Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

There are several different theoretical perspectives that aid in improving the relationship of couples. Among several behavioral, cognitive, and humanistic approaches, emotionally-focused couple therapy leads in empirical research that supports its use as most effective. In order to test the effectiveness, couples undergoing emotionally-focused therapy (EFT) are given several different measures designed to report outcomes of the therapy. Using these measures at the beginning of a set amount of sessions allows therapists to work with the clients on appropriate strategies to address how each partner tends to his or her emotions. In turn, the therapist and couple are able to work together in order to accomplish a positive outcome. Although therapists may be able to integrate certain concepts from other theories into a couple’s emotionally-focused therapy sessions, current and evolving EFT outcome research suggests that this style will optimize partner satisfaction.
Emotionally-focused therapy attributes relationship issues to a couple’s inattention to one another’s attachment needs (Johnson, 2014). This weakens the secure bond between the two and increases the negative emotional impact that creates a pattern of negative interactions. The couple does not tend to get relief from this cycle because as one
Researchers have found specific factors that have shown to be variables that increase the probability of a positive outcome from EFT among married couples. One of these variables is demographic, specifically, older men; older male spouses reported higher relationship satisfaction after the sessions (Johnson and Talitman, 1997). There is also a correlation between female partners who exhibited a greater amount of faith from the beginning of the therapy sessions and higher reports of relationship satisfaction after the sessions (Johnson and Talitman,