Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) is a therapeutic approach that focuses on the emotional experiences of individuals, aiming to help them understand, regulate, and transform their emotions to facilitate personal growth and healing.
Emotion Awareness: Clients are encouraged to become more aware of their emotions, both in session and in daily life.
Emotion Labeling: Clients learn to accurately label and identify their emotions. This can help them gain clarity about their internal experiences and communicate more effectively with others. Therapists may provide education about different types of emotions and their functions.
Emotion Regulation Strategies: Clients are taught practical skills to regulate their emotions when they become overwhelming or distressing. This may include relaxation techniques, mindfulness practices, deep breathing exercises, and grounding techniques to stay present in the moment.
Emotion Exploration: Therapists guide clients in exploring the underlying causes and meanings of their emotions. This involves delving into past experiences, relational patterns, and core beliefs that may contribute to current emotional difficulties.
Imagery Rescripting: Clients are guided through imagery exercises to revisit past emotional experiences and rewrite them in a more adaptive or empowering way. This can help clients heal from past traumas, reframe negative beliefs, and develop new perspectives on themselves and their relationships.
Somatic Awareness: EFT incorporates attention to bodily sensations associated with emotions. Clients learn to notice physical cues of emotions, such as tension, tightness, or changes in breathing, and explore how these sensations relate to their emotional experiences.
The overarching goal of EFT techniques is to facilitate emotional awareness, acceptance, and regulation, leading to improved psychological well-being and relational functioning.
Through the use of Emotion Focused Therapy, clients often see improvements in relationship difficulties, anxiety, depression, trauma, attachment concerns and self-worth.
