Caregiver openness in emotionally focused family therapy: A critical shift.

Publisher: Family Process Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0400666 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1545-5300 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 00147370 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Fam Process Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: New York, NY : Family Process
Original Publication: Baltimore [etc.]

Caregivers*/psychology ; Emotion-Focused Therapy*; Child ; Humans ; Family Therapy ; Family Relations

Through the application of a discovery-oriented task analysis, this research delineated specific therapist behaviors that resulted in a successful caregiver openness event in emotionally focused family therapy (EFFT). EFFT experts were recruited via email and asked to submit family therapy recordings where they believed a caregiver openness event occurred. Ten family therapy recordings were submitted by three experts. Within these recordings, 12 caregiver openness events were discovered and critically analyzed. Nine themes were identified and interventions therapists applied to accomplish these themes were delineated using the emotionally focused therapy-coding scheme (EFT-CS). These themes included: (1) validating and reframing the child's protected stance, (2) processing the impact of the child's unmet attachment longings, (3) validating the caregiver's blocked relational stance, (4) expanding caregiving intentions, (5) enacting the caregiver's intentions to meet the child's attachment longings, (6) processing the enactment, (7) processing and promoting caregiver accessibility to the child's response, (8) heightening the caregiver's accessible stance, and (9) enhancing shifting family dynamics. Additional findings, implications for clinical practice, training, and future research are discussed.
(© 2023 The Authors. Family Process published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Family Process Institute.)

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Keywords: attachment and family therapy; attachment and parents; caregiver accessibility; emotionally focused family therapy; emotionally focused therapy; parents and family therapy

Date Created: 20230614 Date Completed: 20231211 Latest Revision: 20240201

20240201

10.1111/famp.12902

37312637