Emotion Focused Therapy Essay

There are myriad theoretical perspectives to guide counsellors when working with couples and families. One size does not fit all. Thus, is crucial that counsellors tailor their approach to meet the needs of each individual client. Narrative therapy and emotion-focused therapy are two approaches to couples and family counselling that provides clinicians with a framework to help clients broaden their understanding of themselves and those with whom they are close.
Emotions are the underlying motivating factor for why people seek therapy. Emotions are responsible for facilitating decision making, informing our responses to the environment around us and providing information that helps to regulate social interactions. According to Greenberg & Paivio (2004) while emotions are integral to shaping our actions and building “new adaptive experiences” (p. 5), they also can be disordered and cause relationship breakdown when not processed in a healthy manner. Within the context of families and couples, emotional habits can have a detrimental effect on interpersonal relationships. Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) is a systematic therapeutic approach that seeks to revise and restructure “distressed patients’ constricted interaction patterns and emotional responses
as to produce a more secure emotion bond” (Greenberg & Johnson, 1988).
Developed in the 1980’s by Dr.
Sue Johnson, EFT is a model of therapy that draws attention to the “crucial significance of emotion and emotional communication in the organization of patterns of interaction and key defining experiences in close relationships” (Johnson, 2012, p.4). Drawing from the humanistic perspective, EFT integrates Rogerian’s person-centered approach which rests upon the empathic relationship between the therapist and the client (CITE). Moreover, EFT incorporates empirically supported research on adult attachment theory (CITE). The combination of these two schools of thought encourages clients to more adequately understand how their emotional patterns, affect and reactions play out in
relationships.
EFT rests upon the central premise that distress is a result of “constricted interaction patterns and emotional responses that produce an insecure bond” (Cite). EFT emphasizes emotions as a means of creating a more secure bond by “restructuring negative emotions that allow an alternate view of self and new meaning to emerge, teaching people new ways to nurture and regulate their emotions and also helping clients to overcome painful negative emotions” (Greenberg & Paivio, 1997) PARAPHRASE,NOT QUOTE. The fundamental goal of EFT is to build upon and restructure emotional responses and to create a shift in the cycles of interaction (Gurman, Lebow & Snyder, 2015). Moreover, EFT seeks to create a more secure bond between partners.
Emotion-focused therapy usually consists of anywhere between eight and twenty sessions. EFT is a systematized approach consisting of nine treatment steps (Gurman et al., 2015). Within the initial few sessions, the main concern for the therapist is to observe the communication and interaction style between the couple (Gurman et al., 2015). This involves the therapist helping individuals to identify key issues of conflict, unidentified fears and negative emotions (Gurman et al., 2015). Ultimately, this part of therapy is concentrated on deescalating conflict (Gurman et al., 2015). The middle phase of therapy is primarily focused on changing the patterns of interaction between the couple. EFT employs attachment theory to inform the skills and practices which illuminate each persons needs and emotions (Johnson, 2012). Finally, the couple develops new communication styles and learns new ways of interacting which meet the needs of their partner (Gurman et al., 2015).