Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) benefits your kids
“The greatest gift a parent has to give a child—and a lover has to give a lover—is emotionally attuned attention and timely responsiveness.” ~ Sue Johnson
Couples therapy helps partners feel empowered to overcome challenges they may be facing.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), created by Sue Johnson, is a transformational therapy for couples focusing on emotions and attachment bonds.
EFT has numerous benefits for children, even when they are not directly involved in the therapy sessions.
Improved Family Relationships
One of the key benefits of the EFT approach to couples therapy is its understanding of attachment theory in creating improved family relationships.
As couples work through distress and emotional disconnection, they strengthen their emotional bond--the entire family benefits from this change process.
Children who grow up in households with solid and secure relationships between parents are more likely to have healthy relationships as adults. They are also more likely to have a positive outlook on relationships and a more resilient approach to managing conflict.
Better Emotional Regulation
Children in homes where parents can find healthy expression for their emotions are more likely to develop solid emotional regulation skills themselves.
Emotion-focused therapy helps couples learn to express authentic, vulnerable feelings, which results in an expanded repertoire to meet the emotional needs of their children.
This change process reduces stress for the couple and their children. Behavioral problems diminish, and a positive emotional experience for all becomes available. The emotional intelligence within the entire family is enhanced.
Increased Sense of Security and Stability
Couples therapy can heal and re-configure negative patterns in relationships, restoring warmth and closeness. As a result, children feel a greater sense of security and stability.
Children in blended families, or those who may have experienced trauma or instability in their family relationships especially need a secure base.
EFT supports creating a warm, stable, and supportive environment that meets children's attachment needs and allows children to thrive.
Improved Communication and Problem-Solving Skills
Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples offers new solutions for open and effective communication.
When parents express a wide range of feeling to each other, they decrease emotional distress within the family.
EFT has many benefits, including parents enhanced capacity to model a wide range of emotions -- especially vulnerable feelings of being scared, sad, and hurt. Children in turn feel safe to express themselves more openly, create new emotional experiences, and are resourceful in solving problems.
Reduced Behavioral Problems
Children feel the disconnection between parents and act out their distress even without open conflict.
Children who grow up in households with solid and stable relationships between parents are less likely to exhibit behavioral problems.
EFT therapy can help reduce behavioral issues by reducing emotional distance, increasing nurturance, and providing children with an emotionally warm, reliable environment.
Better Academic Performance
The EFT model is useful for couples, often with unexpected benefits.
Children who grow up in households with solid parental relationships are more likely to perform better academically.
A stable and secure environment allows children to focus on their studies and develop a positive outlook on education.
Emotional Intelligence
EFT focuses on helping couples understand and express their emotions.
When parents can effectively restructure their communication patterns and create healthy emotional responses, they can provide a more stable and supportive environment for their children.
As parents effectively express emotions, children are more likely to develop solid skills for self-expression and have a positive outlook on relationships.
“When we love our partner well, we offer a blueprint for a loving relationship to our children and their partners.” ~ Sue Johnson
How EFT Couples Therapy Supports Children
The Role of Parents in the Therapy Process
When distressed couples seek therapy to restore their connection, those closest to them feel it-- especially their kids.
Children benefit from this process even when they are not directly involved in family therapy sessions. As couples recognize and embrace positive changes, these spill over onto the entire family unit.
The Importance of a Secure Attachment Bond
This type of therapy focuses on the emotional bond between partners.
A secure parental bond is crucial for the well-being of children, as it provides them with a sense of security and stability. When parents can work on their relationship and strengthen their attachment, children benefit from the positive emotional environment in the household.
The Role of Positive Interaction Patterns
Using EFT therapy helps couples identify and change negative interaction patterns.
As couples experience more responsive engagement with each other, positive interchanges, such as authentic expression of a wide range of emotions, can be modeled for children -- who, in turn, find the freedom of their self-expression.
Improved interactions lead to a more positive and supportive household environment for children to grow and develop.
Summary of how EFT can help kids
EFT for couples is a structured approach that is collaborative and respectful of clients. It enhances family relationships and benefits children's development.
The goal of EFT, helping couples find a safe emotional bond, positively impacts the entire family unit.
A stable and secure family environment is crucial for the well-being of children. The EFT process helps parents create supportive and nurturing relationships where their children can grow and thrive.
Parents who work with an EFT therapist can see benefits for their children. Improved family relationships, better connections emotionally, more bonding interactions, increased sense of security and stability, improved communication and problem-solving skills, reduced behavioral problems, and better academic performance are just a few of the positive impacts on children.
EFT can help create an emotionally warm, reliable, and supportive home life. By focusing on sharing a range of emotions, EFT helps the couple strengthen their relationship and provides an emotionally nurturing environment for children to thrive.
EFT couples therapy is backed by a substantial body of research and has achieved a standard of excellence in emotionally focused therapy. It is a proven process of change that has a profound and lasting impact on families and children.
Find out how Emotionally Focused Therapy can help you and your kids
EFT is here to help many different kinds of couples and many types of families. Give your kids the opportunity to experience the benefits of happy parents. Contact me today.