3.50 CE Credits Available
Emotionally Focused Therapy in Action
by Sue Johnson
Dr. Sue Johnson has been hailed as “the most original contributor to couples therapy to come along in the last 30 years.” Now you’ll have the chance to watch her conduct an actual session with a challenging couple haunted by the “echoes of war.” 
Matt and Rhea are dispirited from their frequent fights, and their couples therapist is struggling to contain their heated conflict and help them reconnect with positive feelings. After serving in Iraq as a helicopter pilot, Matt has returned with a PTSD diagnosis and finds himself shutting down emotionally, leaving Rhea feeling hurt, abandoned, and more like an employee than a partner. But her desperate longing to be seen and appreciated comes out as escalating anger, leaving Matt feeling overwhelmed and wanting to withdraw further.

Johnson first consults with Matt and Rhea’s couples therapist, aided by video clips from prior sessions. Then you’ll see Johnson work with this couple in a brilliant demonstration of the subtlety and efficacy of EFT. In a single session, she helps them conceptualize their conflicts in attachment terms, gain an understanding of their negative cycle, and begin to reveal some of the vulnerable feelings that underlie their explosive anger. Commentary before, during, and after the consultation and session provides insight into her approach. 

What therapists are saying…

"What a bonanza to see Sue Johnson in two roles: as a consultant to an EFT trainee who was brave enough to show his mistakes on video, and then as a therapist with the same couple. This is at the top of my list of effective training videos."

-- William J. Doherty, PhD, Professor and Director of the Couples on the Brink Project, University of Minnesota; Author of The Intentional Family, and Soul Searching: Why Psychotherapy Must Promote Moral Responsibility
"An outstanding example of how to conduct state-of-the-art, evidence-based couples therapy; should be required viewing for all clinicians who work with couples in which a partner has returned from war. Quite simply, this is the best training video in our field I have ever seen."

-- Keith Armstrong, LCSW, Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, UCSF; Co-Author of Courage After Fire: Coping Strategies for Troops Returning from War and their Families
"Emotionally Focused Therapy in Action provides a valuable resource for novice and experienced couples therapist alike; it especially speaks to clinicians who are responding to the legacy of trauma. Further, this video provides an excellent resource for educators who teach the art and science of EFTC."

-- Jennifer Fitzgerald, PhD, Reviewed in Psychotherapy in Australia
"Watching her [Johnson] work on the second video with a military couple was like being entranced by a prima ballerina...People talk and write about the 'therapeutic alliance,' but to see this in action I recommend watching Sue Johnson. Not only did I learn about EFT from these DVDs, it was an emotionally heartwarming experience."

-- Rubin Battino, MS, Reviewed in The Milton H. Erickson Newsletter
"With her unique combination of compassion, clinical mastery, and theoretical brilliance, Dr. Sue Johnson makes sense of a couple's distress in terms of their individual attachment needs, and demonstrates how therapists can effectively navigate the complex emotional world of a couple in conflict through EFT. This video will be an integral part of couple's therapy training at my clinic and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their clinical skills with couples."

-- Julie Hanks, LCSW, Director of Wasatch Family Therapy, UT
"Overall, the video set and instructor manual offer a package that illustrates EFT for couples in a theoretically and pragmatically comprehensive fashion. The production quality is top-notch. The combination of the initial interview with Johnson, the consultation with the couple’s current therapist, Johnson’s session with the couple, and the afterword with Yalom makes this package an excellent instructional resource. At the same time, the depth of content and contemporary focus of the material will also make the package worthwhile viewing for experienced professionals as well."

-- Nancy Murdock, PhD & Adam Hinshaw, Reviewed in APA PsycCRITIQUES
"Overall, Emotionally Focused Therapy in Action is a well produced, informative, and humanizing view into an extremely important couple's treatment that has research proven results."

-- Samuel Gladding, PhD, Past-President, American Counseling Assoc; reviewed in The Professional Counselor: Research and Practice
In Depth
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If you have to choose only one video on couples therapy, this is definitely the one to get. In one program you'll see Johnson summarize the key principles of EFT, provide expert consultation, and then conduct a truly masterful session with a very challenging high conflict couple. All of the pieces came together in this production; we are very pleased with it, and have gotten rave reviews from our customers.

By watching this video you’ll learn:
• The core theory and principles of EFT;
• How to help couples identify the negative cycles that keep them stuck;
• Specific techniques to help clients access the primary emotions that drive their conflicts, including reframing, amplification, “relentless empathy,” and enactments.

Length of video: 3:36:00

English subtitles available

Individual ISBN-10 #: 1-60124-263-8

Group ISBN-10 #: 1-60124-264-6

Group ISBN-13 #: 978-1-60124-264-8

Dr. Sue Johnson is one of the originators and the main proponent of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT), now one of the best validated couples interventions in North America. She is Director of the Ottawa (Canada) Couple and Family Institute and the International Center for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy as well as Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Ottawa and Research Professor at Alliant University in San Diego, California.

She has received numerous honors for her work, including the Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Couple and Family Therapy Award from the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the Research in Family Therapy Award from the American Family Therapy Academy. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

She received her doctorate in Counseling Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1984. She is a registered psychologist in the province of Ontario, Canada, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, the Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy and the Journal of Family Psychology. She is a Research Professor in the Marital & Family Therapy Program at Alliant University in San Diego.

Her 2004 book (2nd Ed), The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy: Creating Connection (Brunner Rouledge) is a foundational text on EFT for couples. She is the senior editor of the 2003 book, Attachment Processes in Couples Therapy (Guilford Press), and the 1994 book, The Heart of the Matter (Guilford Press). She has also written a book on trauma and couples, Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors (2002).

She trains counselors in EFT worldwide and consults to Veterans Affairs, the U.S. and Canadian military and New York City Fire Department. Sue is an Approved Supervisor for the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy and is internationally known for her workshops and presentations on practice, theory and research in couple therapy, adult attachment and emotion in psychotherapy. She maintains a private practice and lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and two children.

To contact Dr. Johnson and learn more about her work, visit her website and The International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy.

See all Sue Johnson videos.

CE credits: 3.5

Learning Objectives:

  • Describe the core theory and principles of EFT
  • Explain how to help couples identify negative cycles that keep them stuck
  • Apply specific techniques to help clients access the primary emotions

Bibliography available upon request

This course is offered for ASWB ACE credit for social workers. See complete list of CE approvals here

© 2011

Course Reviewed January 2024

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