Emotionally Focused Therapy - EFT

​What is EFT?

​Emotionally Focused Therapy is a caring and supportive way of getting out of those ‘stuck places’ we are all familiar with ​and into secure loving relationships – with ourselves, our partner and our family.

An EFT therapist working with you as a couple (EFT is also for individuals and families) will help you feel safe, so that you can both begin to share your concerns and hopes for  your relationship. Your therapist will follow a well researched map of how to help couples change and will guide you on this journey.

​An EFT therapist will help you understand and change the repetitive patterns in your relationship that are not working and help you develop a deeper understanding of your own, and each others, emotions, wants, needs and behaviours, helping you reconnect in a deep and loving way.

EFT is a collaborative, structured, usually short-term therapy approach to working with couples, families and individuals that fosters the creation of secure relationship bonds. EFT is a change process that facilitates movement from distress to recovery by transforming negative patterns of interaction into safe emotional connection between intimate partners and family members.
Based on the science of emotions and attachment theory as well as humanistic and systemic theories, EFT has a high success rate in achieving secure, resilient relationships in couples and families, and in helping people to flexibly manage their emotional experience.

Research into EFT shows its effectiveness.

​EFT, initially developed in the 1980’s by Sue Johnson and Les Greenberg, has advanced alongside the science of adult attachment and bonding to expand our understanding about what is happening in our relationships. In the last fifteen years, Dr. Sue Johnson and her colleagues have further developed and refined the model and it is now used with couples, families and individuals. A substantial body of research outline the effectiveness of EFT; studies have found that 70-75% of couples move from distress to recovery and approximately 90% show significant improvements in their relationships.

Choosing EFT couples therapy is a positive step.

Whether you have come to explore problems in their early stages, or difficulties that feel entrenched and insurmountable, your EFT therapist will work with you as a couple towards creating lasting change, which will support you when facing future challenges together.

Most of the therapists on the Find a Therapist  page work with couples and individuals, with some also working with families. 
To obtain more information on EFT for couples, please check out our Experiencing EFT page.