a predictable sequence:

An event occurs. The man experiences criticism, rejection, disappointment, failure, loss, conflict, uncertainty or pressure.
The event activates meaning. He interprets it as weakness, inadequacy, disrespect, loss of status, lack of control or personal failure.
An emotion arises. This may be fear, sadness, shame, guilt, hurt, loneliness or helplessness.
The emotion is judged. He tells himself that the feeling is unnecessary, weak, irrational, embarrassing or unproductive.
The emotion is suppressed. He distracts, intellectualises, works, withdraws, becomes silent, changes the subject or converts the experience into anger.
The emotional energy appears elsewhere. It influences his tone, body, decisions, habits, relationships or reactions.
The consequence creates more shame. He regrets the outburst, distance, avoidance or impulsive behaviour and suppresses that shame as well.

This becomes a self-reinforcing pattern.

The more he suppresses, the less emotional clarity he has. The less clarity he has, the more difficult it becomes to respond deliberately. The consequences then confirm his belief that emotions are dangerous and must be controlled.

Emotional Suppression Does Not Always Look Like Silence

A common mistake is to assume that emotional suppression always produces a quiet, withdrawn man.

It can produce many different behaviours.

The Highly Rational Man

He explains everything logically.

He can describe what happened, what each person did and what should happen next. But he struggles to describe what the experience meant emotionally.

When asked what he feels, he gives an analysis.

When asked what he needs, he gives a solution.

His intelligence is real. The analysis may also be protecting him from emotional contact.

The Angry Man

Anger may be the only emotion he has learned to express without feeling weak.

What appears to be anger may contain hurt, humiliation, fear, grief, disappointment or a sense of powerlessness.

This does not excuse harmful behaviour. It explains why simply telling him to control his anger may fail.

If the underlying emotion and meaning remain untouched, the behavioural pattern continues to regenerate.

The Indispensable Man

He takes responsibility for everyone.

He solves every problem.

He rarely asks for help.

Being needed gives him identity, predictability and worth. It also prevents him from confronting his own unmet needs.

The Emotionally Unavailable Man

He may care deeply and still appear distant.

He responds to distress by offering advice, fixing the problem or changing the subject.

When another person asks for emotional presence, he may hear criticism: “You are failing me.”

He then withdraws further because the request for connection activates shame.

The Constantly Busy Man

Work, exercise, screens, social activity, alcohol, sexual stimulation or constant problem-solving can become methods of avoiding emotional stillness.

Busyness is not always ambition. Sometimes it is an emotional anaesthetic.

The Humorous Man

Humour can create healthy perspective and connection.

It can also redirect attention away from vulnerability.

A man may make a joke at the exact moment a conversation approaches grief, insecurity, affection, shame or fear.

How Emotional Suppression Affects A Man’s Relationship With Himself

He Loses Emotional Vocabulary

When emotions are repeatedly suppressed, the man may eventually experience only broad categories such as “good,” “bad,” “stressed,” “angry” or “fine.”

He may not clearly distinguish:

Disappointment from rejection.
Fear from excitement.
Shame from guilt.
Loneliness from boredom.
Anger from humiliation.
Exhaustion from emotional withdrawal.

This limits emotional intelligence because you cannot regulate an experience that you cannot accurately identify.

He Begins To Distrust His Inner Experience

If a man repeatedly tells himself that his emotions are invalid, excessive or weak, he learns to distrust his own internal signals.

He may remain in situations that violate his values because he has trained himself to ignore discomfort.

He may notice resentment only after it becomes intense.

He may recognise burnout only when performance begins to collapse.

He may remain disconnected from needs until those needs emerge through conflict, withdrawal or impulsive behaviour.

He Confuses Emotional Numbness With Peace

Peace has awareness within it.

Numbness has disconnection within it.

A peaceful man can feel sadness without being controlled by it. A numb man may report feeling nothing because access to the emotional experience has been reduced.

That numbness can also reduce joy, intimacy, tenderness, gratitude and excitement. Emotional suppression rarely blocks only the emotions a person does not want.

His Self-Worth Becomes Conditional

If emotional needs are experienced as shameful, worth may become dependent on competence, income, status, physical strength, sexual performance or the ability to remain useful.

He may therefore feel valuable while performing and empty when resting.

Success can bring temporary relief without changing the deeper belief that he must continuously earn his right to matter.

This is one reason intelligent and successful people can still feel inadequate. Read Case Study: Why Smart People Still Feel ‘Not Enough’.

How Emotional Suppression Affects Relationships

Communication Becomes Informational Instead Of Relational

The man may communicate facts, plans, tasks and solutions while withholding fear, longing, hurt, affection or uncertainty.

The other person receives information without receiving emotional access.

This can create a painful contradiction: he may be loyal, responsible and physically present while still being experienced as emotionally absent.

Requests For Connection Can Feel Like Demands

When a partner says, “Talk to me,” the man may hear:

“You are not good enough.”
“You are doing the relationship incorrectly.”
“You must produce an emotion that you do not know how to access.”
“You are about to lose control.”

He may defend, explain, become irritated or leave the conversation.

The partner then pushes harder for connection. He experiences more pressure and withdraws further.

Both people become trapped in a pattern where each person’s attempt to feel safe activates the other person’s insecurity.

Unspoken Resentment Accumulates

A man who does not communicate boundaries, disappointment or emotional needs may appear agreeable for a long time.

But agreement without authentic consent creates resentment.

He may later become cold, sarcastic, passive, critical or suddenly explosive.

Other people experience the reaction as unexpected because they never heard the smaller emotional signals that preceded it.

Intimacy Becomes Difficult

Intimacy requires being known beyond performance and role.

If a man believes that his vulnerable experience is unacceptable, he may allow others to know his achievements, opinions, humour and responsibilities while keeping his fears, shame and emotional needs hidden.

He may want closeness while unconsciously managing how much of him another person is permitted to see.

Conflict Becomes A Threat To Identity

Conflict may no longer be experienced as two people addressing a difference.

It may become evidence that he has failed as a partner, father, leader or provider.

When identity is threatened, curiosity reduces and self-protection increases.

He may defend his intention instead of listening to the impact of his behaviour.

He may focus on proving that he is right because being wrong feels emotionally equivalent to being defective.

How Emotional Suppression Affects Leadership And Work

Emotional suppression can initially be rewarded in professional environments.

The man appears composed under pressure. He remains task-focused. He does not “bring emotion into work.” He makes difficult decisions and continues performing.

These can be valuable leadership qualities when they come from emotional regulation.

They become costly when composure is maintained through chronic disconnection.

It Reduces Self-Awareness

A leader who cannot identify his emotional state may believe that he is making a purely rational decision while irritation, insecurity, fear or shame is shaping his judgement.

He may interpret disagreement as disloyalty.

He may call anxiety “urgency.”

He may call control “high standards.”

He may call avoidance “delegation.”

It Weakens Empathy

It is difficult to remain present with another person’s emotion when you have learned to reject the same emotion within yourself.

A leader who suppresses vulnerability may become uncomfortable with employees who express uncertainty, grief, fear or emotional exhaustion.

He may immediately advise, minimise or redirect rather than listen.

This can reduce psychological safety even when the leader believes that he is helping.

It Creates Reactive Leadership

Suppressed emotion can appear through impatience, micromanagement, harsh feedback, withdrawal, indecision or sudden changes in direction.

The leader may focus only on changing the external behaviour of the team without recognising the emotional pattern influencing his own behaviour.

It Can Produce Burnout Hidden Behind Performance

Some men continue functioning at a high level long after their emotional and physical resources have started declining.

They treat exhaustion as a discipline problem and respond by pushing harder.

Because asking for support feels unacceptable, help is delayed until performance, health or relationships are seriously affected.

It Limits Coaching Senior Leaders

In executive coaching, leadership coaching and coaching senior leaders, the visible business challenge may be only the entry point.

The deeper coaching conversation may involve identity, emotional boundaries, fear of failure, difficulty receiving feedback, pressure to remain indispensable or the inability to express uncertainty.

A professional coach must avoid labelling the client and remain curious about how the client’s emotional strategy affects results, relationships and choices.

The Difference Between Suppression, Expression And Regulation

Men are sometimes presented with an unhelpful choice:

Either suppress emotion and remain strong, or express everything and lose control.

That is a false choice.

Suppression

“I must not feel this.”

Unregulated Expression

“I feel it, so I must discharge it immediately.”

Emotional Regulation

“I can recognise what I feel, understand its meaning and choose a response that respects both me and the situation.”

Healthy emotional expression does not require dramatic disclosure.

A man can say:

“I felt dismissed in that conversation.”
“I am more worried about this than I initially admitted.”
“I need time to understand what is happening for me.”
“Part of my anger is actually disappointment.”
“I want to solve this, and I also want you to understand how it affected me.”

This is not loss of control. It is emotional precision.

For a broader comparison, see Emotional Suppression vs Emotional Expression.

Why Self-Awareness Alone May Not Change The Pattern

A man may intellectually understand that he suppresses emotion and still continue doing it.

Awareness answers the question, “What am I doing?”

Transformation also requires questions such as:

What does suppression protect me from?
What do I predict will happen if I express this emotion?
Which identity am I trying to preserve?
What belief makes this emotion unacceptable?
What did I learn about men who show vulnerability?
What is the cost of continuing this strategy?
What would regulated expression look like in this situation?

The pattern often survives because it has a protective function.

Trying to remove the behaviour without respecting that function can create resistance.

This is why insight must be integrated with emotional contact, behavioural experimentation and new choices. The limitation of insight without integration is explored in Why Self-Awareness Alone Does Not Heal Shame.

How ICF Coaching Can Help Men Work With Emotional Suppression

ICF coaching does not require a coach to diagnose a man or treat him as emotionally damaged.

The coaching relationship creates a structured space in which the client can observe his patterns, meanings, choices and consequences without being shamed for the way he learned to protect himself.

An effective certified ICF coach does not force emotional disclosure.

The coach partners with the client.

This distinction is central to International Coaching Federation core competencies, including cultivating trust and safety, maintaining presence, listening actively, evoking awareness and facilitating client growth.

1) The Coach Creates Safety Without Removing Responsibility

Safety does not mean agreeing with everything the client says.

It means creating an environment in which the client can examine his experience without humiliation, coercion or premature interpretation.

The client remains responsible for his behaviour and choices.

The coaching space simply makes honest examination possible.

2) The Coach Listens Beyond The Story

A client may speak about targets, conflict, performance or another person’s behaviour.

An experienced coach listens to:

Repeated words and phrases.
Changes in tone and pace.
Moments of hesitation.
Emotions that are named and emotions that are avoided.
Differences between what the client says and what his behaviour communicates.
The beliefs and values organising the experience.

This is where skills for coaches matter. Listening is not waiting for your turn to ask a question. It is noticing the structure of the client’s experience.

3) The Coach Separates Emotion From Identity

A man may unconsciously equate:

Feeling fear with being weak.
Feeling sadness with being incapable.
Needing support with being dependent.
Making a mistake with being a failure.
Feeling hurt with losing status.

Coaching can help him recognise that an emotion is an experience, not a complete definition of who he is.

4) The Coach Explores The Positive Intention Behind Suppression

The suppression may be trying to preserve dignity, protect relationships, avoid conflict, maintain performance or prevent overwhelm.

When the protective purpose is recognised, the client can evaluate whether the strategy still serves him.

The coaching question becomes:

How can you preserve what matters without continuing the behaviour that is now costing you?

5) The Coach Builds Emotional Precision

Instead of asking only, “How do you feel?”, a coach may help the client distinguish between emotion, interpretation, body response and action.

For example:

Event: My manager questioned my decision.
Interpretation: He does not respect my competence.
Emotion: Shame, fear and anger.
Body response: Tight chest, heat and shallow breathing.
Behaviour: Defend, interrupt and dismiss feedback.
Desired response: Ask for specifics, remain present and decide what feedback is useful.

This structure converts an overwhelming emotional reaction into information the client can work with.

6) The Coach Supports Behavioural Experimentation

Transformation is strengthened when awareness becomes action.

A client may experiment with:

Naming one emotion before giving an explanation.
Expressing a boundary before resentment builds.
Asking for clarification instead of assuming disrespect.
Receiving support without immediately repaying it.
Staying present for another person’s feelings without fixing them.
Communicating disappointment without accusation.

The purpose is not to turn the man into a different personality. It is to expand the range of responses available to him.

Powerful Coaching Questions For Emotional Suppression

In coaching for transformation, questions must do more than produce explanations. They must help the client notice the meaning, identity and choice operating within the pattern.

Examples include:

What are you feeling that you have not yet permitted yourself to name?
What emotion is easier for you to show than the one underneath it?
What do you believe this emotion says about you as a man?
What are you protecting by remaining silent?
What becomes possible when you do not have to appear unaffected?
What is the difference between losing control and expressing yourself clearly?
Where do you notice this experience in your body?
What does your anger want you to understand?
What would you say if you knew you would not be judged?
What is the cost of being seen as strong in this way?
What would emotional strength mean if it included honesty?
What conversation are you avoiding because it may expose a need?
What support would you ask for if asking did not mean failure?
How do you want people to experience you when you are under pressure?
What is one emotionally honest action you are willing to take?

Questions become powerful through timing, presence and partnership. A script alone does not create a coaching conversation.

For a deeper exploration of coaching process, see How to Run Powerful Coaching Sessions.

How NLP Adds Behavioural Depth Without Taking Over The Coaching Process

NLP coaching can contribute useful mind models for understanding how language, internal imagery, beliefs, meanings and behavioural strategies organise emotional experience.

A man may say:

“I cannot show weakness.”

That sentence is not merely a description. It contains a rule.

The rule may be supported by mental images of rejection, remembered voices from childhood, body tension and expectations about what other people will do.

NLP helps make that internal structure visible.

Useful areas of exploration may include:

Beliefs about masculinity, vulnerability and control.
Internal language used to dismiss emotion.
Mental images associated with failure or humiliation.
Past learning that shaped present expectations.
Behavioural strategies used to avoid emotional exposure.
Identity conclusions such as “I must always be the strong one.”

Within coaching with NLP, these observations should support client awareness rather than become a mechanical attempt to “fix” the client.

The coach must remain in partnership and respect the client’s pace, autonomy and desired outcome.

How Emotional Intelligence Supports The Coaching Process

Coaching and emotional intelligence meet at the point where awareness must become skilful behaviour.

Emotional intelligence enables a man to:

Recognise emotional signals earlier.
Distinguish one emotion from another.
Understand the need, value or threat connected to an emotion.
Regulate intensity without denying the experience.
Communicate emotion without blame or emotional dumping.
Remain present with another person’s emotions.
Repair relationships after reactive behaviour.
Use emotional information in leadership and decision-making.

An emotional intelligence coach or certified emotional intelligence coaching professional must therefore move beyond teaching a list of emotions.

The work involves helping the client recognise how emotions, beliefs, identity, bodily responses and behaviour interact in real situations.

For an integrated application of ICF coaching, NLP mind models and emotional intelligence, read How to Coach Emotional Mastery Using ICF-Aligned Coaching, NLP Mind Models, Belief Questioning and Meaning Change.

What A Coach Must Not Do

Men who suppress emotions do not need another person telling them how they are supposed to feel.

A coach should not:

Force emotional disclosure.
Assume that every quiet man is emotionally suppressed.
Treat masculinity itself as a problem.
Interpret every achievement as compensation for shame.
Push a client into vulnerable material merely to create a dramatic session.
Use a ready-made technique before understanding the pattern.
Confuse emotional intensity with coaching depth.
Move beyond coaching scope when the client requires mental-health support.

A transformational coach does not create transformation by performing an intervention on the client.

The coach creates conditions in which the client can see more clearly, choose more consciously and act with greater alignment.

When Coaching Is Appropriate — And When Another Professional May Be Needed

Coaching can be useful when the client is psychologically stable and wants to work on present-day awareness, communication, behaviour, relationships, leadership, emotional intelligence or personal development.

A coach may help the client:

Recognise patterns of emotional avoidance.
Improve emotional vocabulary.
Communicate boundaries and needs.
Develop more flexible responses.
Strengthen leadership and relationship behaviour.
Translate insight into action and accountability.

Coaching should not be presented as treatment for mental-health conditions.

When the client is experiencing severe depression, self-harm, suicidal thinking, addiction, uncontrolled violence, debilitating trauma symptoms or another serious psychological condition, referral to an appropriately qualified mental-health professional may be necessary.

Ethical coaching includes knowing the limits of coaching.

For a detailed distinction, see Coaching vs NLP vs CBT For Guilt & Shame.

What Emotional Strength Looks Like For Men

Emotional strength does not mean expressing every feeling immediately.

It does not mean becoming endlessly vulnerable.

It does not mean abandoning logic, discipline, ambition or responsibility.

Emotional strength means having enough internal stability to remain in contact with what you feel without being controlled by it or ashamed of it.

It can look like:

Recognising fear before it becomes control.
Naming hurt before it becomes resentment.
Acknowledging uncertainty before it becomes defensiveness.
Expressing a boundary before it becomes withdrawal.
Receiving feedback without treating it as an attack on identity.
Asking for support without experiencing yourself as incapable.
Remaining present with another person’s pain without fixing, escaping or minimising it.
Taking responsibility for harmful behaviour without collapsing into shame.

This is emotional maturity.

It does not make a man weaker. It gives him more choice.

A Practical Emotional Integration Framework For Men

Step 1: Notice The Signal

Pay attention to changes in breathing, muscle tension, heat, restlessness, heaviness, numbness, withdrawal or urgency.

Step 2: Name The Emotion

Move beyond “fine,” “bad” or “stressed.” Ask whether the experience includes fear, shame, hurt, sadness, guilt, loneliness, disappointment, jealousy, helplessness or anger.

Step 3: Separate The Emotion From The Judgement

“I feel afraid” is an emotional observation.

“A man should not feel afraid” is a judgement about the emotion.

Step 4: Identify The Meaning

Ask what the event appears to mean about your competence, worth, status, safety, relationships or identity.

Step 5: Recognise The Protective Response

Notice whether you are preparing to withdraw, attack, explain, fix, work harder, become silent, distract yourself or take control.

Step 6: Clarify What Matters

Identify the value, need, boundary or relationship that the emotion is pointing toward.

Step 7: Choose Regulated Expression

Decide what needs to be communicated, what action is appropriate and how you can respond without denying yourself or harming another person.

Step 8: Review The Outcome

Observe what changed when you responded consciously instead of automatically.

This is how emotional awareness becomes behavioural transformation.

Choosing An ICF Coach Or Coach Training Program For Emotional Work

People searching for ICF coaching, an ICF credentialed coach, ICF coach training, ICF accredited coach training or professional coach certification should look beyond the certificate title.

Emotional work requires the coach to demonstrate:

Strong coaching presence.
The ability to create trust without becoming rescuing or directive.
Listening that notices emotion, meaning, identity and behaviour.
Powerful questioning without interrogation.
Respect for client autonomy.
Clear ethical boundaries and scope.
The ability to integrate emotional intelligence without turning coaching into therapy.
Practical understanding of beliefs, values, language and behavioural patterns.

A person searching for the best ICF coaching course, best ICF coaching training or ICF certified coaching programs should ask how the program develops actual coaching capability.

Does it provide supervised practice?

Does it develop the being of a coach as well as the doing of coaching?

Does it teach the learner to remain present with complex emotion without rushing to provide a technique?

Does it build competency in real coaching conversations?

For an overview of ICF coaching standards and pathways, begin with What Is ICF Coaching?.

For decision support on coaching pathways, see Choosing the Right ICF Pathway: ACC vs PCC vs NLP+ICF.

About The Author

This authority page is written by Anil Dagia — NLP Master Trainer, ICF PCC Coach, ICF Mentor Coach and creator of integrated transformation frameworks combining ICF-aligned coaching, NLP, emotional intelligence, somatic awareness and behavioural change.

Anil’s work does not treat NLP, coaching and emotional intelligence as unrelated products.

They form an integrated development ecosystem:

NLP develops understanding of language, beliefs, values, internal representations and behavioural patterns.
ICF coaching develops partnership, presence, listening, questioning, awareness and client-led change.
Emotional intelligence develops emotional recognition, regulation, empathy, communication and relationship effectiveness.

Learn more through:

Final Perspective

Emotional suppression may have helped a man survive environments in which vulnerability was unsafe, unsupported or shamed.

That deserves understanding.

It does not mean the strategy must control the rest of his life.

A man does not become emotionally strong by feeling nothing.

He becomes emotionally strong when he can recognise what he feels, understand why it matters and choose how he wants to respond.

The goal is not emotional exposure. The goal is emotional choice.

How Emotional Suppression Affects Men