ABSTRACT
The emotionally focused therapy (EFT) therapist always works at the intersection of the individual and the dyad; using both individual change interventions, now formally documented in the individual EFT model, as well as dyadic oriented interventions. In research on the process of change in EFT, the partners who allow themselves to become intensely involved in their emotional experience are the ones whose relationship changes the most in therapy and remains positively changed at follow-up. Reflection and validation of emotional experience are a constant part of the EFT therapist’s repertoire. There is a sense in which all the interventions in EFT heighten emotion, simply because of the focus on emotional responses and the validation of such responses. The EFT therapist is always standing on the edge of inner and outer, and playing with how each reflects and creates the other.
