Customer Reviews

The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: Creating Connection (Basic Principles Into Practice Series)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Johnson does a beautiful job of laying out the process of effective therapy with couples in a manner that is both clear and respectful of the complexity of the process. Upon reading her book, it suddenly became clear to me why I have been successful with some couples and painfully inadequate with others. It's been a real jump-start to my feeling alive and effective again in therapy. Tom Daniels, Ph.D. Licensed Psychologist

Bringing insecure attachment dialogues to life is the most useful aspect of this book. The step by step approach to couples therapy is helplful especially for those therapists unfamiliar with how attachment issues play out in the therapeutic context.

More information on screeening out couples who may not benefit from this approach would have been invaluable - rather than just referring to couples who are breaking up. Many couples have not learned the language of emotion. Some express it somatically or by numbing it with substances or food. These couples would need far more than 12 sessions and a great deal of training and practice to be able to learn about their attachment dances and break the cycles that lead to distancing.

Insight is not the primary aim of EFCT, yet couples are encouraged to notice and become increasingly aware of their automatic processes that lead to misattuned connections. I think that is precisely what gaining insight is about,which in turn allows for new actions to be attempted in the future.

Johnson suggests that most couples therapists use problem solving approaches over emotionally focused strategies. Those of us who bring in Object Relations and Intersubjective ideas into our work facilitate couples in attending to and sharing their emotional experiences with their partners. This is the norm rather than the exception. Johnson's book makes the process more systematic and contained. It doesn't help with couples where one or both partners get secondary gains from making the other 'bad.'

Overall a useful adjunct for psychotherapists already doing emotionally focused work with couples.

[...]

Good overview of the relationship between attachment and emotional functioning in marriage. The manualized treatment approach has been empirically supported so deserves more than just a glance. An excellent addition to the libraries of anyone interested in and encountering the challenges of couples counseling.

Susan Johnson's work through Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is a great asset to the world of relationship therapies. Her work is in the new direction in therapy - calculated integration versus muddle-headed eclecticism.

Johnson's work carefully integrate structural family therapy (Minuchin) with attachment theory (Bowlby) and the experiential therapies. While mainly citing Rogers, this a misnomer. EFT is more Satir and Whitaker than Rogers as the therapist is active and directive as well as short-term to brief in her or his interventions. Rogers is a long-term personality-altering insight therapy, which offers little for today's reality of shorter time constraints whether through managed-care or government stipulations.

Better yet, EFT is an EBT (evidence-based treatment)! I believe it has a 70-73% efficacy rate for couple improvement and therefore is more ameniable to third-party reimbursement. EFT is also a great approach for PTSD (see Johnson, 2002) as in 33-38 sessions a full-blown PTSD sufferer can have significant improvement. This is because the partner, not the therapist, becomes the soother for the traumatized person and is much more available in the long-term for the PTSD sufferer. I believe the Department of Veteran's Affairs needs to "perk-up" and "pony-up" for EFT as the treatment of choice for our soon-to-be onslaught of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom veterans come home.

We are so not prepared for this avalanche of need!

This is an excellent presention of EFT for couple therapy. The theoretical underpinnings are presented in a way that does not detract from the aim of the book to help one learn how this work is done. There are lots of clear examples and explanations that give one the feeling they are ready to apply what they have learned in their next session. Written in a clear style free of jargon.

This book is very good for people who want to learn more about EFT. it is easy to read and has lots of case examples.

This is my first book by Johnson and I found it to be easy to read and understand. Johnson's approach is based on attachment theory which I have found to be a good anchor in working with couples that want to resolve conflict and/or strengthen their bond.

One of my new favorites.
I am a qualified family and couple therapist, but have never been trained specifically in EFT model. The book provides a very clear and thorough insight both into theory and practice of the model. This book serves as a theoretical enrichment, but also as a very practical clinical guide. Both the experienced practitioners and the students can benefit from it and add new set of skills to their practice.

This book arrived on time and in the condition specified. The material covered in the book is a little dry and not as easy to read as some books, but it does contain important information about couples therapy.

Emotionally focused couple therapy (EFT for users) is a great thing to use although I am a new comer to this approach. Yet I have already seen it in acts and results with the couples I am starting to use it with. Great approach.
Gaby Pierre Chami, psychotherapist, Switzerland