Emotionally Focused Family Therapy: Facilitating Change Within a Family System

Abstract

Adolescent transition to adulthood is often challenged in families with high levels of anxiety, distress, and emotional conflict. Attachment theory offers a robust developmental model for conceptualizing emotional distress and symptomatic behavior as an adaptive response to emotional insecurity in parent–child relationships. Recent developments in emotionally focused family therapy (EFFT) and attachment-based family therapy demonstrate promising empirical support for the application of attachment theory to the treatment of childhood disorders and family distress. However, few resources exist that demonstrate the practice of EFFT and its conceptual approach to facilitate family change. The authors demonstrate the successful application of EFFT to a parent–adolescent problem and examine key moments in the process of change from an attachment perspective.