Emotionally Focused Therapy, EFT

EFT is usually a short term (8-20 sessions), structured approach to couples therapy formulated in the early 8o’s by Drs. Sue .Johnson and Les Greenberg. EFT is also used with families and individuals. Through the lenses of adult attachment, EFT has proven itself as a powerful tool for healing relationship distress in couples of all types. A substantial body of research outlining the effectiveness of EFT now exists. Research studies find that 70-75% of couples move from distress to recovery and approximately 90% show significant improvements. EFT is being used with many different kinds of couples in private practice, university* training centers and hospital clinics and many different cultural groups throughout the world. These distressed couples include same-sex partners, partners who have experienced the chronic illness or loss of a child, partners suffering from disorders such as depression, post traumatic stress disorders and chronic illness.

Strengths of Emotionaly Focused Therapy

• EFT is based on clear, explicit conceptualizations of marital distress and adult love. These conceptualizations are supported by empirical research on the nature of marital distress and adult attachment.

• EFT is collaborative and respectful of clients combining experiential Rogerian techniques with structural systemic interventions.

• Change strategies and interventions are specified.

• Key moves and moments in the change process have been mapped into nine steps and three change events.

• EFT has been validated by over 20 years of empirical research. There is also research on the change processes and predictors of success.

• EFT has been applied to many different kinds of problems and populations.

This information is borrowed from www.ICEEFT.com. Please visit for more information.

Depth Psychology 

Depth Psychology refers to approaches to therapy that are open to the exploration of the subtle, unconscious, and transpersonal aspects of human experience. A depth approach may include therapeutic traditions that explores the unconscious and involves the study and exploration of dreams, complexes, and archetypes. Depth psychology is non-pathologizing and strength affirming.

This approach focuses on the psyche, human development, personality’ formation, and individuation. Individuation is a process of bringing our unconscious potential into a concrete living reality’. This process helps to secure a bridge between an individual and the unconscious as well as the individual and his/her wider community’. By incorporating both an inner and outer exploration, one discovers a more potent sense of meaning and purpose in life.

Carl Jung believed that psychological distress is a result of an imbalance within the individual that often is experienced as an alienation from the deeper personality’, or what he calls the Self. Jungian psychotherapy seeks to restore the individual’s connection to the Self. This effort can be achieved through the therapeutic relationship, dream interpretation, active imagination, and work with expressive therapies.

This information was borrowed from “What is Depth Psychology” at www.cgjungcenter.org.
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Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a cognitive behavioral treatment that was originally developed to treat chronically suicidal individuals diagnosed with borderline personality’ disorder (BPD) and it is now recognized as the gold standard psychological treatment for this population. In addition, research has shown that it is effective in treating a wide range of other disorders such as substance dependence, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and eating disorders.

What are the components of DBT? 

In its standard form, there are four components of DBT: skills training group, individual treatment, DBT phone coaching, and consultation team. There is increasing evidence that DBT skills training alone is a promising intervention for a wide variety of both clinical and nonclinical populations and across settings.

1. DBT skills training group is focused on enhancing clients’ capabilities by teaching them behavioral skills. The group is run like a class where the group leader teaches the skills and assigns homework for clients to practice using the skills in their everyday lives.

2. DBT individual therapy is focused on enhancing client motivation and helping clients to apply the skills to specific challenges and events in their lives.

3. DBT phone coaching is focused on providing clients with in-the-moment coaching on how to use skills to effectively cope with difficult situations that arise in their everyday lives. Clients can call their individual therapist between sessions to receive coaching at the times when they need help the most.

4. DBT therapist consultation team is intended to be therapy for the therapists and to support DBT providers in their work with people who often have severe, complex, difficult-to-treat disorders. The consultation team is designed to help therapists stay motivated and competent so they can provide the best treatment possible.

What skills are taught in DBT? 

DBT includes four sets of behavioral skills.

• Mindfulness: the practice of being fully aware and present in this one moment

• Distress Tolerance: how to tolerate pain in difficult situations, not change it

• Interpersonal Effectiveness: how to ask for what you want and say no while maintaining self-respect and relationships with others

• Emotion Regulation: how to change emotions that you want to change

This information was borrowed from “What is DBT” at www.behavioraltech.com.
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