Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) was developed as an approach to couples therapy and is based in attachment theory. It has since been adapted to accommodate individual work around relational issues in therapy as well.

• Attachment Theory:

  Attachment theory offers a helpful framework for understanding how we learned to get our needs met, to communicate, and to stay safe in early relationships. We are able to use this information to understand how old tools for communicating needs or protecting oneself show up in current relationships.

• Emotions as Information

  During EFT, we work together to better understand what and how emotions are communicating. We join with them, understanding that they are offering vital information about your system, rather than trying to push them away or get rid of them.

• Interaction Patterns:

  EFT emphasizes the importance of spending the early stages of therapy with clients gathering information about their relational stories. This is so we can identify some key relational patterns and better identify the context they are presenting within. Once we have a good sense of the “dance,” meaning the dynamic interactions between relationship history, triggers, needs, and safety, then we are better able to identify ways to interrupt this unwanted cycle.

• Safety & Connection:

  Ultimately, either in couples or individual work, we are trying to re-orient toward safety and connection. As people, we all want to feel seen and heard especially by the people closest to us. And we also all deserve to feel safe. We do this through emotional attunement to self and others, compassion, communication, and integration.

Overall

Emotionally Focused Therapy is a framework for orienting towards one’s own needs for connection and safety in relationships. It creates space for deepening into the rich emotional information the body has to offer and processing relational wounds. And provides tools for attuning to self and others in a compassionate and effective way.