ABSTRACT
It is important to be aware that emotion-focused therapy (EFT) is an exploratory therapy, which means that it does not follow a firm prescriptive protocol of what is going to happen in each session. Therapy unfolds as client and therapist co-create a shared focus, in the context of a caring, trusting relationship, centered around core painful feelings. The exploratory nature of EFT distinguishes it significantly from CBT, which approaches working with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) difficulties along the lines of a predetermined protocol dictating which tasks/techniques are used in which sessions and in which sequence. In the context of short-term therapy, therapists must be aware of what has been attended to, so they do not omit some of the other major processes. The beginnings of long-term therapy are very similar to those of short-term therapy with the exception that there is no time pressure necessitating focus on the main difficulties in a sustained manner.
