Grounded in attachment science, this therapy helps people navigate emotions, repair relational rifts, and create healthier ways of connecting with others.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a compassionate, evidence-based therapy that helps clients get in touch with their deepest emotions to promote growth and healing. Instead of pushing feelings away or trying to control them, EFT helps people lean into their emotions, understand them, and reshape how they respond.
EFT is especially effective in couples therapy, where it helps partners break out of painful cycles of conflict and create safer, stronger, and more loving bonds, drawing on the principles of attachment theory.
At its core, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) aims to help people connect more deeply with their emotions in healthy, empowering ways. For couples, this often means building a secure emotional bond and finding greater joy in their relationship. For individuals, however, the focus shifts toward cultivating emotional resilience, internal security, and authenticity.
In individual settings (often called Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy, or EFIT), EFT works to:
Through this work, EFT for individuals aims to foster a kinder and more truthful relationship with the self, allowing deeper emotional insight, adaptive growth, and more grounded functioning, even in the face of challenges.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) can be a powerful tool for a wide range of challenges. It’s particularly effective for:
While Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) isn’t broken down into strict “subtypes,” it has been adapted for various settings and populations. For individual work, these adaptations center on helping people heal internal emotional processes and attachment wounds.
Adaptations include:
Each adaptation keeps the core intent of EFT: to help clients access and transform emotional experiences in a way that fosters healing and secure attachment (either with self or with others).
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) was created in the 1980s by Dr. Sue Johnson and Dr. Les Greenberg. Inspired by attachment theory and humanistic psychology, they designed the approach to honor the deep human need for safe, loving connection. Johnson expanded EFT into a groundbreaking method for couples, while Greenberg developed applications for individuals.
Over time, their collaboration diverged:
Thus, while EFT’s roots lie in couples therapy, the framework has evolved to support individual emotional healing as well, with Greenberg’s work contributing the foundational principles for individual-level emotional change.
Yes, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is evidence-based. In fact, it’s one of the most well-researched forms of therapy. Countless clinical trials have shown its effectiveness, especially for couples.
Research highlights remarkable outcomes: about 70–75% of couples move from distress to recovery, and around 90% report meaningful improvements in their relationship. The evidence is clear that EFT works to strengthen bonds and improve emotional wellbeing.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) follows a clear and supportive path that helps people uncover their deeper, more vulnerable emotions and use them as a guide to healing. With the therapist’s guidance, clients begin to notice patterns in how they react, understand the needs underneath those reactions, and create new experiences that foster lasting change.
EFT usually unfolds in three stages:
Whether in couples or individual therapy, EFT helps people move from feeling stuck and disconnected to feeling secure, confident, and balanced.
An Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) session is designed to feel safe, supportive, and collaborative. You can expect:
EFT usually follows a structured process with clear stages.
The process moves at a pace that allows for real, lasting change, giving emotions and relationships the space they need to heal and grow.
Alma’s directory has many therapists who specialize in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), including:
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This article was written and medically validated by Drs. Jill Krahwinkel-Bower and Jamie Bower.
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