ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the use of emotionally focused experiential techniques with families. The emotionally focused therapy (EFT) Tango is the basic macro- intervention used in family sessions. Family EFT (EFFT) was found to be effective, with total remission of bingeing in 44 percent of adolescents and complete remission of vomiting in 67 percent of adolescents after a ten-session intervention. The end of EFFT is usually characterized, not so much by a softening of the more hostile partner and bonding between the couple as in EFT, but by new responses on the part of the identified patient and safer more supportive family interactions. There is a sense in which EFFT helps adolescents redefine the attachment relationship between parents and themselves into a more reciprocal, adult, and secure form, where difference and separateness can be tolerated. In most families, the children have to first connect before they can effectively leave.
