in Couples Therapy
- Break Free from an Endless Cycle of Conflict
- Overcome Loneliness
- Find Acceptance and Connection
- Create a Relationship that Heals
- Pass on a Legacy of Secure Connection to Your Kids
Emotionally Focused Therapy:
Sue Johnson, the primary developer of EFT, shares about her research with Neurologist, Dr. James A. Coan: Contact with a securely attached partner soothes stress and pain.
EFT has become the gold standard of therapy for couples (EFCT). More recently, adaptations have been developed for working with families and individuals. Studies have shown EFT to be effective in couples with infertility, veteran’s with PTSD, and many other situations.
EFT provides a roadmap for therapy, helping couples rediscover intimacy and passion and overcome an endless cycle of conflict. This roadmap is based on science, logic, and reason. It has proven to be effective for most couples in long-term, follow-up studies. At the end of successful therapy you will have a secure connection. Then it will be safe to disagree, have conflict, and have periods of independence without distress or risk to the future of your relationship.
Alleviating Distress – the first stage
When starting therapy partners often describe a pattern of the same basic conflict happening over and over regardless of topic. Sometimes this conflict is volatile and hot. Other times it is distant and cool. The more they try to make things better, the worse the relationship seem to get. Couples often report they are losing hope.
After the initial assessment, we will spend each session tracking what happens between you and your partner during times of distress. Then we will explore the emotions and experiences that drive different parts of the cycle. Later, you will begin to learn the true meaning of your partner’s behaviors. Over time you will begin to be able to recognize your part in the cycle and step out of it.
Creating Secure Connection and Acceptance – the second stage
Next, In the second stage of therapy each of you will take turns discovering and experiencing new ways to share about your self. You will discover authentic ways of reaching to your partner that foster acceptance and connection. These new experiences become the antidote to the old conflict and disconnection pattern.
Maintaining Love For a Lifetime – the third stage
In the final stage, couples revisit outstanding topics of conflict and quickly resolve them. Then they make plans for continuing to build on the progress they have made.
Ready to Begin a Journey to Connection?
Ready to start your EFT journey? Do you desire to beat your cycle of distress, overcome loneliness, deepen your emotional intimacy and physical passion? Are eager to learn about your partner’s inner world? Then contact me at Navigate Family Therapy. Kim has current openings. Dennis’ caseload is generally full but he accepts new clients periodically. Navigate Family Therapy also has other therapists with varying levels of EFT training and experience.
You can read more about EFT on Navigate’s blog here.
Our approach to therapy is:
Experiential: Change happens through creating new experiences, first in the therapy office and then at home. The therapist assists couples or family members to become aware of their emotions, feelings, thoughts and actions in the moment and to express this awareness to their partner/family in new ways during the therapy session.
Attachment-Based: As humans we are neurologically wired to need relationship with significant, largely irreplaceable others. As children this is typically our parents or guardians. As we become adults this primary bond transfers to our romantic partner. Parent child attachment science goes back almost a century. Adult attachment science has emerged in the past several decades. Therapy that is attachment-based views problems and distress as a natural and understandable result of a disruption of a person’s primary attachment relationship(s). Attachment science provides a lens for understanding partner’s or family member’s behavior and as a road map to creating lasting change.
Systemic: Systemic therapists consider mutually reinforcing patterns of interaction between an individual and the family and social systems the individual is a part of. Problems are viewed as the result of rigid, closed systems of people that mutually affect each other in circular patterns. Behaviors aren’t seen to cause other behaviors in a linear progression.
Respectful of Diversity: We believe in the unique value of each person regardless of belief, lifestyle, or culture. This in part is influenced by a biblical passage that declares that whether we are male or female, leader or follower, of one culture, ethnicity, or religion, or another, we are all created equal and have the same inherent value and worth.
Want to start creating a relationship that heals?
Check availability for Kim or Dennis by completing a new client request form with Navigate Family Therapy or by calling 206-459-7994. Our Care Team will follow up with you.