Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), developed by Dr. Sue Johnson, is a trauma-informed, attachment-based approach that helps people understand their emotions, calm their nervous system, and create safer, more meaningful connections with themselves and others.

Many people seek therapy not because they don’t care about relationships—but because connection feels confusing, overwhelming, or unsafe. You may find yourself shutting down, becoming emotionally numb, feeling anxious or reactive, or stuck in the same painful patterns despite wanting closeness. EFT understands these responses not as problems, but as the nervous system doing its best to protect you.

A Nervous-System-Informed Approach

Our nervous system is constantly scanning for safety. When connection feels uncertain—through conflict, emotional distance, past trauma, or attachment wounds—our body may move into survival mode. This can look like withdrawing, people-pleasing, becoming overwhelmed, angry, or emotionally disconnected.

EFT helps you gently slow down and understand what your nervous system is communicating beneath these reactions. Together, we work to:

  • Recognize how your body responds to emotional stress

  • Identify patterns that keep you feeling unsafe or disconnected

  • Create moments of emotional safety and regulation

  • Develop a deeper sense of stability, trust, and connection

Rather than pushing you to “fix” yourself or communicate differently, EFT helps create safety first—because meaningful change happens when the nervous system feels supported.

EFT for Individuals

For individuals, EFT offers a compassionate space to explore how early relationships, trauma, and past emotional experiences continue to shape how you relate to yourself and others. If you struggle with anxiety, depression, dissociation, or feeling disconnected from your emotions, EFT meets you where you are.

Through this work, you can:

  • Develop a kinder, more understanding relationship with yourself

  • Learn to notice and respond to emotional signals with curiosity rather than fear

  • Increase emotional regulation and resilience

  • Feel more present, grounded, and connected in your daily life

EFT supports healing by helping your nervous system experience safety in relationship—often for the first time.

EFT for Couples and Relationships

Emotionally Focused Therapy is one of the most researched and effective approaches for couples. From a trauma-informed lens, EFT understands conflict and distance as signals of unmet attachment needs rather than personal failures.

Couples often get caught in cycles where one person reaches out while the other pulls away, or both feel unheard and misunderstood. EFT helps couples slow these moments down, understand what’s happening emotionally and physiologically, and build safer ways of reaching for each other.

In EFT, couples learn how to:

  • Step out of survival-based reactions

  • Understand each other’s emotional needs

  • Repair trust and emotional safety

  • Create a secure bond where both partners feel seen and supported

What EFT Feels Like in Therapy

EFT sessions are collaborative, attuned, and paced with care. Emotions are approached gently, with respect for your history and your body’s limits. You are never pushed to share more than feels safe.

The focus is on helping you feel understood, regulated, and supported, so healing can happen naturally. Over time, EFT helps transform fear, disconnection, and survival responses into clarity, emotional safety, and deeper connection.