Creating Secure Connection in Couples Therapy: An Emotionally Focused Approach

CPD

Handouts

Faculty

Kathryn Rheem, EdD, LMFT Related seminars and products

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Kathryn Rheem, EdD, LMFT, has been using the empirically-validated EFT approach exclusively in private practice for nearly twenty years and continues to study and learn the model daily. She works extensively with couples where one or both partners have endured trauma and has written and presented on the application of EFT with trauma numerous times.

As an international EFT trainer, she collaborates with Dr. Sue Johnson, the primary developer of EFT, to bring EFT to populations worldwide. Together, Sue and Kathryn created Strong Bonds, Strong Couples, LLC, which provided EFT-based weekend retreat for soldiers and Marines coming home from war and their partners at military installations in the US and abroad.

Kathryn is the director of the Washington Baltimore Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy. She was voted a Top Couples Therapist in Washington, D.C., by the Washingtonian Magazine. She is a clinical fellow and approved supervisor of AAMFT and has written 15 articles/chapters on the application of EFT with trauma.

 

 

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial: Kathryn Rheem is the director of the Washington Baltimore Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy (WBCEFT). She receives a speaking honorarium from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.

Non-financial:  Kathryn Rheem has no relevant non-financial relationship to disclose.
 

Outline

1. Overview of EFT
   1. EFT has 3 Stages and 9 Steps
   2. Goal:  To help Couples Become Aware of Negative Interactional Patterns
   3. Three Elements Include:  Attachment, Systemic View, Focus on Emotions
2. 5 Basic Moves of EFT
   1. Reflect and Distill Present Process
   2. Unfold Deeper or New Emotions
   3. Turn New Experience into new Steps/signals to partner
   4. Explore How Each Experiences the New Steps
   5. Integrate and Validate
   6. Core Assumptions of EFT
3. EFT Review of Pertinent Research
   1. Demonstrates 90% Increase in Satisfaction
   2. EFT Studied with fMRI
4. EFT Focuses on Attachment and Bonding
   1. Interactional Patterns Reflect Attachment Styles
   2. Differentiating Primary and Secondary Emotions
   3. Insecurity Leads to Predictable Reactions
5. Three Forms of Attachment Insecurity
   1. Anxious
   2. Avoidant
   3. Chaotic
6. Treatment
   1. Involves Limbic Resonance, Regulation, and Revision
   2. Reciprocal Cycles Between Partners
7. EFT Interventions Toward Developing Secure Attachments
   1. Intrapsychic
   2. Interpersonal
   3. Interactional Patterns
   4. 7 Steps of Intervention
8. Stages of EFT
   1. De-escalation
   2. Re-structure the Bond
   3. Consolidation

Objectives

• Discover how to differentiate each partner’s emotions in order to contain reactive emotion and evoke vulnerabilities
• Discover how to recognize and assess each partner’s role in destructive patterns of interaction
• Discover how to restructure couples’ negative patterns and stay in process when they become emotionally activated
• Discover how to use voice, reflection, and validation to help partners share their deepest vulnerabilities

Target Audience