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Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a humanistic, evidenced based approach to psychotherapy, drawing primarily from attachment theory to facilitate the creation of secure, vibrant connection with self and others. Rooted in the science of emotion and attachment, EFT helps clients identify and transform the negative processing and interaction patterns that create distress.
Our emotions play a vital role in the way we experience ourselves, our relationships, and the world around us. They provide important information about our needs, our longings, and what feels safe or threatening to us.
Yet during times of stress, conflict, loss, or pain, it can become difficult to understand our emotions or express them in ways that bring us closer to the people we care about.
Emotionally Focused Therapy recognizes that lasting change happens when we learn to engage our emotional experiences in new ways.
Why EFT?
Rather than focusing solely on symptoms or behaviors, EFT helps uncover the deeper emotions and attachment needs that shape our relationships and responses.
Through this process, individuals and couples can develop greater emotional security, stronger connections, and a more confident sense of themselves and others.
Meaningful healing rarely comes from quick solutions. By slowing down and addressing the deeper sources of distress, EFT creates opportunities for lasting transformation and more fulfilling relationships.
The Origins of EFT
EFT was created by renowned psychologist Sue Johnson after watching thousands of hours of video footage of her own therapy sessions. Her goal was to figure out: why did the distressed partners in her sessions seethe with such strong emotions? Why did people struggle so to get a loved one to respond?
Ultimately, what Sue Johnson found was a simple message: recognize and admit that you are emotionally attached to and dependent on your partner in much the same way that a child is on a parent for nurturing, soothing, and protection.
EFT's Effectiveness
Today EFT is revolutionizing couple therapy. Rigorous studies during the past fifteen years have shown that 70 to 75 percent of couples who go through EFT recover from distress and are happy in their relationships. The results appear lasting, even with couples who are at high risk for divorce. EFT has been recognized by the American Psychological Association as an empirically proven form of couple therapy.
In a 2022, Meta-analysis of EFT, researchers found that of 330 couples studied, 70 percent were symptom free at the end of EFT treatment.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) isn't simply another counseling technique or set of communication skills. EFT is an evidenced-based approach grounded in decades of research of attachment science and neuroscience.
Backed by decades of clinical research, Emotionally Focused Therapy has consistently demonstrated its effectiveness with individuals, couples, and families facing a wide variety of challenges. If you're interested in learning more about the foundations of EFT, I encourage you to watch this introductory video of Sue Johnson, the founder of the model.
In my practice, I use Emotionally Focused Therapy to help people navigate relationship distress, betrayal, grief, anxiety, depression, trauma, and life's many transitions. I've found the approach to be incredibly versatile and effective because of its ability to access the deeper parts of the human experience and promote healthy communication.
How Does EFT Treatment Work
The first step of EFT is to come alongside your experiences so that we can better understand what relationships and life have taught you about going towards or away from emotions, and going towards or away from the important people in your life. For example, if you have had hurtful or unsafe experiences in your life, you may have learned to withdraw or isolate as a means to protect yourself.
On the other hand, maybe you have learned to reach for or push for connections as a way to regulate the loud storm of emotions inside of you. Although these protective patterns may have served you in the past, they may be holding you back from healthy connections in the present.
The Goal
The goal of Emotionally Focused Therapy is to help you understand the patterns that shape the way you experience emotions and relationships. Many of these patterns were formed early in life and once served an important purpose, but they may no longer support the life or relationships you want today.
In therapy, we'll slow down and explore the emotions beneath reactions such as criticism, defensiveness, or withdrawal. Rather than judging these responses, we will collaboratively seek to understand what they are protecting. As new experiences of connection develop, old patterns begin to change, allowing you to respond in ways that are more consistent with your values and the relationships you want to build.
How EFT Can Make a Difference In Your Life?
1. EFT helps clients focus on the depths of their relationships. It goes beyond communication strategies and solution-based approaches to facilitate deep emotional processing and the creation of secure relationships with ourselves and others.
2. Part of what makes EFT so effective is that it leans into the way the brain was designed to optimally function, beginning with emotional organization and regulation before creativity problem solving. EFT helps clients get emotionally regulated so that they can develop new solutions themselves. Instead of trying to bypass distress, they learn to manage distress, allowing them to operate from a calmer, more thoughtful place. This enables them to be more in tune with their emotions and live more in line with their values.
Build Healthy, Lifelong Relationships
Through the Power of EFT
Troy Fulford Therapy and Marriage Enrichment specializes in EFT due to its validated process of change, its integration of emotion and the neuroscience of attachment, and my own experience of seeing it work with adults and couples. I am dedicated to ongoing learning and development in Emotionally Focused Therapy and am trained through the International Center for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT).
If you want to experience the healing power in EFT in your own life and build healthy lifelong connections, I encourage you to pursue counseling and book a session. I look forward to working with you!