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...
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…
