Feeling your emotions isn’t always easy—but it’s essential for healing. That’s the core idea behind Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT), a compassionate, research-supported approach to psychotherapy that helps people transform emotional pain into insight and growth.
EFT is a humanistic and experiential form of therapy developed by Dr. Leslie Greenberg with Drs Laura Rice and Robert Elliott. Rather than trying to suppress or fix emotions, EFT helps individuals feel, understand, and transform them.
It’s based on the idea that emotions are not problems to solve—they are signals to understand.
– Emotions are central to the self.
– Change occurs through emotional processing.
– Avoidance of emotion leads to dysfunction.
– Accessing adaptive emotions leads to healing.
A therapist trained in EFT will help you:
– Identify difficult emotions.
– Understand the roots of those emotions.
– Experience them in a safe space.
– Activate new, more adaptive emotional responses (like compassion, assertiveness, or self-protection).
Techniques may include:
– Chair work (e.g., “empty chair” dialogues)
– Focusing on bodily felt sensations
– Emotion labelling and tracking
EFT is useful for:
Rather than just talking through issues, EFT dives into emotional patterns and how they show up in real time. Sessions often involve:
– Naming emotional responses
– Exploring past emotional injuries
– Practicing new emotional experiences
As Dr. Greenberg puts it, “You can’t leave a place until you arrive.” When we ignore or avoid our feelings, we stay stuck. EFT provides a roadmap to understand your emotional world, and heal through it.
If you’re looking for a therapy – whether as a therapist or a client – that helps reconnection with emotions, repair inner wounds, and build resilience and growth, EFT may be the right choice.