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Emotionally
Focused Family Therapy (EFFT)
Emotionally
Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) was developed by Leslie Greenberg and Sue
Johnson from “Bowlby Attachment Theory” (Carr, 2012). It is one of the Experiential Therapies (Gestalt Therapy, Emotion-Focused Therapy-EFT ) (Prochaska & Norcross, 2014). It was first known as Process- Experiential Therapy, as an alternative to Gestalt Therapy (Prochaska & Norcross, 2014).The EFFT combines elements of client-centered and Gestalt Therapy (Prochaska & Norcross, 2014). It is
a brief therapy, conducted in ten to fifteen sessions, and is
applicable for couples, families and individuals (Gehart, 2013). The
first and last sessions include the whole family, with the sessions
in between, being with family subsystems (Johnson, Bradley, Furrow,
Lee, Palmer,Tilley & Woolley, 2014).
This
model concentrates on what is happening at the present moment, in the
intercommunication, and in the emotions expressed (Johnson, Bradley,
Furrow, Lee, Palmer,Tilley & Woolley, 2014). The goal of this
approach is to help clients to learn how to better deal with their
emotions and act in order to have their needs met by their closest
relationships (Carr, 2012). It concentrates on reorienting the
connection of emotional bonds among family members (Carr, 2012).
This
theory states that maladjustments occur when the couple's attachment
style does not meet their needs (Carr, 2012). Consequently, feelings
such as fear and frustration, connected with internalised childhood
insecure attachment programs (Carr, 2012) will originate, but are not
exposed to the partner. This will generate a self-protective
secondary level of stronger emotions such as irritation, and
avenging, affecting the entire family (Carr, 2012). Hence, the couple
create a negative sequence of behaviour response where people offend,
retreat or detach, but never meet each other needs (Carr, 2012).
The
EFFT therapist guides clients to improve communication and create a
sense of safety in their relationships, where they are be able to
clearly speak about their feelings with each other, in order to fulfill their needs (Carr, 2012). This change develops new neural
pathways (Grawe, 2007), and establish a new positive cycle of
interaction (Carr, 2012). The EFFT process is to assess, disable, and
reorganise the structure of the family members interactions and stabilize the changes (Johnson, Bradley, Furrow, Lee, Palmer,Tilley &
Woolley, 2014).
The
therapist's role is to create a safe environment, where the therapist
reflects client's feelings, re-describes the issues to disable the
problem, endorse clients emotional experience,and establish a solid
therapeutic alliance (Johnson, Bradley, Furrow, Lee, Palmer,Tilley &
Woolley, 2014). During the therapeutic process, the couple is asked
to indicate their conflicting issues, how they resolve them, as well
as to search for the hidden feelings (Johnson, Bradley, Furrow, Lee,
Palmer,Tilley & Woolley, 2014). The expected outcome is that they
will modify their habitual behaviour by creating new response
pathways (Johnson, Bradley, Furrow, Lee, Palmer, Tilley &
Woolley, 2014).
The
therapeutic relationship in this approach has a specific intention,
where the therapist is more active, complimenting and kindly guiding
the clients (Prochaska & Norcross, 2014). Clients are considered
specialists in creating their goals and solutions, while therapists
are the professionals in the process and structure of therapy
(Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2014). The therapist must create a safe
therapeutic environment, where clients can identify their main
conflicts, and freely and directly express their feelings to each
other (Johnson, Bradley, Furrow, Lee, Palmer,Tilley & Woolley,
2014).
By
changing the couple's negative habits of interaction, the
relationships among the family is fortified and the withholding of
feelings decrease (Johnson, Bradley, Furrow, Lee, Palmer,Tilley &
Woolley, 2014). This intervention consequently improve the client's
ability to solve their problems and allow the children to have a more
active expression and participation in the family, hence, preventing
the repetition of this unhelpful cycle in their future family
(Stavrianopoulos, Faller, & Furrow, 2014).
Research
indicate that Emotionally Focused Family Therapy is effective to be
applied for couples experiencing stress, trauma, grief (Johnson &
Keeler, 2007), childhood trauma due to sexual abuse (Macintosh &
Johnson, 2008), families and individuals (Gehart,
2013), in a variety of settings, with long term positive outcomes
(Furrow, Johnson & Bradley, 2011).
Some
other strengths of the EFFT includes the fact that it is an enriched
conceptualised approach, which incorporated the concepts of “Bowby's
attachment theory”(Furrow, Johnson & Bradley, 2011). It has
been chosen by clinicians for being a short term treatment with
strong impact of change, as the approach addresses not only the
interactions among the family members as a system, but also the
individual intra-psychic conflicts (Johnson, Bradley, Furrow, Lee,
Palmer,Tilley & Woolley, 2014).
Some
criticisms to this approach include the requirement for a careful
assessment, as it is not indicated for all types of clients, as well
as the difficulties in control the unpredictability of the behaviours
in a family therapy session, when expressing withholding feelings
(Palmer, Gail, Efrom, 2007). The last criticism is regarding to the
therapist active position, which may resemble too direct to some
clients (Efron & Bradley, 2007).
PACFA Reg. Provisional 25212
MCouns, MQCA(Clinical)
ABN: 19 476 932 954
References
Carr,
A. (2012). Family therapy : Concepts, process and practice
(3rd ed.). Hoboken:Wiley.
Efron,
D., & Bradley, B. (2007). Emotionally focused therapy (eft) and
emotionally focused family
therapy
(efft): A challenge/opportunity for systemic and post-systemic
therapists. Journal
of Systemic Therapies, 26(4),
1-4. doi:101521/jsyt.2007.26.4.1
Furrow,
J. L., Johnson, S. M., Bradley, B. A. (2011). The
emotionally focused casebook: New directions in treating couples.
New York, NY: Brunner-Routledge.
Gehart,
D. R. (2014). Mastering
competencies in family therapy: A practical approach to theories and
clinical case documentation.
Belmont, Calif.: Brooks/Cole, Cengage Learning.
Goldenberg,
I.,Goldenberg, H. (2013). Family
therapy: An overview.
Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.
Grawe,
K. (2007). Neuropsychotherapy:
How the neuroscience inform effective psychotherapy.
Marrawah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Johnson,
S. M. (2005). Becoming
an emotionally focused couple therapist: The workbook.
London: Routledge.
Johnson,
S. M., & Williams-Keeler, L. (1998). Creating healing
relationships for couples dealing with trauma: The use of emotionally
focused marital therapy. Journal
of Marital and Family Therapy, 24(1),
25-40. doi:10.1111/j.1752-0606.1998.tb01061.x
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.
Palmer,
Gail, MSW, RMFT, & Efron, Don, MSW, RSW. (2007). Emotionally
focused family therapy: Developing the model. Journal
of Systemic Therapies, 26(4),
17-24. doi: 10.1521/jsyt.2007.26.4.17
Prochaska,
J. O, Norcross, J. C. (2014). Systems
of psychotherapy: A transtheoretical analysis.
Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning.
Stavrianopoulos,
K., Faller,G., & Furrow, J. L. (2014). Emotionally Focused
Therapy : Facilitating Change within a family system. Journal
of Couple & Relationship Therapy,
ISSN 1533-2691, 01/2014, Volume 13, Issue 1, p. 25
