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Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples was developed about 20 years ago by Sue Johnson, Ed.D and Leslie Greenberg, PhD. This short term (8-20 sessions) experiential and systemic couples therapy is now one of the most researched, delineated and empirically-validated approaches in the field of couples therapy. It has demonstrated powerful clinically significant effects with various populations (Johnson, 2003, JMFT 29, 365-385 and see: empirical support for EFT).
EFT presents a comprehensive theory of adult love and attachment and a process for healing distressed relationships. It recognizes that relationship distress results from a perceived threat to basic adult needs for safety, security and closeness in intimate relationships. This experiential/systemic therapy focuses on helping each partner reprocess the emotional experience underlying the rigid negative interactional patterns that keep them stuck. Through a series of well-defined stages the therapist takes the couple from conflict deadlock to creating new bonding interactions. To learn more about this approach you are encouraged to read The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: Creating Connection, Second Edition 2004, Becoming an Emotionally Focused Therapist: The Workbook, by Johnson, Tilley, et al., 2006, and/or to visit the EFT web site: www.eft.ca. To get information on EFT research click here.