This post is part 2 of a series.

The emotion-focused couples therapist guides clients to first fully connect with and understand their emotions, and then create new responses and interaction patterns (Johnson, 2007). Emotionally focused therapists use emotion tracking, reflecting, and heightening to help clients recognize their emotional responses and ultimately shift their emotional responses from secondary emotions (a.k.a. “hard” emotions like anger and hostility) to primary emotions (a.k.a. “softer” emotions like sadness or fear).

Encouraging clients to express their underlying primary emotions restructures the couples’ communication patterns. The goal of restructuring interactions is to have partners respond to each other with more responsiveness and support, as would a responsive caregiver. This results in a more secure attachment between partners (Johnson,........

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