Emotionally Focused Therapy: process of changes on the path of creating safe and secure bonding between partners

Abstract

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a collaborative, structured and usually short-term approach to psychotherapy which integrates humanistic and systemic views on human functioning and is based on attachment theory. EFT is known worldwide and is considered a cutting-edge model of change for relationship distress treatment. The excellent and profoundly empirically supported approach is used for couples, also when a partner is diagnosed with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and chronical illness or when the couple has a chronically ill child. The approach is also used for families and individuals. EFT therapist is doing his or her best to be a safe attachment figure for their clients and to build the relationship based on equality and collaboration. The therapeutic work focuses on here and now. In the approach, emotion regulation are at the forefront as the key part of individual’s experience and interactions within a relationship. At the end of the article the author, herself an EFT therapist, confirms excellent EFT results in her clinical praxis. The purpose of this article is to share the knowledge about EFT and promote its use in Slovenia.