Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy: The Process-Experiential Approach to Change

by Robert Elliott, Jeanne C. Watson, Rhonda N. Goldman

Univ. of Toledo, OH. Provides the step-by-step process of emotion-focused therapy and how to integrate experiential interventions into one's practice. Discusses the basic principles and provides case examples. Emphasizes the importance of the therapeutic relationship and shows how to enable patients to learn from their various emotions. For therapists.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Relationships

376 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 2003

Reviews

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the best place to start for those wanting to learn the basics of EFT. Of course, this book is like many others that are within the field of clinical psychology: it does a great job in laying out theory and practice in the ideal sense, using master therapists and perfect clients. How much of that happens in session with a different client and a beginner therapist? Good question! But it's good to come back to the principles laid out here over and over again.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

A practical, detailed guide to doing emotion-focused therapy.

For those not sure what is meant by emotion-focused therapy and how emotion-focused therapy (hereafter dubbed EFT-1) differs from emotionally-focused therapy (EFT-2), let me explain. Leslie Greenberg and Sue Johnson created the basic tenets of these therapies, both of which state that emotions are incredibly important, must be prioritized and listened to, and that Carl Rogers' client-centered approach (empathize, validate, empathize, validate) essentially gets it right.

Johnson retained these basic ideas but paired them with the teachings of John Bowlby to create EFT-2. This latter therapy essentially uses the techniques of EFT-1 but stresses the importance of primary attachments and sees secure attachments as essentially for human flourishing. EFT-2 has primarily been a couples therapy, but Johnson has more recently developed EFT-2 as an individual therapy as well.

[Teresa Ruiz Lozón de Cantelmí · Rating 5 out of 5]

A ver este libro es como el básico basiquísimo de la TFE. Explica la teoría de manera breve y esquematiza bien las tareas. Obvs ahora toca ampliar pero partes con una buena base si te lees esto.

[Victor Mazereel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many therapies claim the therapeutic relation to be of utmost importance, but then go on to mostly offer guidance on specific techniques or procedures without going into detail what it means to create a positive working alliance. This book delves deep into the how of making the relationship work and how empathy works and can be conveyed. It then also offers specific techniques to elicit emotional response processing in the client. Very interesting and something to read again.
My only complaint was that it seems to be restricted to clients with light-to-moderate distress, I mostly see people at the severe end of the spectrum and I would like have seen more practical and theoretical applciations of the use of empathy and emotion for this population.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely phenomenal text, for the content, but even more so as an example of what a good psychotherapy training "manual" can look like. It is incredible to see a humanistically oriented therapy develop such a rich and flexible "task-oriented" approach that gives clinicians a clear sense of "interventions" to use, and then how to evaluate how those interventions are working in session and how to work with the material that is coming up, for better or worse.

[Evi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of hoe een vierdaagse opleiding zowel een opfrissing en inspiratie als het erdoorrammen van dit volledige boek bleek te zijn.

[Jo Gaffney · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really good, almost ‘how to’ of Emotion Focused Process Experiential therapy.

[Willa]

Read for a EFT class. Specifically enjoyed the section on two-chair work.

[Farkhondeh Nazarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

متاسفانه ترجمه‌ی خوبی نداره. خیلی هم خشک و ماشینی نوشته شده.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unnecessarily complex but had good theory and case studies

[Mehran Pourmousavian · Rating 5 out of 5]

کتابی جامع برای آشنایی و شروع آموزش درمان هیجان مدار

[Mary Lou · Rating 3 out of 5]

Emotions are a primary cataylst affecting people’s thoughts and behavior. Walt Disney’s Pixar Animations even won an Academy Award for their movie “Inside Out,” which developed a story line around five dominant emotions seeking control in an adolescent girl’s mind – joy, fear, anger, disgust and sadness. Her parents also acted on the basis of those emotions. The movie itself is extraordinarily creative graphically but also very telling psychologically.

The focus on emotions is important for psychological well-being. Paul Tournier, in his book The Gift of Feeling, says “Everything that involves us as persons raises a wind, if not a storm of emotion: love, guilt, faith, grief or joy, success or failure, and creativity….Men, particularly, have great difficulty in expressing their feelings…A man is more comfortable in the world of objects because there he is shielded from the sensibilities and the emotional demands of women, to which he does not know how to respond” (Paul Tournier, The Gift of Feeling, John Knox Press, 1981, pp. 34, 37-38).