ABSTRACT
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 patterns of interaction they engage in, which take on a life of their own and become self-reinforcing. A distressed couple is in an absorbing state of compelling, automatic emotional responses and a corresponding set of rigidly organized interactions, both of which narrow and constrict interaction and experience. The emotional music and the pattern of both partners’ dance steps pull for and reinforce each other in a circular loop of hurt and despair. This narrow absorbing state-where everything leads in and reinforces this state, and nothing leads out-renders emotional accessibility and responsiveness almost impossible. Research has shown that distressed couples are distinguishable by their rigid structured interaction patterns and their intense negative affect. What do the two approaches to change-the experiential and systemic therapies-tell us about how to help couples redefine their relationships? The humanistic experiential perspective focuses upon how to help partners to reprocess and expand their experience and the systemic perspective focuses upon how to help partners modify their interaction patterns.
