EFT

Founded in 1990s by Dr. Susan Johnson, psychologist from Ottawa, Canada and Leslie
Greenberg. EFT is an evidence-based couples therapy, as effective as CBT. Influenced by
attachment theories, humanistic perspectives, and systemic theory, off shoot of experiential
therapy
Basic model
Family Systems Theory (Bowen, Minuchen, etc.)
Causality is circular
Task of therapist is to interrupt negative relational cycles so that a new pattern can
emerge
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Experiential Therapy (Rogers, Pearl)

Empathically reflecting and validating a persons emotional experience

Foster new corrective emotional experiences that emerge from the here and now.
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Attachment Theory (Bowlby, Ainsworth)

People need close primary attachments from the cradle to the grave. (Bowlby)
Secure bonds promote a persons ability to regulate emotions, solve problems, think
clearly and communicate effectively.
An adults ability to create secure relationships is related to the attachment style they
learned from their primary relationships as a child. Bowlby found that from early in
childhood, a person acquires a way of attaching to others:
Secure attachment
Insecure, Anxious attachment (pursue, blame)
Insecure, Avoidant attachment (withdraw)
Insecure, Fearful-Avoidant, (seeks and avoids closeness, associated with trauma
history)
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Primary and secondary emotions
Primary emotions- a direct response to an event, usually remains unexpressed, have to dig
deeper for understanding (joy, sadness, fear, shame). Secondary emotions are experienced
after evaluating the primary emotions, they are often discussed first and are easier to express,
more reactive and enables to deal with primary emotion (anger, embarrassment, jealousy,
guilt).
Conceptualisation of pathology- Problems result from invalidation of primary emotions or
maladaptive perceptions of those emotions, absence of a secure environment

Maladaptive cycles:
1) Pursue/Withdraw: The most common cycle is a demanding spouse
interacting with a withdrawing or distancing partner. In this pattern, the
distancing or stonewalling position is a shutdown, non-response mode
that often cues panic or aggression in the other partner as in, I will make
you respond to me. When trying to identify the couples negative pattern,
keep in mind that the positions are default options: they are what the
partners do when they feel threatened or vulnerable.
2)Withdraw/Withdraw: In this pattern both partners are hesitant to engage
emotionally and, in the face of conflict, both will further withdraw. While
this appears to be the couples basic pattern, it is more likely that a
pursue/withdraw pattern underlies it. In these cases, the pursuer may be a
soft pursuer who is hard to recognize because he or she does not show
the overwhelming anxious energy seen in a lot of pursuers and who,
despite being a pursuer, gives up easily. The other possibility, which is
more common, involves a burnt out pursuer who has now given up
reaching for the other partner. Withdrawal then can be the beginning of
grieving and detaching from the relationship.
3)Attack/Attack: Therapists often observe attack/attack sequences and
escalations in couple interactions. Typically these escalations are
deviations from a pursue/withdraw pattern where the withdrawer feeling
provoked turns and fights, erupting in anger at specific moments. Here,
after the fight, the withdrawer is likely to soon revert back to withdrawing
until he or she feels provoked again.
4) Complex Cycles: These often occur in trauma survivor couples where
both anxiety and avoidance are high, resulting in more complicated
sequences of interactions. An example would be: the husband makes
coercive demands for compliance and attention, the wife withdraws, the
husband escalates demands, the wife withdraws and then attacks in selfdefense, both withdraw, the wife becomes depressed (for 3 days or so), the
husband then pursuers, the wife slowly responds, the couple has a short
period of loving sexuality, and the cycle begins again.
Goals of EFT
To expand and re-organize a persons key emotional responses to the primary
relationships in their life.
To create a shift in a persons interactional positions (attachment style) and initiate
new cycles of interaction.
To foster a persons ability to create secure bonds and relationships.
Role of therapist

Create a safe alliance with the client

Collaborate with the person on their goals
Show genuine curiosity
Focus on process, not content
Allow and help emotions to emerge
Be a temporary safe attachment figure
Provide an antidote to traumatic messages
Pscyho-ed about attachment and its role in a persons life.

Core assumptions
1. Rigid interactions reflect / create emotional states and absorbing emotional states
reflect/create rigid interactions (loop).
2. Partners are not sick / developmentally delayed/unskilled they are stuck in habitual
ways of dealing with emotions/engaging with others at key moments.
3. Emotion is seen as target and agent of change.
4. Change involves new experience and new relationship events.
5. Effective marital therapy addresses the security of the bond, mutual accessibility and
responsiveness.
Client change process/technique: 9 steps
Therapy process- Identify and change negative interaction cycles that have emerged in a
persons important relationships. Identify key un-met attachment needs, primary emotion and
perceptions that fuel the negative cycle. Heal from traumatic attachment events by
experiencing other parts of self and new emotions. From the new place of security, rethink
and solve previously unsolvable problems.
STAGE ONE: CYCLE DE-ESCALATION
1. Creating alliance, Assessment, exploring core issues- joining, relationship history,
individual attachment history, assess for trauma
2. Identify negative interaction cycles / Attachment issues- their behaviour, perceptions,
primary and secondary emotions, unmet attachment needs
3. Access underlying attachment emotions/ unacknowledged emotions
4. Reframe the problem in terms of a problematic cycle
STAGE TWO RESTRUCTURING THE BOND (Withdrawer re-engagement, blamer
softening)
5. Access implicit needs, fears, models of self encourage acceptance of disowned
aspects of self, go deeper into emotion
6. Promote acceptance of partners new responses encourage the person to be in touch
with the part of them that is an antidote to their negative perceptions and allow a
new emotional response to emerge
7. Create an intimate (structured) emotional engagement express specific attachment
needs.
STAGE THREE: CONSOLIDATION AND PROBLEM SOLVING

8. Encourage new solutions to unresolved rship issues, New positions / cycles enact
new stories of problems and repair
9. New Solutions to pragmatic issues- new positions, honest expression of each others
needs, new story of self in the relationship