Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is an evidence-based psychotherapy developed by Dr. Sue Johnson and Dr. Les Greenberg, grounded in attachment theory — the scientific understanding of how human beings form and maintain emotional bonds. EFT works with the emotional underpinnings of psychological difficulties and relational patterns, helping patients understand, process, and transform the emotional experiences that drive their presenting difficulties.
EFT is available at IsraClinic in individual and couples formats.
EFT is built on attachment theory — developed by John Bowlby — which describes how the need for safe, secure emotional connection is a fundamental human motivation throughout the lifespan. When this need is threatened or chronically unmet — in childhood, in adult relationships, or through traumatic experiences — the result is emotional dysregulation, relational difficulties, depression, anxiety, and a range of other difficulties.
EFT works directly with these attachment dynamics — helping patients identify the emotional experiences and interactional patterns maintaining their difficulties, and transforming them into more adaptive and secure responses.
In individual format, EFT has a strong evidence base for depression, anxiety disorders, trauma and complex PTSD — particularly where attachment disruptions and relational trauma are central — and for presentations involving chronic emotional difficulties, difficulty accessing emotions, and longstanding relational patterns.
In couples format, EFT is one of the most evidence-based approaches for relationship distress. Research demonstrates significant and lasting improvement in relationship satisfaction, emotional connection, and communication. EFT for couples addresses the negative interactional cycles — pursuit and withdrawal, escalating conflict, emotional distance — that maintain relationship distress, and works to create a more secure emotional bond between partners.
EFT is also well-suited for complicated grief, identity difficulties, and presentations involving shame.
EFT follows a structured three-stage process:
Stage 1 — De-escalation. The therapist helps identify and step back from the negative interactional patterns or emotional responses that are maintaining the difficulties. The underlying emotions driving these patterns are accessed and explored.
Stage 2 — Restructuring. Deeper emotional experiences are explored and expressed — including the attachment needs and fears driving the surface-level patterns. New, more vulnerable and authentic emotional engagement emerges, leading to new interactional responses.
Stage 3 — Consolidation. The new patterns and emotional responses are strengthened, and the patient or couple develops a more coherent narrative of their experience and their change.
EFT is conducted directly in English, Russian and Hebrew — without an interpreter. The emotional depth of EFT work — accessing vulnerable emotional experiences and navigating complex relational dynamics — requires direct linguistic and cultural communication.
A foundational element of EFT work is the creation of a safe therapeutic space — a consistent, non-judgmental environment in which the patient or couple can access and express emotional experiences that are ordinarily defended against or avoided. The therapist's attunement, presence, and emotional availability are not incidental to the process — they are the condition that makes the deeper work possible.
At IsraClinic, EFT is uniquely combined with art therapy — both in individual and couples sessions. This integration is led by Valery Kravitz, who is trained in both modalities. The combination is particularly powerful in couples work: when partners find it difficult to say something directly to each other — when the words feel too charged, too risky, or simply unavailable — they draw. They create images side by side, or in response to each other. Then they look, interpret, and in that process become aware — of what they feel, of what the other carries, of what has been present but unspoken between them. This pathway through image and creation often reaches places that direct verbal exchange cannot. The integration of EFT and art therapy is offered where clinically appropriate and agreed with the patient or couple at the outset of treatment.
EFT is delivered within an integrated clinical framework. Where pharmacotherapy is also involved, the EFT therapist and treating psychiatrist work in close coordination.
All EFT at IsraClinic is delivered within the framework of the Psychoergonomic Method — ensuring the approach accounts for this specific patient's attachment history, emotional structure, and clinical needs.
Individual EFT is indicated for depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, and presentations where emotional processing difficulties, attachment-related patterns, or relational dynamics are central to the clinical picture.
Couples EFT is indicated when relationship distress is significant — repetitive conflict, emotional distance, loss of intimacy, aftermath of infidelity or betrayal, and difficulties in the couple relationship arising from one partner's psychiatric condition or life transition.
IsraClinic accepts patients for in-person consultation in Tel Aviv and online, in English, Russian and Hebrew. No referral is required.
Lead Therapist: Valery Kravitz — Certified Art Therapist & Clinical Programme Curator | IsraClinic | Last reviewed: 2026
Emotional connection — with yourself and with those closest to you — is at the heart of wellbeing. If you would like to discuss whether EFT is right for your situation, our team is available in English, Russian and Hebrew.