ABSTRACT
Emotionally focused therapy (EFT) is essentially a humanistic approach to therapy. The EFT perspective is that it is necessary for the couple therapist to use a model of change that incorporates the intrapsychic and the interpersonal, and that these foci complement and expand each other. The experiential focus of EFT adds the intrapsychic half of the feedback loops delineated by systemic theorists and a focus on nurturance and safe connection. From the EFT standpoint, secure attachment enables maximum differentiation, and maximum intimacy and connection. EFT is a synthesis of experiential and systemic approaches to therapy. It views marital distress as being maintained by the manner in which people organize and process their emotional experience, and the patterned interactions they engage in with significant others, which take on a life of their own and become self-reinforcing. Systems theory has been criticized for its impersonal techniques, abstract epistemologies, and lack of attention to how family members experience their relationships.
