Some Thoughts on the EFT Summit ‘24
I went to the 2024 Emotionally-Focused Therapy Summit. EFT has ended up playing a surprisingly big role in my life. It shaped my career, in that it became the foundation of how I talk in therapy. It has even impacted my personal life, considering I met my Partner in our EFT Core Skills trainings. So my partner presenting their research seemed like a great opportunity to go to a conference that wasn’t on psychedelics for a change. Here’s some of what I noticed…
The Impact of Sue Johnson
Sue Johnson was the creator of EFT and she passed away earlier this year. Johnson not only created the model, but shifted some of the focus and conversation in the field of psychotherapy overall. Up until her work, a lot of focus in the field was on thoughts a cognition or purely on interactional patterns. The fact that someone put emotions, vulnerabilities, and attachment needs at the center of their model was revolutionary. Our emotional experiences are incredibly important to us and how we make sense of our worlds.
The field of couple therapy has shifted from mostly behavioral surface interventions to working with and validating emotional experiences. As time goes on, more and more forms of couple therapy tend to focus on negative interactional cycles as a central part of therapy. In my opinion, that is one of Johnson and EFT’s major contributions in moving our field forward. I am really grateful for our field moving toward deepening experience and validation of attachment needs.
Emotion Focused Therapies Are Similar AND Different
I got to go to several presentations on Emotionally-Focused Individual Therapy. I was really excited for these workshops, since I know the couples model a lot better. When I work with individuals, I use a different approach to emotion-focused therapy (Developed by Greenberg) so I was excited to see what gaps EFIT could fill in my own practice.
The first thing that stuck out to me was the similarities. We participated in a couple EFIT interventions, one of which was a visualization intervention in which we focused on a vulnerable part which needs care and comfort. The second visualization was a conversation with a “resourced” part which aims to help put clients in touch with their own resilience and personal strengths. The aims of these interventions are very similar to some of the work I do using the other EFT. In the approach I use, these conversations involve empty chairs and having the conversation externally as opposed to the client visualizing and doing it internally. The goal was the same the technique was just different. And I appreciated gaining some technique that doesn’t require my clients to move between chairs since during ketamine-assisted therapy medicine sessions movement is not necessarily the best idea…
The second thing that stuck out was the nuanced differences. The two models were targeting the same thing, but also understand what they are doing a bit differently. EFIT really understands Attachment Theory and how our attachment needs can shape our experience and behavior. Greenberg’s EFT really seems to understand emotional processes and how to move through emotions in a way that helps people stay engaged in their life. While I really like the process orientation of the approach I’m familiar with, I also really valued the emphasis on helping clients establish safety and security within themself. It was a nice perspective shift.
There Are Still New Ways to Apply EFT Being Explored!
Sometimes, it is easy for me to think of EFT as being most helpful for couples. That is where the majority of the research is. Though we also sometimes forget that the couples who show up for therapy in research are different than the ones who show up in the average therapists office. I’ve written about that before so no reason to belabor the point, but the takeaway for me is that we need to be able to integrate methods into these models in order to help real clients. I really appreciated one breakout session on Psychedelic Assisted- Emotionally Focused Therapy. The presentation focused primarily on MDMA and how it can potentially be helpful in the future to help clients move past their defenses and have bonding experiences. I was also very grateful for the presentation by Beth Jaeger-Skigen on Ketamine-Assisted Therapy and EFT. She really showcased the flexibility of ketamine as a therapeutic tool to help clients move through their blocks to connection in the different Stages and Steps of EFT.
I also found discussions on applying EFT to new modalities of therapy to be really interesting. I was a little disappointed that I was unable to attend one session on Emotion-Focused Mediation, and the use of EFT in the context of divorce. I really loved Andrea Pangoni’s presentation on the use of EFIT in the context of group therapy. I see a lot of ways that his approach could be applied in some of my own work as I move into offering Ketamine-Assisted Therapy Groups for those in the Denver area.
Overall, I really appreciated my time at the Summit. I also really enjoyed getting to meet and talk with other therapists from other countries. I loved hearing about the differences in peoples practices abroad, and I felt like I got to experience parts of the therapy world that I am normally not as exposed to. I always look forward to these conferences and the connections I make at them, because therapists need connection and community too!
Best,
Ryan
