Emotion-focused therapy

Primary adaptive emotion1

Your first, fitting reaction: sadness at a loss, anger at a violation, fear at a threat. It tells you what you need.

Primary maladaptive emotion1

Also a first reaction, but learned from old hurts, often trauma, so it no longer fits, such as anger at genuine care.

Secondary reactive emotion1

A reaction to an earlier feeling, like anger that covers sadness. It hides the emotion that needs attention.

Instrumental emotion1

Emotion shown to influence others, such as crocodile tears.

Emotion schemes1

Personal, learned organisations of feeling, meaning and action that fire automatically; Goldman and Greenberg call them the central catalyst of self-organisation.

Changing emotion with emotion1

Six principles guide the work: awareness, expression, regulation, reflection, transforming emotion with emotion, and corrective new experience.

Primary adaptive1

For example, someone whose close friend moves abroad feels sad: the feeling fits the loss and tells them they valued the closeness.

Primary maladaptive1

The source's own examples: "sadness at the joy of others, anger at the genuine caring or concern of others, fear at harmless situations".

Secondary reactive1

The source names "feeling anger to avoid sadness" and being "angry about being angry, afraid of their fear".

Anger covering hurt1

For example, a client who says "I'm furious he didn't call" may find, slowed down, that the first feeling was hurt at being forgotten: the anger is secondary, the hurt primary.

Instrumental1

The source's examples: crocodile tears (instrumental sadness), bullying (instrumental anger), "crying wolf" (instrumental fear) and feigned embarrassment (instrumental shame).

Two-chair: the critic speaks9

In recorded EFT sessions the critic said things like "you're not worth anything", "don't feel just do" and "you're not living up to what I expect you".

Two-chair: the criticised self answers9

The other side pushed back: "Stop putting me down", "I need you to give me a break and get off my back", "I have a right to be myself".

Two-chair: the critic softens9

When the critic softened it said things like "I'm gonna stop making you these demand on you" and "you did everything you could have done".

Empty chair: speaking to a parent9

Clients told an imagined parent what they had needed: "maybe I needed you to hug me and tell me that it was still okay instead of yelling at me" and "I deserve to have mom who loved me".

Empty chair: grieving and letting go10

A client grieving a lost relationship told the empty chair "I lost you. I lost a part of myself. I have never recovered", and afterwards said "I am sad but I am glad. Do you know what I mean?"

Empathy first2

The therapist follows the client's experience closely and creates a safe, soothing setting so painful feelings can be approached rather than avoided.

Markers point to tasks1

The therapist listens for a marker, a sign of a specific problem, and offers the task that fits it.

Self-critical split1

When one part of the client attacks another, a two-chair dialogue lets the critic and the criticised side speak to each other.

Unfinished business1

Lingering hurt or resentment towards a significant person is worked with in an empty-chair dialogue, aiming to let go of resentment and unmet needs.

Unclear feelings and puzzling reactions1

A vague feeling is explored with focusing; a reaction that puzzles the client is slowed down with systematic evocative unfolding.

Three phases for depression2

Build emotional awareness, regulate unhealthy emotional responses, then use healthy emotions to guide action.

Equal to CBT for depression3

In a 2003 trial of 66 clients over 16 weeks, process-experiential therapy and CBT worked about equally; EFT reduced interpersonal problems more.

Large effects against no treatment, small against other therapy4

A 2026 meta-analysis of 13 studies found g = 1.39 against inactive controls and a non-significant g = 0.28 against other therapies.

Study quality is a weak point4

The same meta-analysis flagged publication bias, small samples, weak randomisation and narrow samples, calling EFT modestly effective.

Generalised anxiety5

A 2022 feasibility trial of 58 people found EFT and CBT gave similar large gains, kept at six months.

Self-criticism6

A 2026 meta-analysis found moderate-to-large reductions in self-criticism and called the support preliminary.

Does the theory matter?1

Campbell Purton argued the tasks work without the emotion-scheme theory; others dispute whether arousal or a mismatch with expectations drives change.

Emotion-Focused Therapy: Coaching Clients to Work Through Their Feelings (Greenberg, 2002; 2nd ed. 2015)7

Greenberg's own book on the approach, and the place to begin.

Emotion-Focused Therapy (Greenberg, 2011)7

A short overview of the theory and practice.

Facilitating Emotional Change (Greenberg, Rice and Elliott, 1993)7

The original treatment manual that set out the tasks.

Learning Emotion-Focused Therapy (Elliott, Watson, Goldman and Greenberg, 2004)7

The working therapist's guide to the tasks and principles.

Emotion-Focused Counselling in Action (Elliott and Greenberg, 2021)8

A recent, practical introduction for counsellors.