Therapeutic work here focuses on identifying maladaptive ways of functioning in relation to those life contexts in which the client would like to experience positive changes. The goal of the work is to enable the client to replace old, no longer useful ways of functioning with new strategies that are more adequate, adaptive, and helpful in their current life situation. Of particular importance in this approach is the person’s emotional experience, i.e., what the client feels in relation to the issues covered by the therapeutic contract, how they experience these emotions, what meaning they attach to their experience, and what action tendencies they exhibit in relation to it.

An EFT therapist helps the client develop understanding of their emotional reactions so that they can use the information conveyed by their emotions to function in the world in a more satisfying and effective ways. EFT utilizes scientific knowledge on the factors promoting the effectiveness of psychotherapy, so that the therapist can provide the client with therapeutic interventions that most likely make the therapy process effective in relation to the psychotherapy goals jointly agreed upon by the client and the therapist.

Emotion-focused therapy is effective in helping people struggling with various types of mental health difficulties (see, e.g., Elliott, Watson, Timulak, & Sharbanee, 2021) – including depression (see, e.g., Greenberg & Watson, 1998; Ellison, Greenberg, Goldman, & Angus, 2009; Watson, Gordon, Stermac, Kalogerakos, & Steckley, 2003), the long-term effects of traumatic events in relationships (cf. e.g., Greenberg, Warwar, & Malcolm, 2008; Holowaty and Paivio, 2012; MacIntosh and Johnson, 2008; Paivio and Nieuwenhuis, 2001; Paivio, Jarry, Chagigiorgis, Hall, & Ralston, 2010), social anxiety (cf. e.g., Shahar, Bar-Kalifa, & Alon, 2017), generalized anxiety (cf. e.g., Timulak, Keogh, Chigwedere, Wilson, Ward, Hevey, … & Mahon, 2022), or habitual self-damaging activities (cf. e.g. Elliott, Watson, Timulak, & Sharbanee, 2021).

Emotion-focused therapy is also effective in helping couples struggling with relationship difficulties (see, e.g., Spengler, Lee, Wiebe, & Wittenborn, 2024; Burgess Moser, Johnson, Dalgleish, Lafontaine, Wiebe, & Tasca, 2016; Dalgleish, Johnson, Burgess Moser, Lafontaine, Wiebe, & Tasca, 2015; McRae, Dalgleish, Johnson, Burgess-Moser, & Killian, 2014) and parents experiencing difficulties in their relationship with their child, including children struggling with mental health disorders (cf. e.g., Ansar, Nissen Lie, Zahl-Olsen, Bertelsen, Elliott, & Stiegler, 2022; Ansar, Nissen Lie, & Stiegler, 2024), and also – in the version for children and adolescents (Emotion-Focused Therapy for Youth, EFT-Y), emotion-focused therapy effectively supports children and adolescents in coping with low mood, anxiety, and other types of mental health difficulties (cf. e.g., Foroughe, Ashley, Neela, Darking, Bell, & Cordeiro, 2024).

References:

• Ansar, N., Nissen Lie, H., Zahl-Olsen, R., Bertelsen, B. T., Elliott, R., & Stiegler, J.R. (2022). Effectiveness of parental emotion-focused skills training for internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children: A randomized clinical dismantling study. Journal of Clinical and Child & Adolescent Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2022.2079130
• Ansar, N., Nissen Lie, H. A., & Stiegler, J. R. (2024). The effects of emotion-focused skills training on parental mental health, emotion regulation and self-efficacy: Mediating processes between parents and children. Psychotherapy research : journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, 34(4), 518–537. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2023.2218539
• Burgess Moser, M., Johnson, S. M., Dalgleish, T. L., Lafontaine, M. F., Wiebe, S. A., & Tasca, G. A. (2016). Changes in relationship‐specific attachment in emotionally focused couple therapy. Journal of marital and family therapy, 42(2), 231-245.
• Dalgleish, T. L., Johnson, S. M., Burgess Moser, M., Lafontaine, M. F., Wiebe, S. A., & Tasca, G. A. (2015). Predicting change in marital satisfaction throughout emotionally focused couple therapy. Journal of marital and family therapy, 41(3), 276-291.
• Elliott, R., Watson, J. C., Timulak, L., & Sharbanee, J. (2021). Research on humanistic-experiential psychotherapies: updated review. W: M. Barkham, W. Lutz, L. G. Castonguay (Red.), Bergin and Garfield’s Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change (7th ed.) (421-467). John Wiley & Sons Inc.
• Ellison, J. A., Greenberg, L. S., Goldman, R. N., & Angus, L. (2009). Maintenance of gains following experiential therapies for depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77(1), 103–112. doi:10.1037/a0014653
• Foroughe, M., Ashley, A., Neela, I., Darking, S., Bell, S., & Cordeiro, K. (2024). Emotion-focused Therapy for youth: clinical outcomes of a single-site, randomized waitlist-controlled trial. Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 23(3), 277–295. https://doi.org/10.1080/14779757.2023.2294309
• Greenberg, L. J., Warwar, S. H., & Malcolm, W. M. (2008). Differential effects of emotion-focused therapy and psychoeducation in facilitating forgiveness and letting go of emotional injuries. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55(2), 185–196. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.55.2.185
• Greenberg, L., & Watson, J. (1998). Experiential therapy of depression: Differential effects of client-centered relationship conditions and process experiential interventions. Psychotherapy Research, 8(2), 210-224.
• Holowaty, K. A. M., & Paivio, S. C. (2012). Characteristics of client-identified helpful events in emotion-focused therapy for child abuse trauma. Psychotherapy research, 22(1), 56-66.
• MacIntosh, H. B., & Johnson, S. (2008). Emotionally focused therapy for couples and childhood sexual abuse survivors. Journal of marital and family therapy, 34(3), 298-315.
• McRae, T. R., Dalgleish, T. L., Johnson, S. M., Burgess-Moser, M., & Killian, K. D. (2014). Emotion regulation and key change events in emotionally focused couple therapy. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 13(1), 1-24.
• Paivio, S. C., Jarry, J. L., Chagigiorgis, H., Hall, I., & Ralston, M. (2010). Efficacy of two versions of emotion-focused therapy for resolving child abuse trauma. Psychotherapy research : journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, 20(3), 353–366. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503300903505274
• Paivio, S. C., & Nieuwenhuis, J. A. (2001). Efficacy of emotion focused therapy for adult survivors of child abuse: A preliminary study. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 14, 115-133.
• Shahar, B., Bar-Kalifa, E., & Alon, E. (2017). Emotion-focused therapy for social anxiety disorder: Results from a multiple-baseline study. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 85(3), 238.
• Spengler, P. M., Lee, N. A., Wiebe, S. A., & Wittenborn, A. K. (2024). A comprehensive meta-analysis on the efficacy of emotionally focused couple therapy. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 13(2), 81–99
• Timulak, L., Keogh, D., Chigwedere, C., Wilson, C., Ward, F., Hevey, D., … & Mahon, S. (2022). A comparison of emotion-focused therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of generalized anxiety disorder: Results of a feasibility randomized controlled trial. Psychotherapy, 59(1), 84.
• Watson, J. C., Gordon, L. B., Stermac, L., Kalogerakos, F., & Steckley, P. (2003). Comparing the effectiveness of process-experiential with cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy in the treatment of depression. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 71(4), 773.