Emotion-Focused Therapy

What Emotion-Focused Therapy is

• Emotions treated as useful information

  Emotion-Focused Therapy treats emotions as information rather than as noise to be managed. Anger, fear, sadness and shame each tell you something about what you need. Research supports emotion-focused approaches for depression and for relationship distress.

• The feeling under the feeling

  Irritation at a partner often sits on top of hurt. Numbness often sits on top of grief. A harsh verdict on yourself often sits on top of a fear that you are not enough. Naming what is underneath changes what you can do about it.

• Used with individuals and couples

  We use this approach with individuals and with couples. For a couple, the work is usually the pattern the two of you fall into: one pushes for contact, the other pulls back, and the argument on the surface is rarely what it is about.

What EFT can help with

• Depression and emotional numbness
• The same argument, over and over
• Distance, trust and intimacy
• Anger that arrives bigger than the moment
• Grief and unresolved hurt
• Shame and harsh self-criticism