Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples

In the field of couples therapy, there has been a need for research on models that impact marital distress and satisfaction. Emotionally focused therapy (EFT) for couples has emerged as a short-term (8 to 20 sessions), empirically based model and framework used to work with couples. The approach was originally developed by Susan Johnson and Les Greenberg. Emotion-focused work with couples is based on attachment theory, which highlights consistent, safe, and secure relationships with significant people as the crux of healthy lives and relationships. EFT clinicians enact these ideas by using experiential and family [Page 523]systems models. Experiential family therapy focuses on processing in-the-moment experiences through identification of emotion and honest expression of emotion. Openness, sincerity, and candid communication about feelings are hallmarks of this ...