Emotion Focused Therapy by Antonio Pascual-Leone

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT)

An experiential and humanistic therapy approach focused on unfolding a client's moment-by-moment experience.

Therapeutic Alliance

A strong bond between therapist and client based on empathy, unconditional positive regard, and genuineness in EFT.

Gestalt Therapy

Therapeutic tasks like the Empty Chair Task and Two-Chair Task, utilized in EFT to explore internal conflicts and dialogues.

Emotion Schemes

Multimodal networks of information including affect, motivation, behavior, and cognition, viewed as interconnected in EFT.

Dialectical Constructivism

The concept in EFT that emotions can be generated both bottom-up (biologically) and top-down (symbolized into words).

Theory of Change

In EFT, dysfunctional emotion schemes are modified through awareness, down-regulation, arousal, expression, and changing emotions.

Clinical Application

EFT has been applied to treat depression, couples, complex trauma, social anxiety, eating disorders, and family therapy.

Research Findings

EFT has shown effectiveness comparable to CBT, with significant outcomes in treating depression, trauma, and interpersonal problems.

Depth of Experiencing

Refers to the extent clients engage with emotions in EFT, predicting treatment outcomes and mediating emotional arousal effects.

Training in EFT

Supervision in EFT focuses on process-based approaches, technical skills, interpersonal skills, and fostering a working alliance.

Moment-by-Moment Process Diagnosis

EFT therapists use process diagnosis to evaluate clients' emotional states and processing dynamically during therapy.

Personalization of EFT

EFT is tailored to individual clients, focusing on alliance-building, maladaptive emotion schemes, and adaptive emotion states.

Therapist Factors

EFT therapists need strong process-diagnostic skills, empathy, and the ability to engage clients in therapeutic tasks like chairwork.