ABSTRACT
This chapter will lead you through snapshots of the change process with an EFIT client suffering from very high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder due to extreme childhood sexual and physical abuse. Therapist interventions will be outlined in transcripts of therapy to give the reader a picture of what EFIT (Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy) looks like in practice, offering you a visceral sense of what EFIT is about before explaining theory and practice in more terms.
First, the chapter will focus on beginning sessions, then on transcripts from the end of Stage 1 of EFIT – Stabilization, and one point in Stage 2 – Restructuring, Expanding Models of Self and Other. In EFIT we think of our ultimate goal as expanding the self into coherence and emotional balance. The therapist is guided by the map to basic human vulnerabilities and needs as laid out by attachment theory and science.
The macro-intervention sequence we call the EFT Tango is used in every session of EFIT and in the EFT model for distressed couples and EFFT with distressed families. It will be briefly pinpointed and referred to in this chapter. These interventions and more micro-interventions will be clarified in detail in the rest of the book.
