Sue Johnson – Emotionally Focused Therapy In Action

Description Of Emotionally Focused Therapy In Action

Dr. Sue Johnson has been hailed as “the most original contributor to couples therapy to come along in the last 30 years.” Now you’ll have the chance to watch her conduct an actual session with a challenging couple haunted by the “echoes of war.”

Matt and Rhea are dispirited from their frequent fights, and their couples therapist is struggling to contain their heated conflict and help them reconnect with positive feelings. After serving in Iraq as a helicopter pilot, Matt has returned with a PTSD diagnosis and finds himself shutting down emotionally, leaving Rhea feeling hurt, abandoned, and more like an employee than a partner. But her desperate longing to be seen and appreciated comes out as escalating anger, leaving Matt feeling overwhelmed and wanting to withdraw further.

Johnson first consults with Matt and Rhea’s couples therapist, aided by video clips from prior sessions. Then you’ll see Johnson work with this couple in a brilliant demonstration of the subtlety and efficacy of EFT. In a single session, she helps them conceptualize their conflicts in attachment terms, gain an understanding of their negative cycle, and begin to reveal some of the vulnerable feelings that underlie their explosive anger. Commentary before, during, and after the consultation and session provides insight into her approach.

In Depth

If you have to choose only one video on couples therapy, this is definitely the one to get. In one program you’ll see Johnson summarize the key principles of EFT, provide expert consultation, and then conduct a truly masterful session with a very challenging high conflict couple. All of the pieces came together in this production; we are very pleased with it, and have gotten rave reviews from our customers.

• By watching this video you’ll learn:
• The core theory and principles of EFT;
• How to help couples identify the negative cycles that keep them stuck;
• Specific techniques to help clients access the primary emotions that drive their conflicts, including reframing, amplification, “relentless empathy,” and enactments.

Specs

Length of video: 3:36:00

English subtitles available

About Sue Johnson

Dr. Sue Johnson is one of the originators and the main proponent of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), now one of the best validated couples interventions in North America. She is Director of the Ottawa (Canada) Couple and Family Institute and the International Center for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy as well as Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Ottawa and Research Professor at Alliant University in San Diego, California.

She has received numerous honors for her work, including the Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Couple and Family Therapy Award from the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the Research in Family Therapy Award from the American Family Therapy Academy. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

She received her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1984. She is a registered psychologist in the province of Ontario, Canada, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy and the Journal of Family Psychology. She is a Research Professor in the Marital & Family Therapy Program at Alliant University in San Diego.

Her 2004 book (2nd Ed), The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy: Creating Connection (Brunner Rouledge) is a foundational text on EFT for couples. She is the senior editor of the 2003 book, Attachment Processes in Couples Therapy (Guilford Press), and the 1994 book, The Heart of the Matter (Guilford Press). She has also written a book on trauma and couples, Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors (2002).

She trains counselors in EFT worldwide and consults to Veterans Affairs, the U.S. and Canadian military and New York City Fire Department. Sue is an Approved Supervisor for the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and is internationally known for her workshops and presentations on practice, theory and research in couple therapy, adult attachment and emotion in psychotherapy. She maintains a private practice and lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and two children.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the core theory and principles of EFT
• Explain how to help couples identify negative cycles that keep them stuck
• Apply specific techniques to help clients access the primary emotions

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