Emotionally-Focused Couple Therapy (EFT) refers to a therapy carried out within a short time focusing on the relationships between adults and attachment. During this therapy, the therapists are expected to look at the relationship patterns and make moves towards creating a secure bond, develop trust and make the relationship become healthy and move to a more positive direction (Schnackenberg et al., 2018) . The therapy is always used when couples and families are involved in distress, and there is a need for them to learn how to improve in the relationship. An example of a case where the EFT is effective is when the couples are having trouble to cope with their illnesses (Gurman et al., 2015) . EFT is, therefore, not only effective in helping a distressed relationship but also in helping to reduce the symptoms of an individual like depression or trauma. The purpose of this essay is to give a literature review of the EFT in the lights of its history, central tenants, the relevance of the attachment theory and the reasons why conf; it occurs and how to prevent these conflicts. The paper will then conclude with a discussion section which will answer some concluding questions that gives my reflection on EFT.
Literature Review
History of Emotionally-Focused Couple Therapy
The history of EFT can be traced back to 1980s as an approach to help the distressed couples. Holden et al. (2017 ) indicate that the therapy was formulated and tested by Sue Johnson and Les Greenberg in 1985 and the publishing of the first emotionally focused couples therapy manual done in 1988. The development of this approach began when Johnson and Greenberg started reviewing videos of sessions regarding the couples therapy in the attempt of identifying the elements that were associated with positive change through observation and task analysis (Gurman et al., 2015) . Research also indicates that the two were influenced by the humanistic psychotherapies of Carl Rogers and Fritz Peris who believed that emotional experiences have power in creating meaning and guiding behavior (Schnackenberg et al., 2018) . Holden et al. (2017 ) also discovered that Johnson and Greenberg used the experiential-systematic approach towards couple therapy whereby the problem is not considered to belong to one partner. Instead, the problem is seen in the form of cycling reinforcing interaction patterns between the partners.
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Johnson (2018) also found out that during 1986, Greenberg began refocusing his efforts towards the development and studying of the experiential approach of individual therapy. They began to attend to the emotional experience and the roles it plays in self-organization. According to Gurman et al. (2015) research, Greenberg and the colleagues later on created a treatment manual known as process experiential approach towards the psychological change (Gurman et al., 2015) . Research also indicates that Johnson, later on, developed EFT for couples and integrated it with the attachment theory having systematic and humanistic approaches. The attachment theory was later on expanded to the understanding of love relationships (Gurman et al., 2015) .
Central tenets
One of the central tenets of EFT is the experiential focus. According to Gurman et al. (2015) , experiential focus involves paying attention to the value of engaging the clients by their emotions and constructing a sense of self from the emotionally laden interactions that have done repeatedly (Gurman et al., 2015) . The process also accounts for having a moment-to-moment emotional expression as a primary target for change. Another central tenant of the treatment is the maladaptive emotional responses and negative patterns of interaction. According to Holden et al. (2017), emotional responses types that assist the therapist in responding to the clients at a particular time include primary adaptive, primary maladaptive, secondary reactive and the instrumental. The principles of emotion processing according to Schnackenberg et al. (2018) are emotional awareness, emotion expression, emotion regulations, reflection on the experience, emotion transformation by emotion and corrective experience of emotions.
Attachment Theory Relevance
Attachment theory is a psychological concept that emphasizes the importance of attachment in the development of an individual (Worrell, 2015) . The theory assumes that an individual can form an emotional and physical attachment with the therapist to develop a sense of stability and security that is necessary for taking risks, branching out and developing a personality. According to Holden et al. (2017) , the attachment theory is relevant to the EFT in that; it gives steps that are employed in facilitating corrective emotional experiences among couples and help them in fostering a secure attachment (Holden et al., 2017) . Research indicates that insecure attachment styles are what brings about anxiety and distress among the couples and this results to the problem cycle they present. The research conducted by Gurman et al., 2015 , therapist, therefore, work with the couple in accessing their underlying attachment-related emotions to shape their interactional positions ( Gurman et al., 2015) .
EFT view of why couples experience conflict
Emotionally Focused Therapy assumes that there are many reasons as to why couples experience conflicts in their relationship (Gurman et al., 2015) . According to the studies of Holden et al. (2017) , the therapists carrying out the treatment usually come across the issues like one threatening to quit, family issues, money problems, and lack of intimacy among others. Research indicates that happiness among the couples is usually lost when the couples start feeling like the relationship is no longer intimate. In regards to EFT, people usually get into a relationship for reasons like love, passion, sex, companionship, to start a family and many more (Schnackenberg et al., 2018) . However, when the sense of sharing is no longer there, and the partners starts to experience a sense of emotional and physical loneliness. Besides, lack of commitment of the couples, according to the research, is another perception of the EFT on why couples get involved in the conflict.
Remedies proposed by EFT to overcome the conflicts
According to the findings of Holden et al. (2017) , Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy propose that couples experiencing such conflicts can be assisted by making them understand themselves and their partners better so that they can have positive interactions with each other. Research also indicated the EFT could help the couples to have more profound and more resilient emotional bonds that are beyond learning skills like keeping arguments healthy and constructive (0Gurman et al., 2015) . The findings of Johnson (2018) also indicates that EFT also focuses on helping the partners to change the way they fight and teach them new cycles of communication.
Research
The effectiveness of EFT with distressed couples
When it comes to the relationship, the main issue that makes them break are emotions, and also, people are always attached to their partners because of emotions. This statement means that when there are negative emotions among the partners, they always tend to have unhealthy relationships (Holden et al., 2017) . In this regard, the distressed couples can get the best resolutions from EFT. The therapy is effective as it focuses on the attachment theory that emphasizes the impacts of interpersonal relationships among human beings. Besides, the therapy assists the couples on becoming aware of their emotions, how well they can express them and how these emotions can be tolerated in a more encompassing manner ( Worrell, 2015) . In this sense, the client can effectively reflect on their emotions, bring them to their awareness to facilitate a more flexible was of managing such emotions (Gurman et al., 2015) . Through this therapy, the client can be able to acknowledge the emotions that have been dismissed like anger, grief, compassion, and Grieg among others.
The therapy is also effective in making the couples to understand their needs and those of their partners. This is because, during the therapy, the therapist makes the partners understand how they can communicate with each other and as a result, create a better solution for their past issues (Gurman et al., 2015) . Regardless of the situation of the clients, this therapy helps the clients to deescalate their issues by being able to end the anger they have to help them in fixing their issues. The therapy can also make the couples to understand how the conflicts are related to the underlying emotions to identify the client's needs. In most cases, the relationship problems arise due to lack of proper communication.
The therapy is effective in teaching the partners the best communication skills that they can apply to be able to understand each other. In cases where the clients have developed depression or other types of trauma due to to the conflicts they experiences, the EFT can be effective in helping them fight the condition (Johnson, 2018) . This is because, it helps the clients to figure out the causes of this depression, whether it is as a result of an attachment with the partner (Gurman et al., 2015) . With the help of the therapists, the clients can be assisted on how to write down a plan that will help them address their issues. Since the therapy focuses on the emotions of the clients, it is the most effective therapy for distressed couples.
Discussion
In my opinion, I believe that Emotionally-Focussed Therapy is the clinically significant approach that should be applied when dealing with not only the distressed couples but also those experiencing family and individual issues that can affect their emotions. I agree with the therapy because it applies the concepts of attachment theory which is the effective approach of restructuring the distressed couple relationships into safe, secure bonds that can have long-lasting impacts. One of the main central tenets of the therapy is the experiential focus. I agree with this because it emphasizes the communicated understanding between the client and the therapist. I believe that it is important to focus on the value of engaging the clients emotionally to get to understand their needs. I believe that therapists should always focus on assisting the individuals on how they can engage with others by their emotions by using the frameworks of both primary and secondary emotion responses.
This therapy aligns with my own life experiences. I once had an experience of conflict with one of my best friends because I thought she did not have time for me anymore. She began to hand out with other classmates while we were supposed to continue without projects as we used to before. The feeling of loneliness made me depressed in the long run. Every time I come across her, we would do nothing but quarrel at each other. After some days, the issue worsens, and we couldn't stand each other anymore. We decided to visit a therapist because I was already getting depressed. We went through EFT that was recommended by the therapists. This is when we learned how to deal with our emotional problems and were eventually able to develop a healthy relationship that has lasted until today.
While emotion-focused therapy can offer clinically useful information to Christian practitioners, it has been proved to be congruent with the biblical understanding of marriage and intimate relationships. In this case, emotion-focused therapy is an empirically validated treatment approach that can treat different maladies including depression and anxiety. EFT is congruent with the biblical interpretation of marriage as it posits three primary philosophical tenets (Worrell, 2015) . Firstly, it views married couples, their problems, and solutions to the problems through the lens of neo-humanism. In the second tenet, EFT contends that changes to relationships may occur through the process of dialectical constructivism. Finally, it contends with the ideology that relationships are formed my emotional attachments, where the conceptualization of these relationships is referred to as the emotion scheme in the treatment of people (Johnson, 2018) .
References
Gurman, A. S., Lebow, J. L., & Snyder, D. K. (Eds.). (2015). Clinical handbook of couple therapy . Guilford Publications.
Holden, N., Kelly, J., Welford, M., & Taylor, P. J. (2017). The emotional response to a therapeutic technique: The social Broad Minded Affective Coping. Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice , 90 (1), 55-69.
Johnson, S. (2018). Attachment in Action–Changing the Face of 21 st Century Couple Therapy. Current opinion in psychology .
Schnackenberg, J. K., Fleming, M., & Martin, C. R. (2018). Experience Focussed Counselling with Voice Hearers as a Trauma-Sensitive Approach. Results of a Qualitative Thematic Enquiry. Community Mental Health Journal , 1-11.
Spinelli, M., Righi, O., Bonacini, E., Curati, G., Birocco, N., & Surbek, D. (2018). The Attachment Theory Today: From the Epigenetic Effects of Maternal Behavior to Psyco-Neuro-Endocrine-Immunology.
Worrell, M. (2015). Cognitive behavioral couple therapy: Distinctive features . Routledge.
