ABSTRACT
This chapter presents client factors and therapist interventions that are needed to follow the emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT) map for change. It gives an overview of the basic EFT interventions. The essential ingredient of EFT is to create a context of safety and empathic understanding so that partners can explore emotional experience within and between. A study examining predictors of success in EFT found that quality of the therapeutic alliance accounted for 20% of the variance in outcome, and that it is the task relevant aspect of the alliance, in particular, that is a powerful predictor of relationship satisfaction and positive outcome of therapy. The depth of emotional experiencing as measured by the experiencing scale is the second client factor that has a positive impact on therapeutic change. Deeper levels of client emotional engagement are associated with positive change in EFT. Empathic attunement and reflection, an intervention clearly associated with the Rogerian, experiential tradition, forms the essence of EFT.
