Title: Emotion-focused couple therapy: An overview of the treatment model
Abstract:Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) for couples is a brief, integrative, focused,
theoretically-driven treatment approach for marital discord. It is based on Rogerian
relational principles, emotion theory, systemic assumptions, and attachment theory. The
primary goal in EFT for couples is to restructure repeated maladaptive interactional
cycles by helping each partner to access and reveal vulnerable emotions (shame, fear,
loneliness) and to help the other partner to respond to vulnerability with empathy,
validation, and compassion. In this talk I will present the theoretical principles underlying
this treatment, a theory of dysfunction (i.e., why and how couples fight), a theory of
change, and central therapeutic interventions. In addition, I will discuss outcome research
showing the effectiveness of this treatment as well as process research showing its
mechanisms of change.