Psychological Orientation Of Emotion Focused Therapy

The attachment style that an individual exhibits as an infant can affect their adult romantic relationships. An attachment pattern is established in early childhood attachments and continues to function as a working model for relationships in adulthood. This model of attachment influences how each of us reacts to our needs and how we go about getting them met. The ability to recognize one 's attachment can help someone to understand their strengths and vulnerabilities in a relationship.

My beliefs about human life are intricate. We are complex individuals that are shaped not only by our genes, but also by our environments, our experiences and interactions with others. Surely, the way that people behave can be due to psychological disorders that we are not at fault for, however, I also believe that issues involving anxiety, stress and depression are often perpetuated by our own thinking processes and how we feel about ourselves in comparison to the beliefs of others. Often times, I feel that having someone to listen, validate, empathize and care for us is what it takes for change to take place. As social beings, I believe that through interactions with a person who we care about and a person that cares about us, improvements can be made. In this paper, I will discuss how my philosophy of life relates to that of person-centered therapy, as described by Sharf (2016).

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

Gurman, A. S. (2008). Clinical handbook of couple therapy (4th ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Attachment theory, or styles, is the way we describe relationships and bonds between people. In this particular case it will be about the bond between two parents and the child as they struggle through the troubles of divorce. In Dean McKay’s article “The Trauma of Divorce: Reducing the Impact of Separation on Children” we see that he identifies divorce for children as trauma, and that because of trauma they become less secure in attachment. He begins to show the multiple ways that divorce can cause an impact on children, if the child is going through an attachment stage. McKay also begins to tell of how attachments can become weakened through divorce (McKay, 1997). His main area of concern though is that if the attachment is weakened as a child how does it both them as an adult?

During treatment Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy (CBCT) and Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT) will use feedback sessions to help assess how the couple is doing in a positive way (Gurman, 2008). Both CBCT and IBCT both use conflict and emotional expressions as avenues for couples to express their affection and understanding for one another (Gurman, 2008). Both CBCT and IBCT also have the same value system of creating a general closeness and intimacy between partners (Gurman, 2008). Regardless of the differences, the two therapies have the general

This intervention focuses on helping to provide the client who has suffered a complex trauma with an attachment style intervention that focuses on the various subsystems in the client’s life (Foroughe & Muller, 2014). TBRI can be applied not just in a clinical setting but in any environment. This intervention would help Sarah to continue to make bonds with people and be aware of how these systems affect her. Also Sarah would receive support for her separation anxiety disorder as well. The individual sessions would also allow for interventions that assess how Sarah is adjusting to her new life, and the outlook of her new family.

This paper evaluates the Structural Family Therapy model and its impact on the Emotionally Focused Therapy by Sue Johnson. This paper will discuss the concepts of therapy utilized within the Structural Family Therapy model and how Sue Johnson utilized many of its methods when constructing Emotionally Focused Therapy model. The history of family therapy will be evaluated and the goals of family therapy. Research has proven that due to these clinical practices, families and couples are allowed to evolved issues in which they face into healthy relationships by evaluating patterns in behaviors and past events in their lives. Therapy focuses on the correction of the dysfunctional family as a cohesive unit and does not place focus on the individual. Therefore we find the psychotherapy as a family unit deems to be more effective than previous practices of an isolated session with only the patient and therapist.

Process Experiential Emotion-Focused Therapy (PEEFT) is an approach used to improve the regulation, expression, acceptance, integration and transformation of emotional experiences. Emotions govern the way we interact with the world around us and serve as the primary driver of decision making, allowing us to identify potential risk and understanding personal needs and desires. The process of Emotion Focused therapy (EFT) is essentially to improve overall emotional intelligence by working with the clients current emotional experiences, understanding maladaptive emotional scheme that may be preventing the clients personal growth and impeding on their everyday life and experiencing. The EFT therapist guides the client through a process of awareness and expression of emotions that can then be understood, reflected upon, integrated and transformed to add meaning to their personal experiences.

Attachment styles influence relational patterns between a married couple and their children. These attachment relational patterns known as anxious, avoidant, and secure base styles are a product of the interactions experienced in early childhood with their caregivers. It affects people’s intercommunication with others all through their life span. Individuals’ attachment style involves a systematic pattern of relational assumptions, emotions, and behavior that develop from the subjective constructs definitive of attachment experiences throughout their lives. Negative relational patterns increase the likelihood of marital violence in the home. When experiencing stress related life issues, conflicts may arise due to substandard communication skills leading to physical violence, aggressiveness, resulting in harsh spousal disputes. A positive upswing in marital and family harmony occurs when healthy communication skills develop along with secure based attachment characteristics, such as, humility, gratitude, and forgiveness of self and others. These characteristics provide coping mechanisms that establish a positive self-identity and healthy social interaction with others. As the anxious and avoidant relational styles exercise these positive characteristics, in time, they develop a positive view of self and others while learning to work through life stressors, which benefit the marriage and family.

One of the most important tasks that each participant will have to complete is penning a love letter to the person with the alcohol problem. The interventionist will offer helpful solutions so that each loved one writes a letter that: is non-confrontational in nature; uses facts relating specifically to the alcoholism; uses a tough love approach which focuses on informing the individual of their concerns while refraining from enabling or covering up the individual 's destructive behaviors; minimizes blaming by using "I" statements as opposed to "you" statements; avoiding the use of the word "alcoholic", and ensuring that the target individual does not emotionally hijack the intervention (which can be a defense mechanism in place to make the participants feel bad about staging the intervention or manipulate them into reducing consequences).

Brennan, Kelly A., Clark, Catherine L., & Shaver, Phillip, R. (1998). Self-report measurement of adult attachment: An integrated overview. In J. A. Simpson & W. S. Rholes (Eds.), Attachment theory and close relationships (46-76). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

One of the social work values is that the Attachment Theory supports the importance of human relationships. According to NASW (2017) relationships are an important tool that enhances client’s wellbeing. Social workers can use Attachment theory to understand the human need for intimacy as well as the need for a source of safety and comfort to provide emotional benefits and proper development. In this case, one of the client’s goals is to form a healthy intimate relationship with a significant other. As the client stated, “I’m tired of being in unhealthy relationships where I do not feel appreciated and I often feel used.” The clinician can use attachment theory to help the client achieve her goal by helping them understand their internal working model, which is related to insecure attachment. This will help the client create a positive image of herself and increase her self-confidence, and as a result, potentially develop healthy attachment with others (Blakely, 2015). Furthermore, according to Cassidy (2000), the Attachment theory explains how romantic love is similar to the attachment infants form with their caregivers since both relationships involves touching, gazing, and even baby

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.

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