All About Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy at A Peaceful Life Counseling Services

When couples come to their first Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy session, they may bring with them a range of emotions: Fear that therapy won’t help, pain and hurt from arguing and/or great disconnection and a concern that the therapist won’t understand their unique situation. In my Denver couples therapy practice, I see this often and want to help ease a bit of the confusion about this type of couples therapy and how it can help. 

What I want to share with you is the powerful and science-based elements of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy. My hope is that you will gain a greater understanding of:

• What to expect when you come for help
• The different components of this most-successful approach for helping couples
• The role of the  couples therapist in facilitating couples in reconnecting, retaining trust and experiencing joy and hope again together

We know from research that couples can postpone coming to couples therapy for years (6 on average, – yikes!). We realize, as well, that coming to therapy feels intimidating for some and totally foreign for others.

By having a greater understanding of this highly successful and research-supported method, the intent is to ease your concerns with insight into how Emotionally Focused Couples therapists help you rekindle closeness and develop an even greater openness and connection than before you came to counseling.

Non-Blaming, Non-Judging Are Built into this Leading Approach

First, you’ll learn that EFT therapists do not blame either partner. Rather, we help you understand the “negative cycle” that has developed between you (as you’ll learn below). Yes, there might be actions in the relationship that you regret — that were hurtful to your partner — but often these began with  and were worsened by, the negative cycle.

Second, therapists do not take sides with one partner over the other. The method doesn’t allow us to — and nor would we want this to occur! We respect the concerns of each partner, and constantly seek to understand your feelings and your perspectives. We honor each partner’s strengths and preferences.

Third, we don’t judge. Rather, we help you create a greater and deeper understanding of each other so you can successfully collaborate together on decisions and choices.

Fourth, and this is important, our approach in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy is one of gentle understanding and respect. We work to establish a comfortable environment for you both to be open with each other and work through important, and at times, sensitive concerns.

The ‘Gentle Power’ of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT)

It’s common for couples to feel both mystified — and baffled — that their once-loving relationship or marriage has become so distant, possibly contentious and filled with hurt feelings.

“We don’t know what happened to us — we argue nonstop, sometimes say hurtful things to each other when we’re angry and nothing ever gets resolved.”

“Sex was something that was so enjoyable and kept us close. Now, we are rarely intimate and we’re lost how to get connected again.”

“We used to argue. Now, it’s silence. We’re both walking on eggshells with each other. We’re stuck!”

At the heart of the problem is the fraying of the bond you created when you fell in love.

In Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, we call the arguing and/or distancing a “negative cycle.”

Typically, at some point, there would be an event or series of hurtful experiences with each other. Unfortunately, we’re not all that skilled in letting our partner know that we feel hurt. The unresolved concerns can build over time. We become anxious, angry, demanding or withdrawn.

Couples find they may argue more, but talk less about important issues. Intimacy often declines because the emotional connection has frayed and affected the desire for physical connection.

Over time, resentments build. The negative cycle has become your enemy (though it may seem that your partner is at fault, but, remember, this cycle is what is devastating your connection).

During the first sessions of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy we’ll learn to understand your negative cycle. You probably have already thought about your cycle without even realizing it. You could turn the volume off on a conversation that turns into a fight between you and your partner, and know exactly how it goes. First you do this, then they do this. You always end up feeling and saying the same types of things. It seems like the place you predictably get stuck most often. We work together to understand this pattern in ways that are deeper than you have ever explored them before so that you and your partner gain a different level of understanding and experience of the patterns. Many couples are relieved very early in the process to learn that their cycle is manageable and that relief is possible.

How We Love

One of the powerful strengths of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy is in focus on helping couples understand the “science of love” — attachment.

Simply defined, attachment is the emotional bonding we experience with those most close and significant to us. 

Our first bonds were with our parents or significant caregivers. Then, when we met our partner, he or she became the most important person to us. We are excited to see our partner and miss them intensely when we are apart. Or, at least we did at first. Sometimes, this bond is stretched and the only way we see it is that it feels like we are fighting for our relationship on the inside, and fighting each other on the outside. 

In healthy relationships, our partner becomes our safe haven in the world: the person who can comfort us when we’re distressed, who gives us encouragement and support and with whom we uniquely share joy and delight.

Humans, over time, became hard-wired to bond with another. When couples are not getting along, the bond is threatened and frayed. Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy helps couples renew their bond and regain emotional connection that is consistent and can be repaired when needed. 

The Powerful “Emotionally Focused” Component of this Approach

So, you can see how attachment produces intense emotions with our partner. The bond is as vital to us as air and water. When we don’t feel close, we become anxious, angry, aloof or withdrawn. Even numbed out. 

In EFT we help couples understand their deeper emotions which lie beneath the ones our partner sees. For example, when we are angry with our partner, we may actually feel hurt about something or afraid or anxious of being more distant. Yet, our partner only sees the anger.

By learning to speak from those deeper, more authentic emotions, couples can learn to:

• Help their partner know how much they mean to us
• Calm the discussion so issues can be resolved
• Reinforce the attachment emotional bond

A New Way to Communicate

Quite often when a couple first contacts us they will say, “We just don’t know how to communicate.”

Formerly, couples counseling’s focus was only on helping couples have better conversations. In EFT, we help you improve your connection (vastly!), however from a deeper, more lasting perspective.

One of the most powerful components of this method are “enactments.” You’ll learn, in sessions, to turn to your partner and speak from your deeper emotions. A new level of meaning is the key to rebuilding connection and (finally!) resolving important concerns.

As you practice with your therapist, you both learn to use this new approach on your own.

Healing Wounds

The negative cycle often has its roots in a hurtful event where you didn’t feel understood, supported or comforted by your partner. The wound of an infidelity also has a profound impact on connection.

When the negative cycle is under better control, the therapist gently guides you toward healing any wounds, including ones that may have happened years ago. Without this healing, the issue can be brought up repeatedly — often during a negative cycle — and the hurt continued.

No, we can’t undo the hurtful event; however, apology and forgiveness are powerful when sincerely offered from a place of true and deep understanding of the pain and the reasons behind it.

Staying Close Going Forward

Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy has the lowest “relapse rate” of couples-therapy approaches. This means that couples who complete the process tend to keep up the gains they’ve made — resolving differences calmly, supporting each other, parenting successfully, a renewed and stronger bond and improved intimacy.

Couples also learn how to make their partner a priority. They learn to set up a ritual of spending meaningful time together (and modeling a secure relationship bond to their children!).

Learn More

To learn more about how this approach can help your communication and deepen your understanding of each other, click here. To read about how anger develops and can be reduced in the negative cycle, click here.

Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy in Denver

At my Denver (Lakewood) office, I offer a variety of ways to see if EFT is a good fit for your relationship. I offer either a 15-minute call to explore options, or a free 30 minute consultation to explore Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy in Denver.

To learn more about how this approach can help your communication and deepen your understanding of each other, click here Communication in Relationships and how anger develops and can be reduced in the negative cycle, click here How to Control Anger in Your Relationship.

You can also learn more about me, learn about Couples Therapy in Denver and our LGBTQ Couples Therapy Services.