Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy: What You Need to Know
Are you struggling with communication, trust, and connection in your relationship? Are you feeling emotionally distant from your partner, but don’t know how to bridge the gap?
If you answered yes, you’re not alone. Many couples experience difficulties in their relationships at some point.
However, not all couples seek help, and this is where Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) comes in. In this article, we’ll be discussing what EFT is, who it’s designed for, and the success rate and benefits of this therapy.
So let’s get started. What is EFT Couples Therapy?
EFT is a type of therapy that was designed by Les Greenberg and Sue Johnson in the 1980s. It’s a structured approach that helps couples to understand and improve their emotional connection with each other.
The goal of EFT is to help partners feel safe, secure, and supported in their relationship. The therapy focuses on the negative communication patterns and attachment bonding that contribute to the couple’s distress.
EFT uses safe-harbor bonding experiences to rebuild the couple’s emotional connection and enhance their understanding of one another. EFT’s Success Rate and Benefits
Research has shown that EFT has a high success rate in helping couples recover from emotional distress.
According to a study by Dr. Susan Johnson, 70-75% of couples improve significantly after EFT. The therapy has also been shown to have long-lasting effects, with couples maintaining their improvements years later.
The benefits of EFT go beyond emotional recovery. The therapy has been linked to improved communication, understanding, and trust between partners.
Through the safe-harbor bonding experiences, couples have been able to resolve underlying issues that were causing problems in their relationship. EFT couples therapy has also been shown to improve marriages by reducing conflict, increasing intimacy, and promoting self-change.
Couples who have undergone EFT report feeling closer to their partner and more secure in their relationship. Who is EFT Designed For?
EFT is designed for partners in distress who are experiencing a range of relationship difficulties. These difficulties may include unfaithfulness, PTSD, depression, chronic illness, childhood abuse, or abusive behavior.
EFT is a structured approach that helps the couple to address their emotions together, in a safe and supportive environment. Couples who have undergone EFT report that the therapy helped them to resolve painful emotions and to view their struggles through a new lens, leading to a deeper emotional connection.
Final Thoughts
If you’re struggling with relationship difficulties, EFT could be a solution for you. It’s an evidence-based therapy that focuses on emotional recovery, communication, understanding, and trust.
With a high success rate and long-lasting effects, EFT couples therapy could help you to feel more secure and connected to your partner. Remember, you’re not alone.
Seeking professional help is an important step towards healing and finding a way forward. Now that you know more about EFT, why not speak to a therapist who specializes in this approach?
You and your partner could be on the road to recovery.
The Nine Steps of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT)
Couples therapy can be a difficult but rewarding process that can help to rebuild and strengthen the bond between two people. One of the most successful forms of couples therapy is Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT).
EFT is geared toward helping couples deepen their emotional connection, trust, and communication with one another. There are nine steps or stages that are typically used in EFT to help couples work through their relationship difficulties.
These steps are grouped into three phases: stabilization, the reconnection process, and restoration. Phase 1: Stabilization
The first phase of EFT involves identifying the core problems in the relationship.
Therapists will typically meet with the couple for several sessions to understand their unique challenges and to recommend a customized plan for them. This phase is critical for identifying the primary sources of the relationship’s distress, which usually include emotional distance, childhood trauma, infidelity, and lack of communication.
In this phase, the couple and their therapist will begin the process of counseling that focuses on the couple’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. Couples will start to think about what they want to gain from the therapy and which areas of their relationship they want to improve.
Phase 2: The Reconnection Process
The second phase of EFT involves empathizing and identifying each partner’s feelings. During this phase, the therapist will ask each partner to express their feelings honestly, without judgment.
The therapist will seek to uncover hidden emotions, emotional responses, and empathize with each partner’s perspective.
This phase is where couples will start to understand their emotions more clearly and develop empathy and understanding for one another.
EFT therapy works towards creating an emotional connection that can better inform the way in which couples communicate with one another. Phase 3: Restoration
The final phase of EFT involves restructuring emotions and communication.
The restructuring phase is where couples will work on individual needs, acceptance, communication, problem-solving, and managing anger. This phase is critical for identifying new behaviors that support emotional healing.
During this stage, couples will create new experiences that help them to develop healthier emotional responses. The couple will learn how to communicate with one another more effectively, listen to each other’s needs, negotiate for their individual needs, and solve problems together.
Creating New Behaviors for Emotional Healing
EFT couples therapy is helpful for creating new behaviors that can lead to emotional healing. In order to create new behaviors, couples need to understand their emotions, experiences, and perspectives on what has happened in their relationship.
This means that couples must spend time exploring their emotions and working through past issues to create a deeper emotional connection. EFT couples therapy helps to create new behaviors by teaching couples how to communicate effectively, identify their needs, and prioritize each partner’s needs accordingly.
It encourages each person to recognize and validate their own emotions and the emotions of their partner, creating an environment of mutual understanding and acceptance.
Length of EFT Couples Therapy
The length of EFT couples therapy varies based on the couple’s unique situation and the severity of their relationship challenges. Some couples may see significant improvements within the first few sessions, while others may need more time to build trust and reconnect emotionally.
In general, most couples will see positive change in their relationship after a minimum of 8-20 sessions. In conclusion, EFT couples therapy is a structured approach that helps couples to understand and improve their emotional connection with each other and to create new behaviors that can lead to lasting emotional healing.
The nine steps of EFT, outlined above, are an effective way to stabilize, reconnect, and restore relationships in distress. With patience, hard work, and a skilled therapist, couples can overcome the most significant relationship issues and go on to build a stronger and healthier bond.
In conclusion, Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) is an effective and evidence-based approach to help couples recover from emotional distress and build a stronger, healthier bond. EFT therapy involves nine steps grouped into three phases: stabilization, the reconnection process, and restoration.
These steps help couples identify core problems, empathize and identify feelings, restructure emotions and communication, and create new behaviors for emotional healing. With a high success rate and long-lasting effects, EFT couples therapy can significantly improve communication, understanding, trust, and marriage for couples experiencing various relationship difficulties.
Seeking help from a skilled therapist, building emotional connection, and creating healthier behaviors can help partners to feel safe, secure, and supported in their relationship and lead to a greater sense of intimacy and emotional fulfillment.