Emotion-Focused Therapy

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the theory and practice of emotion-focused therapy (EFT), while giving special attention to the neuropsychological perspectives that help explain this approach to treatment. The authors elaborate how emotion theory is a fundamental part of the approach and discuss how this theory informs the treatment principles or ways of understanding emotional processing. They discuss how EFT focuses on accessing and utilizing adaptive emotions to promote transformation of maladaptive emotion structures and show how this promotes changing painful memories from the past by a process of memory reconsolidation. In addition, they refer to the outcome and process research of this approach and outline the principles of clinical practice.