
WHAT IS EMOTIONALLY FOCUSED THERAPY (EFT)?
EFT is a well-known humanistic therapy approach developed in the 1980’s together with the science of adult attachment and a developmental theory of personality and intimate relationships. Dr. Sue Johnson is the primary developer of Emotionally Focused Couples and Family Therapy (EFT), which has demonstrated its effectiveness in over 30 years of peer-reviewed clinical research.
EFT has expanded our understanding of individual dysfunction and health as well as the nature of love relationships and family bonds. Attachment views human beings as innately relational, social and wired for intimate bonding with others. The EFT model prioritizes emotion and emotional regulation as the core organizing agents in individual experience and key relationship interactions.
EFT is best known as a cutting-edge, tested, and proven couple intervention, but it is also used to address individual depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress (EFIT – Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy) and to repair family bonds (EFFT – Emotionally Focused Family Therapy).
This model operationalizes the principles of attachment science using non-pathologizing experiential and relational systems techniques to focus on and change core organizing factors in both the self and key relationships.
Website of International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) is here.