Emotionally Focused Therapy

This term paper is about solution-focused therapy and experiential therapy. In solution-focused therapy, the therapy does not emphasize the problem at all; it stresses and highlights the solution. The client is the expert and not the therapist. The experiential approach is often used to facilitate meaningful changes in individuals. SFBT is a short-term goal focused therapeutic approach which directs clients to focus on developing solutions, rather than on dwelling on problems. The theoretical framework, how change occurs, therapeutic techniques, postmodern perspective, the role of the therapist and some clinical examples are given in this term paper.

Emotion focused therapy (EFT) uses multiple techniques to illicit emotional reconstruction. “By bringing awareness, regulation, reflection and transformation” (Seligman & Reichenberg, 2014, p. 160) to the forefront, the client, has the ability to focus on those emotions and recognize the maladaptive strategies used to alleviate these responses. Within EFT validation is key in promoting congruence, positive regard and empathy. “Validation is the processes of letting the [client] know that the therapist views their needs and reactions as understandable, valid, and normal” (Denton, Johnson, & Burleson, 2009). By allowing the client to lead the session and reflecting the client’s emotions back to her you reinforced to the client that it was safe

My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it

Emotionally focused therapy is designed to be short-term in structure. Developed principally by Dr. Susan Johnson, the main target of this type of therapy is couples and is focused on expressing emotions. The primary goal of emotionally focused therapy is to create a safe and long-lasting bond between romantic partners and family members while expanding and restructuring significant emotional responses. Partakers in emotionally focused therapy are emboldened to express their thoughts and emotions in a safe environment without fear of judgment. In this paper, we will discuss a therapy session between Sue Johnson and a couple, Leslie and Scott.

Their case is complicated and needs a long-term therapy. It is better to use Emotion-Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT-C) which “treated differentially depending on which emotion is expressed and how it functions for both the individual and the couple.” Firstly interviewing both of them separately to get more information about what happened in the past thirty years, and then according to the information they provided to design relative interventions for both of them together. For Owen, the individual system which focuses on biological and psychological aspects of the biopsychosocial systems model works because his behaviors started the long journey of marital drama. It is better to understand their circumstances at that time. Owen’s behavior did not match his image. What were the factors (relationship with Shirley, parents or other family members, work or colleagues, etc.) that cause his dishonest? How did he explain and deal with Shirley when she found out the affairs? Did he have feelings to those women he had sex with? What was his attitude to his behavior? Did he think of divorce since he was not a Christian at the time and did not care about religious commitment? It is also important to ask him how did he convert to Christianity 12 years later after the affairs, as well as his feelings of giving up career firstly in China, and then in Canada. Did he sacrifice his careers out of love or guilty?

As the treating clinician for Alice and Michael using the theoretical orientation of emotion focused couple therapy I would attempt to treat the couple as a system. I would address the couple as a unit and allow Alice as well as Michael to express their interpretations of the distress they feel in their relationship. Emotion focused therapy emphasizes the therapeutic alliance as an integral healing part of therapy (Tobin, 2016). As a therapist I would strive to address the underlying issues related to Alice’s alcoholism and the affects it has had on the system. However, I would not address Alice as if she were in individual therapy as that would not be beneficial to Michael. I believe that it would be beneficial for Alice to hear Michael’s feelings associated with her drinking.

I will be using Emotion Focused Therapy, and in particular will concentrate on Attachment Theory within EFT to conceptualize Ally’s presenting difficulties that she came to therapy for. A key premise of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) is that emotion is foundational in the construction of the self and is a key element of self organization (Greenberg, 2004). Emotions are seen as an adaptive form of information-processing and action readiness that orients people to their environment, and promotes their well-being (Greenberg, 2004). The goal of EFT is to use our emotional intelligence in a way that allows our emotions to guide us instead of being a slave to them (Greenberg, 2004). Emotions are important because they inform people that an important need, value, or goal may be advanced or harmed in a situation (Greenberg, 2004). Through our development, emotional experience, culture, and our biologically and evolutionary based internal programs, our emotional responses have created emotion schemas (Greenberg, 2004). These are organized responses and experiences produce units stored in our memory that serve to help us to anticipate future outcomes (Greenberg, 2004). Although our emotional schemes are meant to be adaptive, by helping us guide our actions appropriately, it is clear that due to negative experiences, one can create maladaptive responses/schemas to different types of situations that do not properly inform people about a need, value, or goal appropriately (Greenberg,

Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy employed to assist members of a family in improving communication systems, conflict resolution, and to help the family to deal with certain problems that manifest in the behavior of members. In most cases, deviance in a family member is an indication of underlying family dysfunctions. This paper looks the counselling procedure that can be applied to help the Kline family solve their problems. It answers certain questions including those of the expected challenges during therapy and ways of dealing with the challenges.

Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) was developed by Dr. Susan Johnson and Dr. Leslie Greenberg in the 1980s’. EFFT is a structured, short-term approach to couples, family, and individual therapy. Emotionally Focused Family Therapy tries to shift the emotional and cognitive balance by highlighting the key role of the knowledge of adaptive emotion in therapeutic transformation. EFFT includes components of person-centered therapy, Gestalt therapy, systemic therapy, constructivist therapy, and attachment theory. I chose this intervention for the Winters family because it focuses on both interpersonal and intrapsychic systemic processes on the emotional system (Gehart, 2014).

Emotion Focused Therapy was developed by Susan Johnson and Leslie Greenburg. They wanted to create a therapy that changes and improves relationships through emotion based therapy(Wiley, 2013). Emotion Focused Therapy works to help couples identify patterns of conflict and they target those negative cycles (Wiley, 2013). Emotion Focused therapy focuses on understanding the partners’ experiences emotions and needs. A therapist using Emotion Focused Therapy will work with the couple to use their individual needs as a way to make the couples closer instead of using them as a tool for

Emotion-Focused Therapy was developed in the early 1980s by Sue Johnson and Leslie Greenberg to provide a clear framework for working with emotion in couple therapy. (Karris & Caldwell, 2015, p. 346). In working with distressed couples, Greenberg and Johnson noted that those people were overwhelmed by intense emotions that keep them fixed into malicious pattern of interactions (as cited in Karris & Caldwell, 2015, p. 347). The priority of EFT was to identify the negative interactional cycle early in treatment and, then, access “on each partner’s unexpressed underlying emotions” (Johnson and Greenberg, 1988, p. 29) that are hidden from the self and the

Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy [Video file]. (2009). Milton H. Erickson Foundation. Retrieved May 30, 2015, from VAST: Academic Video Online.

January 1955, Albert Ellis first started to do Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT). REBT was the first of the cognitive behaviour therapies and since then the field of therapy has since changed enormously as a result of Ellis’s cognitive behaviour theory (Shaughnessy & Mahan, 2001). As one of the first cognitive theories, this paper will look at the overview of the approach, which includes the concepts, principles, and practices. The REBT’s therapeutic goals, process and the theory’s applications. What advantages and limitations this theory has and what ethical issues it may bring with todays society. What new theoretical or research developments that is now occurring as a result from rational emotive behaviour therapy and if this particular

Emotion focused therapy is a great option for this family and the main person of this counseling, Tina. As a teenager, appearance is a definite issue within a teenager’s life. “Emotion focused therapy (EFT) emerged as a person-centered approach informed by understanding the role of emotion in human functioning and psychotherapeutic change” (Greensberg, 2014,p.15) With Emotion focused therapy the focus on the person’s emotions are what we look to in helping in their therapy. What are their emotions saying? “EFT strategies focus on two major tasks: (1) help clients with too little emotion access then emotions, and (2) help clients who experience too much emotion contain their emotions (Greenberg, 2014)”1 I believe that the importance of the counseling sessions with not only with the client Tina but it is with the family of Tina’s. We know she is a teenager and that means she is going through a ton of different changes within her life and this may mean that people within her family do not know how to handle these changes or how not to set off triggers with her life. Within “EFT emphasizes the importance of awareness, acceptance, and understanding the visceral experience of emotions.”1 Family is the key in the support of helping Tina. With EFT the support for the person getting counseling is within the help from the family.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes the same event is stressful and sometimes it's not? Or maybe there's something that just drives you crazy, while your spouse, friend, or co-worker seems unaffected-or even thinks it's funny?