EFT Supportive Research

WHAT THE LEADING EXPERTS SAY ABOUT EFT:

“Rigorous studies during the past fifteen years have shown that 70 to 75 percent of couples who go through EFT recover from distress and are happy in their relationships. The results appear lasting, even with couples at high risk for divorce.”
-Dr. Sue Johnson, Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Ottawa; Director of Ottawa Couple and Family Institute and International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (www.iceeft.com); Research Professor, Alliant University (www.alliant.edu).

“EFT is a proven road map to the process of change in couple therapy.”
-John M. Gottman, Ph.D., world-renowned marriage expert, cofounder of the Seattle Marital and Family Institute, Professor of Psychology, University of Washington, and bestselling author of The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. (www.gottman.com)

“EFT is one of the best documented, most substantive and well researched approaches to couple therapy.”
-Alan S. Gurman, Ph.D., Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Director of Family Therapy Training, University of Wisconsin Medical School, and a leading authority on the clinical practice of couple therapy.

EFT is “one of the few approaches to marital therapy that has been proven to be effective.”
-Jay Lebow, Ph.D., LMFT, ABPP, Past President, Division of Family Psychology, American Psychological Association (www.apa.org); Research Consultant, The Family Institute, Northwestern University (www.family-institute.org).

For more information about EFT, EFT training and EFT research, read Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, by Dr. Sue Johnson and go to www.iceeft.com, www.emotionallyfocusedtherapy.us, and www.holdmetight.com.

EFT is:

• Empirically validated: It's one of the few approaches to couple therapy shown by research to be effective – even with highly distressed couples. An impressive 90% of couples experienced at least some improvement in their relationship


• Based on John Bowlby's Attachment Theory: As applied to adult love relationships, it recognizes the ongoing need we all have for reliable attachment figures in our intimate relationships and assumes that a secure attachment with our partner provides the solid base that helps us manage emotional distress.


• An experiential approach: Couples change by identifying and expressing their ongoing need for strong, accessible, responsive emotional connections. Emotions are the focus because they are compelling and instructive; they tell us what's important to us.


• Growth oriented: The focus is on individual and couple strengths and recognizes that human beings have an inherent drive towards growth and healthy relationships.


• Collaborative: A strong alliance – where couples are the experts on their own experience and can express this in therapy – is key. The therapist's role is that of process consultant, helping partners connect their own internal experience with their couple interactions.


• Focused on the present: While history often plays an important role in shaping our ways of relating, it is the emotionally driven interactions in the here and now that are the focus of therapy.


• Emotionally engaging: The active, evocative approach is especially effective at drawing out men, who often have more difficulty accessing and expressing their emotions.


• Clear and concise: Susan Johnson, the principal developer of EFT for couples, has clearly elaborated a therapy model that relies on attachment theory as the basis for understanding adult love relationships, including the nature of conflict and the change process in couple therapy.

© Copyright 2011 Creating Healthy Connections