INTERVENTIONS IN EMOTIONALLY FOCUSED SPOIL THERAPY

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Major interventions in EFST.

Reflection. The therapist pays attention to and reflects the currently most visible emotion. The therapist communicates his understanding of the experience and directs the client's attention to this experience. Reflection is not just echoing or paraphrasing the client's words; it requires considerable concentration on the part of the therapist and empathic immersion in the client's inner world. The therapist traces the client's experiences, processes them together with him and realizes how this person, step by step, builds up his experiences. The therapist notes and vocalizes changes in the flow of experience, for example, if there is a sudden change in the client's level of emotional involvement or is “stuck” and unable to find words.

Accurate reflection allows the client to feel heard and reckoned with. In this way, the therapy session becomes a safe space and the therapist is perceived as an ally. Reflection directs the client's attention inward, sharpens the perception of their own experiences, and also slows down the process of interpersonal communication in the session. Reflection emphasizes the importance of certain statements and focuses the therapeutic process. Reflection, as it were, turns the experience towards the light, so that its facets become visible. Reflection is a medium that helps clients grasp and experience something from their experience that seemed vague. It can smooth out, and maybe accentuate the experience, depending on how you use it. Good reflection is the first step in making the client's experience alive, tangible, specific, accurate, and active.

Confession. The therapist communicates to clients that each of them has a right to their experiences and emotional reactions. If necessary, the therapist distinguishes between the experiences of one partner and the intentions of the other partner. Confirmation by the therapist creates a sense of security, reduces overall levels of anxiety, and counteracts devaluation and self-defense. Recognition is countering limited self-perception and self-presentation based on self-criticism or expectation of judgment from others.

Awakening reflections. Awakening responses focus primarily on perceived, unclear, or currently emerging aspects of the partner's experience and encourage exploration and engagement. The therapist avoids superficial topics and conversation and addresses the client's emotions. He tries to “live” the quality of the experience, often using awakening images. This helps the client to structure their experiences in a more lively and differentiated way. Reflections can focus on how signals from a partner are perceived and experienced. The therapist brings clients to the forefront of their experience and suggests taking the next step in articulating and symbolically expressing that experience.

Gain. As the therapist monitors the internal and interpersonal processes unfolding in each of the partners and in the pair, he can also highlight and enhance certain reactions and interactions. Usually these are the reactions and interactions that play a major role in maintaining the destructive aspects of the relationship, if positive new interactions arise, the therapist acts in a similar way. Amplification brings the underlying emotional experience into focus so that it can now be used to transform experiences and interactions. There are several ways to do this:

- repeat a phrase to enhance its meaning;

- the very manner of speaking about something can enhance the experience. The therapist leans forward, slows down and lowers the tone of voice when he wants to increase the experienced vulnerability and insecurity, and raises his voice, increasing the manifestation of determination;

- use vivid, capacious images, metaphors that describe the quintessence of the experience;

- manage performances in interaction, transferring intrapsychic experience into the plane of communication between partners;

- to hold, sometimes very stubbornly, a certain focus of attention. The therapist blocks attempts to leave or change the direction of the experienced, not allowing the emotional tension of the moment to be relaxed.

Literature:

Johnson M. Practice of Emotionally Focused Marriage Therapy