Emotional intelligence and reflective practice are integral components of building a therapeutic relationship in nursing. Emotional intelligence, also known as “EI,” is defined as the ability to recognize, authorize, and evaluate emotions. The ability to control and express our emotions is very important, but so is our ability to understand, interpret and respond to the emotions of others. To be emotionally intelligent you must be able to perceive emotions, reason with emotions, understand emotions and manage emotions. First, sensing emotions or identifying certain emotions is the first step to becoming emotionally intelligent. Nurses can identify people's emotions by their behavior, facial expression, mood and the way they speak. Second, to reason with emotions, nurses will need to think critically about how to help their clients come to terms with their emotions. Reasoning with emotions helps the client to prioritize and pay attention to what is important and what is not. Third, understanding emotions can be explained and shown in many different ways. It is important for nurses to be able to understand their clients' feelings as this will help create a therapeutic environment thus enabling the nurse to help their clients and finally, managing emotions is the main key to being emotionally intelligent. The ability to feel and respond accordingly to one's own emotions and the emotions of others are all important elements of being emotionally intelligent. Nurses are advised to be emotionally intelligent because it improves their work performance by helping them balance their personal and professional life, improves their physical and mental health by reducing levels of stress and illness and most importantly...... half of paper. ..... interact correctly and communicate well with their clients, they must be emotionally intelligent, self-aware, create a therapeutic relationship and develop reflective practices. All of the above contributes to the health of an individual and therefore it is very important that we are able to control our emotions, correct and learn from our mistakes, examine and balance our life and create a therapeutic environment so that our clients feel comfortable, safe and confident. enough to live their lives in our hands. Reference www.belfastmet.ac.uk/goal/resources/reflectivepractices.page 60 www.cno.org-collegeofontario. Revised 2006. Middleton, J. (2004). A Practical To Promote Reflective Practice Within Nursing. Retrieved March 31, 2004, from www.nursingtimes.net.Bradley,JB,&Edinberg,ME(1986).Communication in the Nursing Context (2nd edition). East Norwalk, Connecticut.