Do you find it hard to control your emotions? Do your emotions often dictate your response? Do you wish you had the techniques to harness your emotions and move forward with your life? Are times, is it hard to figure out “what you’re feeling?”
If you answered yes to any of the above, I encourage you to explore Emotion-Focused Therapy or EFT.
EFT is an approach to therapy treatment based on the premise that our emotions are key to our identity and a guide for decision making. When we lack awareness of our emotions or avoid unpleasant emotions, we are unable to use the information provided by these emotions. The goal of EFT is to develop a greater understanding of “what you’re feeling” and “how your emotions affect your actions.”
Emotions are akin to road signs on your daily drive. If you “ignore*” a road sign here or there you will – probably – be ok. However, if you consistently ignore road signs as a practice, you’re most likely going to end up a costly accident. The same can be said about your emotions, you may get away with ignoring an emotion here-or-there but over time, it’s going to be more detrimental. Moreover, if enough time that passes, of ignoring, you may even forget what the road signs mean (think, do you remember what solid and striped road lines mean?). EFT is about understanding what is driving force behind your behaviors. How those emotions affect who you are today and how to best respond to them.
*although, in driving, you should not ignore any signs of the road :).
EFT helps individuals to:
- Become more aware of their emotions
- Welcome, allow and regulate emotions
- Describe emotions clearly and in detail
- Evaluate whether the emotions are helpful or hurtful
- Identify the source of unhelpful emotions
- Develop alternative, healthy ways of coping with situations that often elicit hurtful emotions
Unlike other therapeutic approaches, EFT assumes that emotion can be a source of healing and works with specific emotions to increase adaptation.
If you are seeking help identifying, utilizing, and processing your emotions, I encourage you to contact me today. Together, we’ll work on increasing awareness of emotions, separating useful from hurtful emotions, and using healthy emotions to guide action.
Contact me today. I look forward to speaking with you about how I can help.