Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy Sue Johnson Describes

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

Sue Johnson describes a very revolutionary theory within couples counseling in her video. This theory rests on the idea that resentment, which grows between two couples is often based on a level of adult attachment. From this perspective, the counselor or psychologist working with couples can understand the nature of the attachment as a primary element for the problems being faced within the relationship itself. Sue Johnson sees the emotional bond of love as similar in weight and feeling as other major human connections, like that between a mother and a child. As such, a love between two mutual partners also develops a type of attachment, where one or both have a certain degree of attachment and insecurities based on fear of abandonment and a dependent need for the other in a wide number of different contexts. As such, Johnson can relate the anger and seemingly exaggerated resentment towards the partner as just an expression of that attachment and some perception of a need not being met within the relationship by one or both of the partners. When the emotional need is not believed to met, that is when surface level anger and hostility shows the negative side of the attachment through mutual love.

Sue Johnson does this in a number of different ways in her video. Outlining was one way she could allow for both Maria and Matt to express their feelings in way which help them get the validation they were lacking before the therapy began. Listening to each then became s a way to give her the reassurance Maria longs so much for. This is an example of an enactment, an intervention, which is crucial to the core of EFT. This goes beyond the psychologist or counselor simply mediating a dialogue between the two partners, and places a more participatory role on the use of a third party. It was an allowance for Maria to expose her feelings in a way that they are not clouded by the anger and resentment she had felt for so long. Essentially, Matt was not correctly reading or acknowledging Maria's emotional signals. Sue Johnson used interventions as a way to clarify Maria's needs and acknowledge her own insecurities within the relationship.

This also allows for the session to really get to the point, without being distracted by the melodrama the couple has been engaging in for so long. Thanks to the numerous interventions conducted by Sue Johnson, the reality of the true issues is allowed to come to the forefront, and not be so clouded by the anger and quick temper of the couple involved. Sue Johnson uses interventions to both rise the level of the session to encourage engagement, but also to resolve issues without either Matt or Maria becoming too angered or agitated in the process. Sue John is essentially playing a very calculated part in her constant interjections and manipulation of the session in order to focus more on the underlying issues, rather than the distractions of the surface issues which seem entirely meant to conceal what each in the relationship actually want to say to one another.