Emotion-Focused Therapy
A therapy approach that helps people identify, experience, and transform emotions to resolve emotional difficulties and improve relationships.
What Is Emotion-Focused Therapy?
Emotion-focused therapy is an experiential psychotherapy that helps people identify, fully experience, and work through emotions, based on the understanding that avoiding or suppressing emotions can contribute to psychological difficulties, while accessing and processing them can support healing.
How It Works
This approach is grounded in the idea that emotions carry important adaptive information, and that difficulties often arise from avoidance of, or being overwhelmed by, emotional experience. Therapists help clients access underlying emotions and transform maladaptive emotional responses into more adaptive ones. This description uses original explanatory language.
What Happens During Therapy?
Sessions often involve experiential techniques to help clients access and process emotions more fully, such as focusing on bodily sensations connected to feelings or exploring emotional reactions to specific memories or situations.
Evidence and Effectiveness
Research supports emotion-focused therapy for depression and, in its couples-based adaptation (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy), for relationship distress, with a growing evidence base including randomized controlled trials.
Who May Benefit?
Emotion-focused therapy may be considered for people who have difficulty identifying, tolerating, or processing emotions, or who experience depression connected to unresolved emotional experiences.
Limitations and Considerations
The emotionally intensive nature of this approach may feel challenging for some individuals, and the evidence base, while growing, is smaller than for some other established therapies.
Finding a Qualified Therapist
Emotion-focused therapy is practiced by psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, licensed marriage and family therapists, and other mental health professionals with specific training in this approach.
How Long Does Therapy Take?
Emotion-focused therapy is often delivered over approximately 12 to 20 sessions, though length varies according to the person and clinical presentation.
Therapy vs. Medication
Emotion-focused therapy is a psychotherapy approach; medication may be appropriate for certain co-occurring conditions in consultation with a qualified healthcare professional.
What Conditions Is It Used For?
Related Therapy Types
Medical Information Disclaimer
Ratel Health provides general educational information and does not provide medical diagnosis, treatment, or individualized medical advice. Information on this page is not a substitute for evaluation or care from a qualified healthcare professional. Do not use this information to diagnose yourself or another person, or to start, stop, or change treatment or medication without consulting an appropriately qualified healthcare professional.
References
- American Psychological Association. Clinical Practice Guidelines.
- American Psychiatric Association. Practice Guidelines.
- National Institute of Mental Health. Psychotherapies.