Sue Johnson
Also known as Susan Johnson, Susan M. Johnson, Dr. Sue Johnson
British-Canadian psychologist who created emotionally focused couples therapy.
At a glance
Roles
Emotionally focused couples therapy and International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) (Founded it to spread the model)
See all 2Main ideas
Love is attachment, Fights are a cycle, Beyond couples
See all 3Books to start with
Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love (2008), Love Sense (2013), Creating Connection (1996; 2nd ed. 2004) …
See all 5Connections
Attachment theory, John Bowlby and 6 others
See all 8
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Sue Johnson was a psychologist who created emotionally focused therapy for couples.
- She built it on attachment theory, treating adult love as a bond like a child's to a parent.
- Her doctoral research on recorded therapy sessions became the core of the model.
- She founded ICEEFT to train therapists and wrote Hold Me Tight for couples.
- She died in 2024.
Why it matters
- For couples and couples therapists: her model and books are a standard way to understand fights as attachment distress.
Key facts
- Born / Died
- 19 December 1947, Chatham, Kent, England – 23 April 2024, Victoria, British Columbia1
- Education
- BA in English literature, University of Hull (1968); EdD in counselling psychology, University of British Columbia (1984)1
- Positions
- Professor at the University of Ottawa (later emeritus); Distinguished Research Professor at Alliant International University1
- Known for
- Creating emotionally focused therapy for couples, developed with Les Greenberg1
- Founded
- Ottawa Couple and Family Institute (1998, with John Douglas, Gail Palmer and Alison Lee), then ICEEFT2
- Honours
- Member of the Order of Canada (2016); APA Family Psychologist of the Year (2016)1
- Best-known book
- Hold Me Tight (2008): over a million copies, more than 30 languages2
Roles
Main ideas
-
Love is attachment3
She treated attachment theory as a theory of adult love and emotion regulation; secure dependency on a partner is healthy.
-
Fights are a cycle3
Couples get stuck in a negative interactional "dance" that neither causes alone; therapy de-escalates it and builds new bonding moments.
-
Beyond couples2
At the University of Ottawa she helped develop EFT for individuals (EFIT) and families (EFFT).
Books to start with
-
Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love (2008)2
Her first book for the general public, built on seven conversations.
-
Published in 2013, five years after Hold Me Tight.
-
Creating Connection (1996; 2nd ed. 2004)1
Johnson on the couples model; first published 1996, second edition 2004.
-
Attachment Theory in Practice (2019)5
For clinicians: an attachment-based roadmap that extends EFT from couples to individual and family therapy, with case examples.
-
Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (1988, with Les Greenberg)1
The first manual of the approach.
Connections
Related
Writes
- Attachment Theory in Practice: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with Individuals, Couples, and FamiliesBook
- The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: Creating ConnectionBook
- Emotionally Focused Therapy for CouplesBook
- Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of LoveBook
- Love Sense: The Revolutionary New Science of Romantic RelationshipsBook
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
Is something on this page wrong or out of date? Tell us
The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.