Running Head: INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 1

An Integrative Look at EFT from A Catholic Perspective: The Author’s Theory of Change
Brian O'Neill
Trinity Western University
MFT 697: Comprehensive Exam

Ian Verseveldt, John Auxier, & Estera Boldut

April 18, 2017

 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 2

Introduction
This essay is an attempt to integrate the therapeutic, theoretical, anthropological, and philosophical assumptions
of EFT with a Catholic Christian epistemology, theology, and anthropology. Section I. defines the terms and
assumptions of this essay, discussing: modernism, postmodernism, and this author’s epistemology; the relationship
of special and general revelation; this author’s theological tradition; the place of spirituality in therapy; what the
terms psychology, systems theory, and theology refer to; and Emotionally Focused Therapy’s (EFT) (the corner-
stone theory of this essay) origins, strengths, weaknesses, and compatibilities with Catholic Christianity. Section II.
provides this author’s theory of personality, including the interplay of affect, cognition, and behavior. A theological
and psychological model of human wholeness and well-functioning is discussed in section III followed by
discussions of this author’s corresponding models of human brokenness and change in sections IV. and V.,
respectively. Section VI delineates the author’s current client population and the roles of therapist and clients. The
essay’s concluding section VII. offers summary comments and points of further interest. What is the purpose of
integrating a Christian worldview with psychology and why is a spiritual/religious worldview an important
dimension of the human experience in therapy? In introductory terms, suffice it to say that (a) a client’s spirituality
and religious views are pertinent to therapy in as much as they impact and the client’s experiences of self,
relationships, and reality; (b) the therapist’s understanding of their own convictions about reality and human nature
are fundamentally important considerations to therapy in as much as they inform and bias his/her therapeutic
conceptualizations and engagement; and (c) as a professional discipline, client and therapist spirituality and beliefs
are increasingly recognized as important considerations for assessment, intervention, and ethical engagement of self
with awareness of the influence of client and therapist subjectivity on experiences of reality and therapeutic process
(Corey, Corey, & Callanan, 2014).
Section I: Definition of Terms and Foundational Assumptions
Epistemology, Modernism, Postmodernism, and Realism
Epistemology is “the study of knowledge and justified belief… [concerning] the necessary and sufficient
conditions of knowledge,” sources of knowledge, and how knowledge is created and disseminated (Steup, 2005).
More simply, epistemology is concerned with whether there is an object reality (an ontological question), how it is
known, and to what degree it can be known (Auxier, 2017). Modernism was the post-Enlightenment “Age of
Progress” (late 1800’s to early/mid 1900’s) rooted in 17th century Europe’s birth of science-based secularism and
which gave rise to the scientific and industrial revolutions (Modernism, 2016). With elevated faith in human
rationality, modernist thinkers (e.g., Darwin, Freud, Jung, Einstein, Nietzsche, and Karl Marx) rejected tradition and
held the god-like goals of: control, prediction, and explanation, impacting nearly every sphere of thought and life
(Modernism, 2016; Uba, 2002). Modernism combined Cartesian doubt, empiricism, and an Enlightenment
(Baconian) view of scientific knowledge (knowledge being gained by use of reason “and carefully measured
observation to test explanations against evidence”), leading to a positivist, objectivist ontology and epistemology:
believing that there is an objective reality that is identifiable, measurable, and knowable with objectivity, certainty,
logic, and generalizability (Socholotiuk, 2015; Uba, p. 2). The corresponding reductionism, dualism, determinism,
hypothetical-deductive scientific method, and materialist view of life and reality meant a rejection of theology
(revelation) and, in some regards, philosophy as sources of knowledge and a restriction of science to inquiries of the
empirical (non-spiritual). German psychology was linked to philosophy whereas American psychology (before and
after World War I) identified as an empirical science and increasingly adopted empiricism and modernist scientific
beliefs and research methods (Manicas, 1987, in Uba). The problem with modernism and positivism is that they
overlook how one’s experience and knowledge of reality is colored by one’s subjectivity. Gradual modernist distrust
of Victorian positivism made room for a post-positivist epistemology of realism which holds that an objective reality
exists but is imperfectly perceivable or knowable due to the observer’s subjective experience of reality, values, and
biases (Modernism; Socholotiuk). With post-modernism, the pendulum went to the other extreme. Its emphasis on
subjectivity led to relativism and a subjectivist epistemology which holds that “knowledge” is gained through one’s
interaction with the world but is filtered through one’s social context, values, and perceptual schema such that one’s
reality is subjectively constructed - one of innumerable constructed realities which, ultimately, exist only in the
minds of the perceivers (Socholotiuk; Socholotiuk, Domene, & Trenholm, n.d.).
Followed to their logical conclusions, modernist positivism and post-modern subjectivism are
philosophically and practically inadequate epistemologies for the study of human experience and existence,
especially if the spiritual aspect of human nature and existence it to be considered. Subjectivism denies the
possibility of having any reliable knowledge about the world - or that one even exists. This conflicts with the reality
that human beings, despite the confines of human subjectivity, have been able to empirically gather an ever-
increasing amount of reliable, generalizable, and certain knowledge about the universe – as evidenced by the
technologies through which these very concepts have been transmitted to the present reader. The subjectivist (along
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 3

with the strict materialist who holds that all of life is merely the product of chance chemical interactions) must
question their very capacity for logic or knowing, suggesting the very ideas of “knowledge” and “meaning” to be
delusions. Modernist positivism is an inadequate epistemological basis for studying the diverse aspects of human
nature and experience (material and spiritual) since the modernist, materialist method of science may not be
applicable to all human phenomena – ideologically precluding the study or understanding of preternatural (spiritual)
phenomena. Epistemology and methods of study ought to be formed and/or selected according to the nature of the
reality being studied (Coe & Hall, 2010; Uba, 2002).1
The ontological and cosmological assumption of this author is that human nature and reality consist of
material and/or spiritual substance, thus requiring an epistemology broad enough in scope to permit examination of
all facets of reality and all sources of knowledge to arrive at the most rational and comprehensive beliefs possible.
Hence, this author ascribes to a classical or critical realist epistemology, holding that an objective and discoverable
reality exists while acknowledging that data does not spontaneously produce objective fact (a modernist view) but
that data is interpreted such that every science, theory, experience, and study of reality is colored by the researchers’
presuppositions and unique, cumulative experience and knowledge (cultural, epistemological, ethical, moral, and
metaphysical) (Jones, 2010). With a pre-Cartesian (non-dualist), scholastic view of human nature and an integrative
view of the relationship of Christianity and psychology, this author assumes that the human faculties (senses and
reason) can be applied to gain knowledge (empirical and philosophical) about all aspects of reality while faith and
revelation give the intellect wings with which to soar beyond the limits of pure reason and empirical observation
(Pope John Paul II, 1998; cf. Pope Paul VI, 1964; 1965). Hence, it is assumed that scientific (empirical), rational, and
theological (revelation-based) study of a reality should produce increasingly convergent and complementary
knowledge to the degree that they discover true understanding of that same reality. This author rejects: (a) the idea
that science and special revelation are studying different realities; (b) logical positivism’s claim that truth can be
discovered only by logic and empirical study; and (c) the idea that religion is at odds with empirical science such that
one must seek truth only from special revelation (Jones). In as much as science and Christianity each have
presuppositions and value-based perspectives and approaches that color their respective gathering and interpretation
of data, it is important to be conscious of one’s biases and perceptions and, as much as possible, be methodical in
science, rational in argument, and consistent with Christian epistemology, anthropology, ethics, metaphysics, and
tradition (Jones).
Practically speaking, EFT ascribes to realism as evidenced in its characteristic practice of the therapist
seeking to gain an understanding of the interpersonal dynamic (an objective reality) with continual checking of
his/her understanding to verify or sharpen its accuracy (suggesting that an objective reality and can be known, though
through the observer’s subjective filters). The acknowledgement and mapping out of how each person in a system
experiences interactional patterns or given events differently also points to a realist epistemological view of reality
and knowing: there are knowable objective realities but they are known (experienced) differently and with varying
accuracy according to the knower’s (subjective) perceptual filters.
General Revelation and Special Revelation (Public and Private)
By “revelation” this author will be referring to the self-revelation of the Judeo-Christian God to humankind.
“General revelation” refers to that which can be known about God through the study and experience of creation
(especially human nature as image of God) through the human faculties (bodily senses and reason) - based on the
assumption that the creation reflects the Creator. According to foundationalism, general revelation is an overarching
metanarrative of truths that are enduring and accessible to all (Auxier, Jan 24, 2017). “Special revelation” refers to
the Trinity’s direct (supernatural) self-manifestation to humankind as through Theophonies, angels, visions, miracles
(suspension of the physical laws of nature), and, most perfectly, through Jesus Christ: the incarnation of the second
Person of the Trinity - the dabaar YHWH (Isa 55:11), Emmanuel – God with us (Isa 7:14; Mt 1:23), the Logos
become flesh that “made his dwelling among us… who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:1,14).2
“Public revelation” refers to God’s special revelation up to and including the apostolic era which has been handed on
(gk: paredōka. Cf. 1 Cor 11:2, 23; 15:3) through the Catholic and Apostolic tradition (gk: paradoseis. Cf. 1 Cor 11:2;
2 Thes 2:15) and which came to include the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Christian dogma (faith and morals) are
based on general revelation and special revelation (the definitive Word of the Father). Since, through Christ, God
“has said everything,” no new public revelation is expected until the second coming of Christ (Catechism, 2003, no.
65). Yet, revelation “has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full
1
“There is neither a logic nor an empirical reason for assuming that methods used in one disciplinary domain or level of analysis should
necessarily be appropriate for another” (Uma, 2002, p. 3).
2
Theophonies (Gen11:5, Ex 3; 33; 34:5; Nm 11:25; 12:5; & Mt 3:16-17; 17:5 and parallels), angels (Gen 19:1 Gen 19:21 ; Gen 31:11 Gen
31:13 ; Ex 3:2 Ex 3:4 ; Jg 2:1-5 ; Jg 6:11-12;14; 13:3, 6, 8-11, 13, 15-17, 20-23; Zech 3:1-6; 12:8 Dan 10:5, 20; 12:1 ), and visions (Lev 9:23 ; Nm
14:10; 16:19, 42; 20:6; Rev).
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significance over the course of the centuries” (Catechism, no. 66). “Private revelation” refers to mystical phenomena
such as apparitions or locutions which provide no new dogmatic information but, if approved after investigation by
the Catholic Church, are deemed worthy of belief for the upbuilding of the faithful.
This Author’s Academic and Theological Background
This author situates himself within the Catholic tradition with deep appreciation for the Orthodox Churches’
celebration and articulation of the mysteries of salvation. Accordingly, the author holds Catholic Tradition as the
source (media) of special revelation, which includes Catholic and Orthodox liturgy and dogma, the Bible, ecumenical
documents and, with lesser authority, papal documents, and declarations. This author also acknowledges the
following as theological sources of insight into special revelation and the human condition: the writings of the early
Church Fathers, Desert Fathers, Doctors of the Church, and monastic tradition as well as the lives of the mystics and
Saints, approved apparitions and private revelations, and Christianity’s accumulated experience of helping and
observing the interplay of the spiritual realm, sin, and mental health (Coe & Hall, 2010b). The terms “Catholic” and
“Christian” (and variations thereof) will be used interchangeably. With four years of studies in the empirical sciences
followed by eight years of Roman Catholic seminary formation (completing degrees in philosophy and theology),
this writer values both empirical and theological sciences as necessary and complimentary contributors to a complete
understanding of human experience. The author’s decade of deliverance ministry experience brings a keen awareness
of the reality of the spiritual realm and its relevance in therapeutic considerations. Hence, this author sees a
complimentary overlap psychology and spirituality and the import of spiritual assessment in therapeutic practice with
awareness that symptoms of dysfunction may not necessarily be purely spiritual or purely psychological in nature
and/or origin (Peck, 1985; cf. Velimirovich, 1999).
Spirituality and Its Role in Human Experience and Therapy
“Spirituality” will here refer to practices and beliefs concerning the incorporeal or immaterial aspects of life
and reality, including the human spirit or soul, the spiritual (angelic) realm, Divinity, prayer, and meditation and
thereby viewing the person as body, mind, and spiritual soul.3 Spirituality may also include attachment or sensitivity
to religious matters, rituals, or values. Spirituality can provide a richness of identity, purpose, and framework of
meaning making by which experiences are appropriated into one’s working view of realty (schema). Religious and
spiritual practice have been found, generally, to positively impact mental health and "may play a central role in the
psychological recovery process in mental illness and substance abuse" (Mohr & Huguelette, 2009, p. 233). Some
religious practices, beliefs, or spiritual states (e.g., demonic obsession or possession) may also hinder psychiatric
treatment (Mohr & Huguelette; Peck, 1985). Spirituality is often of foundational significance in a spiritual person’s
life and meaning-making. Clients who hold spiritual progress in high priority may also become more invested in
therapy and may benefit more from therapy if it incorporates spiritual resources and spirituality (Mercer, 2013). To
consider and incorporate that which a client values honors the client. Spiritual and religious assessment is therefore
an important part of culturally sensitive clinical practice, helping to understand the role that spirituality plays in a
client's life and to determine the appropriateness and potential impact of incorporating a client’s spirituality in the
therapeutic relationship and process (Cashwell & Young, 2011; Milnes, 2013; Mohr & Huguelette, 2009). Canda
(1990) proposed that the use of prayer in therapy may be appropriate if: "the client is assessed as (likely to be)
interested; a spiritually sensitive relationship has been established" and the client’s religious and spiritual background
was assessed (including how spirituality and religion are impacting the client); and the therapist is qualified and has a
"well-developed spiritual self-awareness" (as cited in Milnes, p. 78). Spiritual assessment may also help relieve
clients' belief-based resistances toward therapy and may provide insight into triggers, psychological conflicts,
projections onto God or others (e.g., from unhealthy parental relationships), and guilt over sin or lapses of judgment
that may underlie resistance or religious expressions of psychological disturbance (Koenig, 2009). Some spiritual
practices or interventions may be therapeutically effective (some of which resembling research-based therapeutic
interventions).4 5 Therapy which incorporates a client’s spirituality can also help clients grow spiritually by
3
More secular or New Age views may be less specific or personifying as to what constitutes the spiritual or what is spiritual in nature.
4
For instance, Theophostic Prayer® seeks to identify maladaptive core beliefs arising from past experiences and to invite Christ to speak truth to
the person about these beliefs – providing a corrective experience (Smith, 2004a, 2007, 2016). The underlying mechanism of change may be
similar to those proposed by Satir therapy and Emotionally Focused Therapy as well as trauma theory in terms of the need to assimilate and
integrate information between the two hemispheres of the brain as well as the idea that brain change is not effected by cognitive learning but by
corrective experience – experientially engaging the impacts of past events (Brandt & Borras, 2009).
5
In a literature review by Sampaio, Lima, and Ladeia (2017) reported how meditation has been found to help: integrate biological rhythms and
functions (Servan-Shreiber, 2008); change patterns of thought, awareness, and behavior (Danucalov and Simões, 2006); facilitate metacognitive
thought conducive to healthy cognitive and psychological function (Krisanaprakornkit, Krisanaprakornkit, Piyavhatkul, & Laopaiboon, 2006;
Menezes et al. 2011; Willis, 1979); promote relaxation and reduction of stress and anxiety with therapeutic health benefits (Canter, 2003;
Danucalov and Simões; Wallace, 1970; Wallace, Benson, & Wilson, 1971); activate and strengthen brain centers associated with wellbeing and
immune function (Davidson, 2003), emotional regulation (Hölzel et al., 2011; Tang et al., 2009), and attentional stability (Lazar et al. 2005; Lutz
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 5

identifying, confronting, and turning away from spiritually or psychologically mal-adaptive perceptions and
behaviors (Mercer; Philipchalk; Peck, 1985). Given the efficacy of meditation and other spiritual practices in helping
to resolve distressing feelings, perceptions, behaviors, or symptoms, careful employment of a client’s spirituality
makes clinical sense (Miller, 2005; Sampaio, Lima, & Ladeia, 2017).
Psychology, Systems Theory, and Theology
By “psychology” this paper will be referring to the field of study pertaining to the cognitive (mental),
emotional, behavioral, interpersonal, adrenal, and neurological aspects of human experience and relationship to self,
others, and the world. Within psychology is family systems theory which holds that a system (e.g., family) is
composed of several parts (individuals) and has a certain order or interactional pattern(s) “determined through the
actions, reactions, and interactions among the parts” (Satir, 1988, pp. 130-131). Family systems theory assumes that
humans are systemic in nature (intrapersonal, familial, societal, and otherwise) and that each part of a system impacts
the others such that changing or introducing a part changes the interactional pattern of the entire system – forcing its
members to find new ways of being together (Johnson, 2004; Satir, 1988). Systemic therapy focuses “on the circular
feedback loops that occur between members of a relational system” which organize the system and give it stability
(Johnson et al., 2005, p. 30). As a systemic therapy, EFT uses the emotions and attachment needs to break the
destructive and repetitive negative interaction cycle(s) (NIC)6 and to enact new patterns of interaction - focusing on
connection and nurturance while helping clients develop new ways of responding and a more relational way of
seeing their problems (Johnson et al.). “Theology” will here refer to the study of the Christian God (Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, the One, eternal, subsist, Creator of all) and the relationship between this God and His creation. Drawing
on general and special revelation, theology also bears implications on how human nature, the human condition,
change, and human dignity and worth are viewed and understood. Theology also bears moral implications and forms
the foundation of the author’s vision of health and the human telos.
This author’s classical realist epistemology sees the sciences of psychology and theology as both seeking to
understand the same human nature and condition and as being capable of gaining and refining knowledge about
human experience. Both general revelation (creation) and special revelation will here be viewed as legitimate sources
of knowledge and insight. These fields of study may vary in their sources and methods for seeking insight into the
various aspects of human experience but their insights into human nature are expected to be increasingly convergent
and complimentary if they are, in fact, contributing to increasingly accurate knowledge. When science and faith
appear to conflict, the author will defer to a Christian anthropology based on special revelation as the authority for
setting assumptions and “fundamental beliefs about and practices toward all of reality and toward” the study of
human nature (Jones, 2010, p. 115). This author views knowledge from special revelation as more stable and
enduring than empirical generalizations while acknowledging that special revelation’s knowledge is limited in scope
and precision and can be interpreted diversely. The author therefor recognizes the import and validity of empirical
research to fill in the holes of a faith-based understanding of human existence, hoping to humbly avoid the
manipulation of scripture in deriving what one may prefer to believe. With a Catholic anthropology, the author views
humans as rational and spiritual creatures capable of gaining knowledge and understanding through theological and
empirical study, including psychology as a legitimate and helpful way to deepen one’s (biblical) understanding of the
human person.
The “Cornerstone Theory” of This Essay: Emotionally Focused Therapy
This author has chosen EFT as originated by Sue Johnson and Leslie Greenberg (Greenberg & Johnson,
1985; Johnson, 2004; Johnson & Greenberg, 1985) as the cornerstone theory to be integrated with his theology and
understanding of therapeutic change because it is systematic, well-grounded in attachment theory, practical,
empirically well supported, and highly compatible with a Catholic understanding of the human condition (Brubacher,
2006; Johnson et al, 2005; Kallos-Lilly & von Hockauf, 2016). EFT also has a clear "theory of emotion and
emotional change" with clearly defined experiential therapy processes, principles, skills, and relationship principles
(Brubacher, 2006, p.141). One of the defining strengths of EFT is its emotive and experiential nature. It also
prioritizes the here-and-now experiencing and genuine, empathic, confirming relationship (seen as curative and
facilitates deepening of experience) to achieve second order change rather than merely modifying or cognitively

et al., 2009); undo conditioned behaviors  (Allen et al. 2012; Kozasa et al. 2012; Newberg et al. 2001; Singh et al. 2012; Slagter et al. 2007); and
strengthen brain centers associated with memory, learning, and empathy  (Hölzel et al.).
6
An NIC is a reciprocally perpetuated dynamic of behavioral reactions out of maladaptive emotions and perceptions that do not evoke the needed
or desired responses. The persons are often not aware of their underlying attachment desires and needs that drive the cycle and that could helpfully
orient them if brought to awareness. As such, the NIC is an intra- and inter-personal playing out of disordered human function: intellect darkened
in its misperception and in its lost awareness of one’s own fundamental needs and yearnings, submitted, along with the will, to disordered
(maladaptive) passions.
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 6

restructuring behavioral symptoms (Greenburg, Rice, & Elliott, 1993, as cited in Brubacher, 2006).7 EFT uses
intrapsychic exploration and emotionally evocative and heightening interventions to create corrective experiences
that change interactional patterns by connecting people at the level of their attachment yearnings and emotions,
transforming perceptions of self, and increasing self-esteem, accountability, vulnerable expression of emotions and
needs, and acceptance of self and other (Sayles, 2002; Verseveldt, 2006). EFT is also strongly validating and
normalize through its reframing of the NIC according to its positive intentions of protecting and fighting for the
relationship – both yearning for connection with the other (Johnson et al., 2005). EFT has strong empirical support as
an effective method of individual, family, and couples counselling (Johnson, 2004). Though philosophically
humanistic and spiritually neutral, EFT is largely compatible with a Catholic anthropology and valuation of the
human person – as reflected in the variety of Christian attempts to work with EFT (cf. Bradley, 2001; Dingemanse,
2011; Furrow, Johnson, Bradley, & Amodeo, 2011; Kim-van Daalen, 2014; McFee & Monroe, 2011; Verseveldt,
2006). EFT integrates the humanistic views of Carl Rogers (1961) and systemic theory as expressed by Bertalanffy
(1956) and Minuchin and Fishman (1981). Greenberg, Rice, and Elliott (1993) have further contributed to EFT’s
understanding of how emotion is used in the change process as viewed from the humanistic perspective (Johnson et
al., 2005).
Since EFT is founded on attachment theory, a brief introduction of attachment theory is relevant. British
developmental psychologist John Bowlby (1907- 1990) coined the term “attachment” and attachment theory (Lees-
Oakes, 2015). From his study of orphans from World War II Bowlby “concluded that separation from loved ones
deprived youngsters of emotional sustenance and was as damaging to the psyche as lack of food is to the body”
(Johnson, 2013, p.36). Impressed by Darwinian natural selection, Bowlby theorized that the mother-child emotional
tie was hard-wired before birth and therefore automatic. Attachment theory was further supported by Harry Harlow’s
(American experimental psychologist, 1905-1981) studies of rhesus monkeys raised in isolation, finding that:
maternal deprivation resulted in psychological and social maladaptation; the monkeys almost always preferred a
comfortable (cloth covered) “surrogate mother” (using it as a base from which to explore) over a wire “mother” that
offered sustenance; and the cloth mother alleviated the baby’s fear and provided security (in the face of threat)
allowing for rest, confidence, exploration, and play, concluding that comforting early attachments are as primal a
need as food itself (Johnson, 2013; Harlow, 2010; Harry Harlow, 2015). The collaborative research on maternal-
infant attachments by Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (American-Canadian developmental psychologist, 1913 to 1999)
shaped, tested, and supported attachment theory and (especially the “strange situation” experiment) led to the
identification of three elements of attachment8 and attachment styles (secure, anxious and avoidant – later broken
down into four: insecure-ambivalent, insecure-avoidant, and disorganized) (Efe, 2013; Johnson, 2013; Lees-Oakes,
2015).9 Attachment styles shape one’s self-image, emotional regulation, expectations/security in love relationships,
and one’s interpretation of the actions of loved ones and how to respond (Johnson, 2013). From the 1960’s to the
1990’s Phil Shaver and Cindy Hazan further developed Bowlby’s ideas, showing that attachment principles and
behaviors also apply to adult life and relationships (Johnson et al. 2005; Johnson 2013; Shaver and Brennan, 1992).

7
Sayles (2002) explains second order change as change in meaning and engagement of primary emotions that spontaneously brings about more
adaptive, flexible, and emotionally integrated responses to conflict (p. 106).
8
(a) Humans seek, “monitor, and try to maintain emotional and physical connection with our loved ones… [needing them] to be emotionally
accessible, responsive, and engaged with us;” (b) humans reach for loved ones when scared, uncertain, upset, or anxious because contact provides
safety, comfort, and emotional support by which one learns emotional self-regulation and how to trust and connect with others; (c) physical or
emotional remoteness from loved ones triggers (possibly intense and incapacitation) separation anxiety (isolation being “inherently traumatizing
for human[s]”); and (d) humans depend on loved ones as emotional supports and secure bases from which to venture, learn, and explore – sensing
effective connection facilitates autonomy (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978; Johnson, 2013, p. 38).
9
Most children show upset when their care-giver leaves, but their response to the care-giver’s return differs according to their attachment style
(the type of emotional connection between the two). Secure attachment: Child prefers parent to strangers but explores and engages with others
when the parent is present (irritated when the stranger appears in the room and avoids them in parent’s absence); shows distress but self-calms
quickly when parent leaves; seeks and finds comfort from them upon return and resumes exploratory play (fostered by warm, responsive
attachment figures). As an adult, they will be more able to trust, comfortably share feelings, seek social support, and have more lasting relations
and stronger self-esteem. Anxious (ambivalent) attachment: child is very wary of strangers; stays upset and nervous with parent’s absence (cannot
explore and continue play); and moves away from parent or becomes hostile, clingy, and demanding (inconsolable) when the parent returns
(associated with emotionally inconsistent parents who discourage crying, encourage independence, and give little/no response to the child’s
distress). As an adult, they are weary of closeness, worry they are unloved, and show negative self-image and great distress when relationships
end. Avoidant attachment: child avoids the parents (no preference for parents over strangers – behavior remains constant); doesn't want to be
played with or held; shows no distress with parent’s leaving; and avoids parent upon their return (associated with dismissive, cold, unavailable or
unresponsive parents). As an adult, they tend to have intimacy problems, low emotional investment in relations, and reluctance toward sharing
their thoughts and feelings. Disorganized attachment: the child seems dazed, confused, and apprehensive with avoidant and resistant behavior by
age 1; may show distress at parent’s leaving and relief or anger/aggression at their return; may not want to be held; may show parentification by
age 6 (possibly associated with abuse, maltreatment, pre- or post-natal trauma and/or parents who are scared, intrusive, withdrawn, negative, or
confused) (Efe, 2013; Johnson, 2013; Lees-Oakes, 2015; Marganska, Fallagher, & Miranda, 2013)
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 7

A plethora of further studies and researchers have further substantiated how attachment behavior, needs, and styles
apply not only to childhood but throughout human life and play-out especially in romantic relationships (Johnson,
2004; Johnson, 2013; cf. Simpson, Rholes, & Nelligan, 1992). “To be human is to need others” (Johnson, 2013, p.
42).10
Christianity and EFT are complementary in many ways. Both view human beings as having intrinsic worth
and as fundamentally good, unique, wired (created) for relationship and love, and full of potential, complementing
the Christian view of human beings as imago Dei (created in the image of the triune God) and, as such, created for
relationship and theosis (though divinization exceeds all human and therapeutic capacity since it is possible only
through sanctifying grace) (Furrow et al., 2011; Johnson, 2004; Verseveldt, 2006). EFT’s reframe of mal-adaptive
behaviors as having positive, attachment-oriented intentions can complement a Christian view of sin. The
intrapsychic exploration of people’s interaction patterns, behaviors, perceptions, secondary and primary emotions,
and attachment needs and yearnings may be adaptable for use by spiritual directors, providing for a more holistic,
discerning, and informed way of facilitating directees' exploration of inner and spiritual experiences of relationship to
self, other, God, and the world (Tam, 2006). Such exploration may also help to discern between spiritual and
psychological sources of distress. The EFT focus on helping clients re-discover and accept their blocked or disowned
attachment needs, emotions, and parts of self, (moving them toward wholeness and their individual and relational
potential) parallels the restorative goal of spiritual direction and sanctification while affirming their (created)
goodness and worth. Since a person’s self-knowledge and sense-of-self impact how they relate to God, self, and
other, facilitating a more intrapsychically integrated sense of self and way of relating (congruence) may foster greater
wholeness of being and more authentic relationship with God, self, and other (Tam). This, and the EFT therapist’s
congruent use of self to join with clients as they are in the here-and-now (the foundation for change) and to encounter
the other while grounded in the self, are also applicable to spiritual direction and a Christian view of human
relationship. Finally, EFT’s foundations of systemic theory and attachment theory coincide with a Christian
cosmology, ecclesiology (1 Cor 12:12-31), sacramental anthropology, and Trinitarian theology.
EFT does have a few limitations and potential and differences from a Christianity perspective. EFT’s
reframe of the problem as being the NIC and its possibly over-optimistic humanistic regard of human goodness could
conflict with a Christian understanding of human beings if held as a categorical denial of humankind’s sinful state,
vicefullness, and the need for sanctification from the effects of original sin (though, as a response to grace, the
therapeutic work of becoming whole and more perfect lovers may be sanctifying and restorative). The humanistic
assumption that human love is the human telos and can thus sate the human need for love is presumptuous and
conflicts with the Christian view of God as the telos and only ultimate satisfier of human existence and yearning
(Augustine, 1887).
II. Theory of Personality.
Who and What are Human Beings?
Humankind is created by God, in God’s image and likeness, and to know and love God (Catechism, 2003,
no. 1711). Charged with caring for creation (Gen 2:15), human kind is the crown of God’s creation, imaging the
Triune God in its basic nature as an indivisible unity of trinities: body, mind, and spiritual soul; intellect, passions
(emotions and desires), and will; and occupying time, space, and matter – a trinity of trinities. The human faculties of
reason and will are part of humanity’s God-likeness (St. Irenaeus, c. 180, 4, 4, 3) and are the roots of human
freedom: the power to act (self-directed agency) and to choose “between good and evil” (Catechism, no. 1732).
Human Freedom is a “manifestation of the divine image” (Pope Paul VI, 1965, 17), a part of the dignity conferred on
humankind as persons in control of and responsible for their own actions (Catechism, no. 1730), and is perfected by
acts directed toward God (Catechism, no. 1744). Freedom is proper to human nature as a force to grow either in sin
or in maturity, goodness, and perfection (Catechism, no. 1731-1732). Freedom enables humans to love (another
aspect of humanity’s image and likeness to God) and is therefore essential to human nature according its telos of
knowing and loving God and neighbor. Created as male and female in the image of the co-eternal Trinity, their
sexual bodies sacramentally image the undivided Trinity in its inner relationality and even more profoundly in the
one-flesh union by-which husband and wife sacramentally image the Trinity’s eternal (non-sexual) intercourse of
loving, reciprocal self-giving and receiving that creates life (John Paul II, 2006). Created and hardwired for
connection, as evidenced by modern neuroscience and the foundational assumptions of attachment theory and EFT
(regarding attachment as a most fundamental human need which drives human behavior throughout life and is

10
Recent fMRI studies have gone so far as to test the impact of attachment on stress and pain response: Johnson et al. (2013) found that holding
the hand of a loved one mitigates the fear response to electric shock; Coan (2013) found that holding the hand even of a stranger (a) reduces the
pain response to electric shock and the fear response to the anticipation of shock and (b) that anticipating the other to be shocked elicits a pain and
fear response in the hand holder, thus indicating how deeply attachment is wired into the human brain and how it is related even to stress and pain
regulation.
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 8

prerequisite for maturation to spontaneously proceed), humans are communal in nature (Johnson, 2013; Johnson et
al., 2013; Neufeld, 2013); this is also reflected in the fact that human redemption and sanctification are not
individualistically wrought in isolation but in community: initiated into the Mystical Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27)
which is the family (system) and school of love and forgiveness in which the baptized appropriate and are
transformed by sanctifying grace (Jones, 1998).
Determinants of Human Character and Action and the Role of Environment Vs. Learning
The determination of human character and action involves a complex interaction of genetic dispositions,
environmental and experiential influence, learning, and human freedom constituted by the person’s reason and free
will. Reductionistically speaking, the human individual is a product of the combined genetic contribution of the
mother and father. A person’s genes set their physiological and characterological potential and dispositions but gene
expression is influenced both by epi-genetic factors passed on from mother and father as well as by prenatal, natal,
and postnatal environmental and experiential influences (e.g., setting sensitivity levels for the stress response or the
impact of prenatal hormone levels on bodily and neural development) (Berk, 2012; Farrell, Simpson, Carlson,
Englund, & Sung, 2017; Lewis, 1997; Lau & Eley, 2008; Lichtwarck-Aschoff, Kunnen, & Van Geert, 2009; Johnson
et al., 2013; Mate, 2012; Starr, Hammen, Brennan, & Najman, 2012; Thornburg, 2015; Windfall, 2011). According
to ecological systems theory, child development (physical, social, cognitive and emotional) is influenced by their
biological dispositions and the multiple levels of their environment which form a complex of interrelated systems
(Berk, 2012; Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Lee, 2011).11 The relationships of the system are seen as bidirectional, that is,
the behaviours and biological and social characteristics (abilities, personality, and physical attributes) of one member
of the system affect and are affected by those of the other(s) in the system while third parties further impact the
relationships and interactions.12 A child’s attachment experiences contribute foundationally to their attachment style
and overall development and maturation (Ainsworth & Bowlby, 1965; Johnson, 2103; Neufeld, 2013). When a child
is in intensified pursuit of attachment it cannot be at rest and therefore cannot venture, play, explore the world, try
itself and, thereby, discover and develop its capacities, limits, likes, and individuality (Neufeld, 2013). Genes may be
the seed of a person’s potential but the environment, experiences, and, especially, the security of a child’s attachment
relationships to alpha care-givers are the “soil” in which the seed finds root, is nourished, and grows into its genetic
potential or beyond. Generous, spontaneous, unconditional love and availability of care-givers (imaging God the
Father who is The Alpha attachment figure) fosters secure attachment - the fertile soil for growth and maturation.
Human persons grow, venture, and come to express their human nature and potential through communal exchange
with neighbor (Catechism, 2003, no. 1879; Neufeld, 2013). The discovery, development, and employment of one’s
talents enriches one’s identity and contributes to the fulfillment of their human potential (Catechism, no.’s 1880,
2428).
What is the Relationship Between Affect, Cognition, and Behavior?
Beck’s (2008) cognitive model suggests that through experience one forms beliefs and perceptions about
one's self and the world (schemas) which guide one’s attentional and memory biases and one’s interpretation of
information and experiences (Abler, Erk, Herwig, & Walter, 2007; Auerbach, Webb, Gardiner, & Pechtel, 2013).
Repeated experiences reinforce neuropathways of related schemas which then bear stronger influence on one’s
perceptions and responses. The schema-forming influence of experience on character and action may be seen as
“learning”, but this learning is not only cognitive but is especially emotive, impacting the memory and emotive
centers of the brain which fundamentally drive decision making (Kalat, 2009). Neurological studies indicate that
decisions, especially moral ones, are most often made intuitively or emotionally – one just “feels right” – suggesting
that logical justification usually follows the decision already made (Greene, Sommerville, Nystrom, Darley, &
Cohen, 2001; Haidt, 2001; Pfaff, 2007). Damage or impairment of the prefrontal cortex (responsible for regulation of
emotional response, decision making, and impulsivity) has shown to impair the learning of moral behavior and guilt
(Kalat). EFT and attachment theory are confirmed by current neurological research which is demonstrating the
primary role of emotions in moving a person toward reactions and decisions as well as the impact of attachment and
11
The child is the centre of its world and interacts with its ecological environments. The microsystem refers to the patterns of interaction and
activities within the child's immediate surroundings. The mesosystem consists of the connections between microsystems, recognizing that the
concert of activities in each carry over into each other and contribute to development. The exosystem is comprised of the social settings that affect
the child's immediate environment without being in direct contact with the child (e.g. a parent's workplace, parents' social networks or support
networks and services). The macrosystem is said to consist of the resources, laws, customs, and cultural values which directly affect how well the
child's needs are provided for (e.g. child care, health care, education, and child protection laws) (Berk, 2012).

12
Changes which occur within the ever-changing system or within the child (as a function of their development) affect the relationships and
activities within the system; but the degree of impact that a given change has on the child's development depends on the stage of development at
which the child is when the change occurs. Parent-child relationships remain important throughout childhood and beyond, though in evolving
ways (Carter & McGoldrick, 2010; Padilla-Walker, Carlo, Christensen, & Yorgason, 2012).
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 9

human connection on everything from interpretation of stimuli or experiences to pain response (Coan, 2013;
Johnson, 2004; Johnson et al., 2013). Hence, beyond genetic disposition and experience, (emotional) learning and
attachment relationships seem to heavily impact character development and (moral) action as repeated experiences
hard wire the thinking and emotive parts of the brain toward particular perceptions and responses. A strict materialist
interpretation of the above could lead to a deterministic view of the development of human character and action, but
this would clash with the fundamental Christian view of humans as freedom-possessing moral agents.
From EFT’s perspective and related studies behavior is thought to arise out of a person’s perceptions,
expectations, emotions (initial and interpreted), and fundamental human needs and yearnings for attachment,
security, and love (Johnson et al., 2005; Johnson et al., 2013). Understanding human behavior as being
fundamentally rooted in attachment needs reflects a Christian and EFT view of the human person who possesses
intrinsic worth, uniqueness, and fundamental goodness as Imago Dei (Gen 1:31) – created by Love, for love, and
with the purpose and potential to participate in the divine life of He who is Love (1 Jn 4:8; Pope Benedict XVI, 2005;
Shuttleworth, 2005; Verseveldt, 2006). While a person’s experiences may dispose them toward certain ways of
interpreting and responding to experiences and interactions, there is an underlying interaction of affect, cognition,
and will. In accord with human freedom rooted in reason and will, EFT and Christianity believe in the human
capacity to choose to risk, choose, and act (to love) in new ways even contrary to one’s experience-based
dispositions and schema, possibly providing for corrective experiences and actions that make healing and change
possible (Johnson, 2004; Rm 12:2; Smith, 2004). The Christian monastic tradition offers a long history of reform of
life through persistent, repeated, willful choosing of what is recognized as true and good (often in opposition to and
correction of the person’s own passions, i.e. desires and emotional impulses) according to the person’s formation of
intellect and conscience through modelling and moral education (Velimirovich, 1999). While the moral life of many
humans proceeds uninterruptedly as a consistent flow of moral education and re-enforcing choices, reformation of
character, life, and behavior (commonly referred to as repentance, that is, change in direction; gk: metanoia) has
typically been precipitated by conviction of previous cognitive and/or experiential learning and/or by compelling
personal encounter with truth, integrity, vulnerability, intimacy, love, and/or courage that invite the same in response
(Johnson, 2004; Jones, 1998; cf. Velimirovich). While such encounters would have cognitive aspects of learning,
such experiences arguably have strong emotive qualities (e.g., feelings of empathy, remorse, conviction, or love)
reflecting the powerful influence of emotions in the formation of character and action as employed in EFT through
the accessing, acceptance, and expression of attachment-related emotions and yearnings (Johnson 2004; Johnson et
al., 2005). Hence, through education, (repeated) deliberate action, and perseverance, human persons grow in virtue
which grace further elevates and purifies though change of character and behavior is typically precipitated and/or
driven by experientially and emotionally compelling encounter(s) with truth and love to (whether cognitively,
interpersonally, or, as most typical of Christian conversion, encountered in the Risen Christ through the action of the
Holy Spirit) (Catechism, 2003, no. 1839; Pope Benedict XVI, 2013).13 Hence, a Catholic EFT response to the
question of nature versus nurture is: “both and…” since genetics and experience dispose but do not determine a
person’s character development and behavior because of the systemic (attachment-based) nature of human
development and behavior and the fundamental human characteristic of freedom (in the healthy and functioning
person) which makes human beings moral agents capable of choosing, loving, and changing contrary to the
conditioning or disposing of their genes and/or experiences. Overall, it may be said that, whether behavior is by
rational and willful choice or by emotional reaction/response, there is typically an emotional logic and force
underlying the choice or reaction according fundamental attachment needs and social, moral, and/or theological
formation and perception.
III. Model of Human Wholeness and Well-Functioning
Human wholeness and health would most perfectly be exemplified in the person of Jesus Christ (the New
Adam) who was “true God and true man” (Divine in nature: God’s image and likeness without distortion or
deprivation) (Catechism, 2003, no.’s 464, 469, 482). Among the Saints, Mary (the New Eve), preserved at
conception from the effects of original sin, would be the greatest purely human example of whole and healthy human
nature and existence (Pius IX, 1854). In Christ’s fully functioning humanity we see deep attachment relationships
with God (Jn 4:34; 5:19-20; 14:31; Mt 4:4), family (Lk 2:51-52), and friends (Jn 11; 15:13); honest (congruent)
communication; trust and sacrificial love; forgiveness and reconciliation (Lk 23:34; Jn 21:15-18); and deeply feeling
and being moved by emotions (e.g., anger and indignation (Mk 1:41; 3:5; Jn 11:33, 38; cf. Eph 4:26), pity (Mk 1:41;
MT 20:34; 6:34), anxiety (Lk 2:48), sadness (Lk 19:41; Jn 11: 35), and abandonment (Mk 15:34)). Wholeness is
synonymous with ordered relationship with God, self (a bodily, emotive, intellectual, and spiritual being), other, and

13
Virtues are disposition of the intellect and will that govern action, order the passions, and guide conduct according to faith and reason
(Catechism, no. 1834).
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 10

creation. Wholeness is not achieved through behavioral modification or suppression of maladaptive (sinful)
inclinations (symptoms of the affliction of original sin) but is worked toward through (ascetic) cooperation with
grace, bearing the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness” (Gal 5:22). The
greatest is love: patient, and kind; not envious, boastful, proud, dishonoring, self-seeking, or easily angered; keeping
no record of wrongs nor delighting in evil but delighting in truth; always protecting, trusting, hoping, persevering;
“love never fails” (1 Cor 13:4-8). This theological virtue is both the greatest fruit and sign of human wholeness and
right function and is also the means to it (1 Cor 13:13; 1 Jn 4:18; 1 Pt 4:8). As icons of the Triune God who is a
Communion of Persons, it is in loving that His image and likeness is restored and most manifest in humans. Free will
is ordered toward the capacity to love – hence being created for the purpose of relationship and communion which is
stamped in the gendered nature of human bodies: “Male and female he created them” in his image (Gen 1:27); in the
sacramental one-flesh-union husband and wife incarnately image and participate in the inner life of the Trinity that is
an eternal intercourse of reciprocal, loving self-gift to and reception of other, distinct yet undivided, (co)creative and
life generating both interpersonally and, possibly, of new life (cf. Pope John Paul II, 2006). Beyond this, the atoning
death and resurrection of Christ made possible not only the restoration of the structural and functional aspects of
human nature as imago Dei; in conformity to Christ’s holiness, “when he restored the divine image to its ancient
glory, He [also] suffused it with the beauty of God” (Royal Doors, 2015). “Through … his glory and power… he has
given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature” (2 Pt
1:3-4; cf. 1 Jn 3:2). St. Athanasius wrote: “God became man so that men might become gods… renewed and unified
so completely with God that he becomes by grace what God is by nature” (Shuttleworth, 2005). This is known as
theosis. “When I am completely united to you, there will be no more sorrow or trials; entirely full of you, my life will
be complete (St. Augustine, 1887, 10, 28, 39: PL 32, 795). Man is by nature and vocation a religious being. Coming
from God, going toward God, man lives a fully human life only if he freely lives by his bond with God” (Catechism,
no. 44-45; Jn 17:3).
From a Thomistic perspective, whole and healthy human functioning consists of an intellect that knows and
sees things rightly, a will that is informed by and chooses according to this right knowing, and passions (emotions)
governed by reason (informed by right knowing) and therefor desire and move a person according to the divine
intention such that a person “is moved to the good not by his will alone, but also by his sensitive appetite”
(Catechism, 2003, no. 1767; 1770; cf. Aquinas, 1948, I-II, 24, 3.). The “passions” (feelings or emotions) "are natural
components of the human psyche” that connect the senses and the mind: “movements of the sensitive appetite that
incline us to act” in response “to something felt or imagined to be good or evil” (Catechism, no. 1763-1764).
Emotions are said to be voluntary in that “they are commanded by the will or because the will does not place
obstacles in their way” (Aquinas, I-II, 24, 1). Emotions “are neither good nor evil… [but] are morally qualified” in
how they “engage reason and will” (Catechism, no. 1767). Human freedom enables one to choose and act
responsibly and to grow and mature in goodness, truth, and freedom (Catechism, no. 1731, 1733). The more one does
what is good, the more one is free, whereas to “disobey and do evil is an abuse of freedom and leads to "the slavery
of sin" (Catechism, no. 1733; Rm 6:17). Hence, one is whole and healthily functioning when the various aspects
proper to one’s human nature are operating well and in right relation (hierarchy) to each other according to God’s
intention.14
How Does This Model of Human Wholeness Inform General Goals for Clients?
The above communicates a more fundamental, universal, total, dignified, and glorified vision of human
health and purpose, providing for (a) deeper insight into fundamental human yearnings, needs, and purpose and (b)
more comprehensive conceptualization of what is out of order and what needs addressed (within and beyond the
scope of therapy) – in pursuit of the person’s wholeness of being as an image of the communally loving Triune God.
People work out their sanctification and theosis in the quotidien context of human relationship and life. The happy
life is the life of virtue (ordered, balance, and integrated interior life), not the life of self-pleasing or virtuous
appearances (e.g., depersonalized or altered attachment via altering the self or modes of attachment pursuit that
further distort, suppress, or violate the person’s true, God-created self and purpose) (Aristotle, 10.7; Neufeld, 2013).
Hence, therapy supports the (eschatological) pursuit of growth in wholeness, integration of self, congruence (a
companion of humility, i.e. honesty about and acceptance of self and reality), self-possession, and Christ-like love
coupled with a laying to rest of mal-adaptive (sinful) self-will, withdrawal, prideful delusions, and self-defeating

14
“Operating well” is a judgment of function based on a theological understanding of God’s intention for human existence that is not only
biological and psychological (intrapersonal) but, particularly, interpersonal and spiritual (God-human, human-human, human-creation) since
human beings are distinct from the animal world in virtue of (a) the human faculties of reason and will by which humans can love and choose
(morally) – indicating their distinct purpose: to love God and neighbor; and (b) the immortal spiritual human soul that points to the human telos of
eternal union and life with God.
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 11

pursuits, propelling the client toward becoming who they were created to be and living according to the love for
which they yearn and were created.
In accord with the above, EFT views health as accepting awareness, integration, and genuine expression of
all aspects of one’s self, allowing for more positive interpersonal connection and view of self and others (Johnson,
1996, as cited in Verseveldt, 2006). Hence, the goal of therapy would be for each to be and become who they really
are rather than suppressing parts or to trying to be who/what they think another wants them to be (Johnson, 2004).
This reflects the Christian view of human nature as an integrated whole of body, spiritual soul, and mind that is “very
good” (Genesis 1:31) and healthy (restored from the effects of sin) when all aspects are functioning according to the
divine intention (not suppressed or distorted, or diseased – biologically or otherwise). The result is healthy
intrapsychic and interpersonal function with harmonious relationship with self, other(s), and God. The idea that this
happens in and through attachment relationship(s) poses a paradoxical tension between (a) growth in autonomy and
differentiation and (b) the dependence, sense of togetherness, and self-transcending love requisite for this growth
(Verseveldt, 2006). This vision of health and "becoming" in the context of relationship also parallels the Christian
view of sanctification and health (holiness) as being a process of restoration and deification (becoming who and what
God has created one to be) which happens in the context of community and relationship (Jones, 1998; Vanier, 2008).
In EFT, attachment is seen as the most fundamental human need, innate tendency, and the context of healing
and becoming (Verseveldt, 2006; Johnson et al., 2005): "it is not good that man should be alone..." (Genesis 2:18).
Divinely hard-wired for relationship, a secure attachment is the "home base" needed for growth, exploration,
adaptive response to the world, resilience, confidence, autonomy, orientation, and a positive sense of self and other
(Johnson, 2004). The EFT metaphor of growth assumes that humans are oriented toward reaching their full mental,
emotional, physical, and spiritual potential as vulnerably expressive, accepting, and responsive attachment figures
(Johnson, 2004; Verseveldt, 2006). The necessity of attachment for growth is observably true in child-parent
relationships and adult love relationships; yet, it would be problematic if this were taken to suggest that human
attachments are the telos of human existence or that human attachment relationships could be sufficient for a person
to reach their full human potential. A Catholic perspective tempers this humanistic aggrandizement by
acknowledging that: (a) the broken state of the world (full of imperfect love) provides an insufficient context and
means for complete actualization of human potential;15 (b) restoration of human nature and the cosmos from the
effects of original sin (restoring humankind’s relationship with God, other, creation, and self - one’s intellect, will,
and passions (desires and emotions)) is beyond merely human capacity as it requires cooperation with the sanctifying
grace won for humankind through the death and resurrection of Christ (ordinarily conferred through baptism); and
(c) theosis is the fullness of human potential reached by cooperation with grace – beyond the reach of purely human
effort and the aspirations of humanistic anthropology.
EFT sees healthy, fully alive persons as being mutually secure bases for each other, generously providing
for each other’s attachment needs with self-sacrificial love and concern (Verseveldt, 2006). Stretched by love’s
mutual demands, partners are love (grow) into greater version of themselves (Johnson, 2004). This reflects the
Christian ideal of "becoming third" - loving God above all and loving one's neighbor as oneself (Matthew 22:37-39);
it is understood that holiness is lived out and effected within the context of community for it is in relationship that
one finds opportunity to love and give of oneself (Doherty, 1977; Jones, 1995). This ideal of generous mutuality and
the emotional engagement and anticipatory receptivity developed in steps 5-7 of EFT incarnates the sacramental
nature of married love which images God who first loved us (1 John, 4:10, 19; Romans 5:6), loving each other with
gratuitous, anticipatory love - as Christ loved his Bride (Ephesians 5:25). Such love could be the mutual goal of EFT
and Christianity since the only way one can show gratuitous love to God is by gratuitously loving one’s neighbor
(Martin, 2003; 1 Jn 4:20). Overall, a Catholic EFT vision of human wholeness would be characterized by shalom: the
peace of communion and unity in love, life, vulnerability, and common humanity within and between persons (Cf.
sober in Doherty, 1977).
EFT and Catholicism differ in that EFT does not speak of a telos of human longing and love beyond human
relationship whereas Catholicism sees God as the ultimate attachment figure Who alone can sate the deepest human
yearnings and purpose: "for You have formed us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in You"
(Augustine, 1887, 1:1,1). EFT seeks to restore and foster the healthy, reciprocal, vulnerable, open married love and
intimacy by which a couple images the Trinity (most explicitly embodied in the marital embrace of the one-flesh
union). While EFT's vision of healthy human and relational existence complements a Catholic sacramental view of
human love and existence as imago Dei, the goal of theosis exceeds the capacities of purely human love, attachment,
and therapy since it requires grace and primary attachment to God (and others).
15
Human love, this side of the grave, is imperfect (never complete) but, by forgiveness people can make perfect lovers of each other because
forgiveness bridges the gap of imperfect love (Hopko, 2003). Yet, from a Christian (and realistic) perspective, human love and forgiveness will
always be lacking.
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 12

IV. Model of Human Brokenness

What are the processes and pitfalls that work against human wholeness?
Adam and Eve’s willed disobedience to the will of God (original sin) has impacted human nature, disposing
humans to turn away from God and truth (Pope John Paul II, 1986), rendering them “subject to error and inclined to
evil in exercising” their freedom (Catechism, no. 1714). Original sin disrupted humankind’s friendship with God and
relationships with each other, creation, and self (Catechism, no. 1853). Personal sin perpetuates the impact of original
sin. Though still fundamentally good as image and likeness of God, the impact of sin on human nature includes: a
darkened intellect (Eph 4:18), weakened will (Rm 7:15, 19), and disordered passions. The intellect is darkened such
that it does not know or perceive created goods, others, God, or self accurately or rightly, therefore misguiding the
will as to how and what to choose as good. The weakened will tends to accede to the passions rather than the known
good such that, “I do not understand what I do… for I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I keep on doing the
evil I do not want to do” (Rm 7:15, 19). Because of sin, the disordered passions (emotions and desires) impose
themselves on the will and intellect, misdirecting one’s pursuit of fulfilling God-given yearnings in ways not
intended and which therefore cannot satisfy but are fundamentally self-defeating, maladaptive, hurtful, or idolatrous
(sinful – missing the mark). In a traditional understanding of the Genesis account, sin also introduced infirmity and
death, hence mental and physical illness. While some physical and mental health problems have clear and strong
correlations or causal relation to damaged (attachment) relationship(s) (theologically relatable to original and
personal sin), some maladies are more predominantly genetic, physical, or biochemical in source and nature (though
theologically viewed as ultimately rooted in the impact of sin and creation and human nature).
Sin turns a person away from God’s love through willed disobedience, “wounds the nature of man and
injures human solidarity” (Catechism, no. 1849 - 1850). With sin came shame and hiding from God and each other
(Gen 3:7-10), blaming of God and neighbor – denying one’s culpability (vv. 12-13), disruption of interpersonal
dynamics (v. 16), disrupted relationship with creation (v. 17-19), and death (vv. 19, 24). Sin offends God, neighbor,
and oneself through direct injury and/or violation of human dignity as bearer of the image of God.16 Unforgiveness
furthers human dysfunction. Offenses hurt because of the damage and injustice committed (especially offenses by
those one trusts), and injustice afflicts both the offender and offended, perpetuating the impact of original sin. Yet,
unforgiveness (obstinately holding onto the hurt), whether out of fear of being vulnerable or of loving again,
vengeance, or the illusion of power and safety, perpetuates the violence, isolates people from each other, and
imprisons the victim in their own prison of pain rather than giving the gift of forgiveness that liberates from “hurts of
the past, hurts that prevent us from living fully and loving others” (Jones, 1995; Vanier, 2008, p 139).
EFT gives a psychological articulation of how the effects of original sin play out within human persons and
interpersonal relationships (couples, families, etc.). No emotion as bad in the eyes of EFT or Christianity, though
some emotions can be maladaptive: rigidly singular and failing to orient the person to actions that resolve the
situation or obtain that which is legitimately needed or wanted. Implicit in this is the assumption that people, in their
human nature, are fundamentally good and rightfully (though sometimes in self-defeating ways) seeking that which
they are "entitled" to in virtue of their (God-given) nature (Verseveldt, 2006). EFT does not speak to the morality of
what a person may desire but reframes problematic behaviors, perceptions, and feelings according to the underlying
good intentions of rightful human emotions and attachment instincts, needs, and yearnings. Such a view of coping
behaviors and maladaptive emotions and pursuits of the good converges with a Christian understanding of sin as
misdirected attempts to fulfill God-given desires. Hence, in keeping with a Christian anthropology, the person and
every aspect proper to their human nature is good (as God created it) though it may be hindered or misdirected due to
the impact of sin and, thereby, perpetuating sin by sin (and reciprocally perpetuating the NIC). Rather than
identifying individual character flaws as the problem, EFT reframes the NIC as being the problem which victimized
all of the members of the system by coming between them; sin coming between not only human persons and God but
also between each other and themselves - blocking awareness of and ability to express and request that for which
every person is created: secure loving relationship with God, other, creation, and self. EFT sees problematic
interactions and communications as arising when the individual(s) stop being aware of, expressing, or responding
from their primary emotions and attachment needs and yearnings which become disowned, denied, constricted, or
blocked by the NIC and masked by stuck, maladaptive secondary emotions (Johnson, 1996, as cited in Verseveldt,
2006; Johnson, 2004). Like sin, the behaviors of the NIC are maladaptive (unhelpful) attempts to satisfy the innate
(God-given) human yearnings for love, belonging, acceptance and secure attachment relationship (Johnson, 2004).

16
“Sins can be distinguished according to their objects, as can every human act; or according to the virtues they oppose, by excess or defect; or
according to the commandments they violate. They can also be classed according to whether they concern God, neighbor, or oneself; they can be
divided into spiritual and carnal sins, or again as sins in thought, word, deed, or omission. the root of sin is in the heart of man, in his free will,
according to the teaching of the Lord: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These
are what defile a man." But in the heart also resides charity, the source of the good and pure works, which sin wounds” (Catechism, no. 1853).
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 13

The focus on the NIC, one may argue, fails to acknowledge or address the character flaws (wounded human nature or
moral function) that may be at play. Yet, EFT’s reframe is reconcilable with Christianity in that, just as the
observable elements of the NIC are symptoms of the relational dysfunction (the good attachment-needs and emotions
failing to find helpful and effective expression), so too sin is the symptom of the wounded or malfunctioning human
nature. Thus, sin and interpersonal difficulties may involve words, deeds, or desires contrary to God’s will as failures
to love God and neighbor, resulting from “perverse attachment to certain goods,” while the underlying problem is the
failure to correctly perceive or effectively (“rightly”) seek to fulfill one’s God-given desires as beings created for
love (Johnson, 2004; Catechism, no. 1849).
In summary, individual and interpersonal human wholeness is blocked by the effects of sin on humankind’s
relationships and nature (intellect, will, and passions). Personal and interpersonal dysfunction of the human condition
is perpetuated by hiding out of shame or fear, not forgiving, or lack of awareness of the good one is seeking and/or
how to seek it; it is rooted not in “obvious” character flaws (symptoms) but in what underlie them: the denied,
disowned, or hidden parts of self, attachment needs, and primary emotions (hidden from God, self, and other) and the
inability to express these in ways that elicit the respond needed from the other.
V. Model of Therapeutic Change
Given the Above Assumptions About Human Beings, How Does Change Occur?
Leslie Greenberg and Sue Johnson formulated Emotionally-Focused-Therapy (Johnson & Greenberg, 1985;
Greenberg & Johnson, 1986) “as a response to the lack of clearly delineated and validated couple interventions…
draw[ing] attention to the crucial significance of emotion and emotional communication in the organization of
patterns of interaction and key defining experiences in close relationships” (Johnson, 2004, p. 4). In EFT, emotion is
identified not as part of the problem but as a powerful and necessary agent of change. Though initially a paradigm
shift from the predominantly cognitive and emotion-phobic climate of the 1980’s, there has been steadily increasing
validation, elaboration, and acceptance of the key role of emotions in interpersonal distress and therapy (Gottman;
1994; Plutchik, 2000; Tomkins, 1991; Lewis & Haviland-Jones, 2000), the “key role of emotional regulation and
engagement in marital happiness and distress (Johnson & Bradbury, 1999),” and the “emotional nature of human
attachments (Bowlby, 1988; Johnson, 2003)” (Johnson, 2004, p. 5). The necessity and method of addressing emotion
in relationship repair have also been clarified and made more available through research and, particularly, through
the development of EFT.
EFT integrates the intrapsychic process (how one processes one’s experiences) with “how partners organize
their interactions into patterns” (as reflected in their attachment-oriented emotions and behavioral responses)
(Johnson, 2004, p. 9). EFT’s proposed solution of reintegrating the disowned parts of self (elements of identity,
primary emotions, and attachment needs and yearnings) through the intra-psychic change process (steps 5-7) points
to EFT's vision of health and parallels a Christian view of sanctification and health. Rather than a purely willful
behavioral change, helping the couple to accept and understand each other's underlying emotions and attachment
needs (co-creating new meaning of past and present experiences within an attachment frame) sets the stage for intra-
psychic (second order) transformation, restoring awareness and ability to express unexpressed or disowned
attachment needs, emotions, and wants in ways that the other can positively respond to - a transformation by a
"renewal of the mind" (Johnson, 2004). This process and flow (becoming able to 'ask, seek, and knock...' for what
one needs (Luke 11:9-13)), creates a deeper bond and harmony (shalom) such that expressed needs and differences
evoke empathically (even self-sacrificially) adaptive problem solving.17 Similarly, Christianity views sanctification
not as a purely willful suppression of sinful behaviors but as a progressive restoration of human nature: illumination
of the intellect (more accurate awareness and apprehension), a strengthening of the will (to choose rightly), and an
ordering (orienting) of the passions (God-given and God-oriented yearnings) (Rm 12:2; 2 Corinthians 5:17) as well
as an adaptive turning toward the source and telos of one's longings (ultimately, God Who is Love) which permits
ordered and effective ways of seeking satisfaction of one's fundamental human yearnings. As such, the process and
flow of EFT and sanctification both work toward restoring individuals in relation to themselves and each other as
image and likeness of God who is a loving, receptive, integrated, and self-giving communion of persons.
Within this process is trust that the processes of human intimacy and maturation (personal and interpersonal) will
proceed as blockages are removed through the client's therapeutic process and intrapsychic transformations (Cheung
& Chan, 2002; Neufeld, 2013).
Within EFT’s metaphor of attachment and the moral obligation of mutuality is a systemic view of human
life. This systemic perspective reflects the view of Church as the Mystical Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:12-26) -
a living and integrated system in which the actions, needs, and yearnings of one impact the other(s) and, once
reengaged and softened, the other(s) (as member(s) of the Body) respond(s) as if the needs etc. were their very own.

17
"Process and flow" and "harmony" are key EFT metaphors about the meaning and function of human life (Verseveldt, 2006).
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 14

This reciprocally empathic union of common nature and need begets sacrificial, self-giving love that serves and heals
- a systemic economy of grace within the sobornost of the Mystical Body - even seeing one's own needs as a
participation in those of others (Doherty, 1977; Johnson et al., 2005). Johnson's (2004) description of the
mesmerizing and reengaging power of empathy (feeling seen, heard, validated, and accepted, calling the other forth
into relationship and connection for which they yearn) is reflected in the stories of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) and
Saint Photini (John 4:4-42) who encountered the unconditioned love and acceptance for which they yearned and
were thereby transformed and sought to reciprocate that love. EFT's systemic view of behavior in the NIC as circular
in causality is not simplistically deterministic since it assumes that, once framed in attachment, the person can exit
the cycle (Johnson, 2004). The assumed freeing of the will through enlightening the intellect and orienting the
passions (with the framing of attachment) parallels a classical view of restoring what was disordered by original sin
(discussed above).
What is the interplay between affect, behavior, and cognition in effecting change?
As discussed above, a person’s experiences dispose them toward certain ways of interpreting and
responding to experiences and interactions such that, underlying their behaviors, are the person’s perceptions,
expectations, emotions (secondary and primary), and fundamental human needs and yearnings for attachment,
security, and love (Johnson et al., 2005; Johnson et al., 2013). Human freedom also gives the person the capacity to
choose and, therefore, to risk actions contrary to their experience-based dispositions and schema. Within this
dynamic of affect, cognition, will and behavior, affect (emotions) seem to be the strongest driving force behind a
person’s behavior and the process of change. Of EFT’s 9 steps (not strictly chronological) and 3 stages, the first
emotion-related task of EFT (stage 1) is to map and de-escalate the NIC driven by maladaptive (stuck) secondary
emotions which also mask the underlying primary emotions and attachment needs and yearnings. This is done
primarily by reflecting and validating the perceptions, secondary emotions, and behaviors according to their
emotional logic, reframed in the context of their attachment needs to show that the behaviors of both persons have
the positive intention of seeking connection and to save or protect the relationship (though they frustratingly often
have the opposite effect) (Johnson, 2004; Johnson et al., 2005). This empathic massaging of the brain softens the
stuck secondary emotions and makes more accessible the underlying primary emotions and attachment needs which
have often fallen out of awareness or have been disowned along with other parts of self. These parts and orienting
primary emotions need brought into awareness, heightened, expressed, and re-appropriated (stage 2), first for the re-
engagement of the withdrawn partner and then for the softening of the pursuer to create greater connection,
acceptance, and intimacy (stage 2). This is done through interventions (especially the therapist-choreographed
enactments characteristic of EFT) that evoke the empathy and the attachment yearnings of their partner and which
prime their brains for change through interventions that access, evoke, heighten, and facilitate expression of
vulnerable and unspoken primary emotions and attachment needs. These interventions consist of elements found to
be effective interpersonal means for effecting therapeutic and interpersonal change. 18 The EFT interventions also
provide corrective experiences of vulnerable self-expression and empathic receptivity – structuring new ways of
communicating which foster openness, connection, and intimacy. New ways of seeing each other, themselves, and
the relationship and new ways of interacting and problems solving together are also developed and solidified (stage
3) through the experiential and emotionally focused process (Johnson, 2004; Johnson et al., 2005; Rm 12:2; Smith,
2004).
What Techniques or Methods Will You Use?
In keeping with the empirically supported import of accessing, staying with, heightening, and expressing
vulnerable emotions and interpersonal (attachment) needs, this author proposes the employment of a variety of
experiential methods and techniques. EFT outlines types of interventions according to the goals of the different
stages of the EFT work. For stage 1, therapeutic alliance is created and maintained through: empathic attunement,
non-pathologizing (unconditional) acceptance, genuineness, and alliance monitoring (Johnson et al., 2005).
Identifying secondary, primary, and instrumental emotions; softening volatile secondary emotions (through
18
Some of the mediating factors of change include: facilitating greater experiential awareness (i.e. emotional awareness and not merely cognitive
conceptualization) of the problem (NIC); integrating difficult feelings or experiences into the person’s schema via exploring, expressing, and
staying with painful affect and topics and being receptive to new insights or perspective (Honos-Webb, Stiles, Greenberg, & Goldman, 1998);
bringing inhibited primary emotions into awareness; expressing unmet interpersonal needs; restructuring mal-adaptive schemas by shifting one’s
view of the other, affirming oneself, and either understanding the other or holding them accountable (Greenberg & Malcolm, 2002); and arousing
(heightening) and processing primary vulnerable emotions (Diamond, Rochman, & Amir, 2010). The degree of emotional arousal has been found
to be a mediating factor in therapeutic change (Diamond et al.; Greenberg & Malcolm, 2002). Relational reframes and empty-chair interventions
have shown to be effective for heightening sadness while the later also heighten anxiety and fear, presumably due to the potential for rejection or
attack (Diamond et al.). Meaningful interpersonal contact has also been found to be an important factor in the process of change (Erskine, 2014).
Explicit focus on accessing emotion (and experiencing anxiety) has shown to contribute to treatment effects while accessing the emotions of a
memory is suggested to “allow new information to be admitted and the memory structure to be modified” (Foa & Kozak, 1986; Paivio &
Greenberg, 1995, p. 424).
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 15

reflecting, and acknowledging/validating emotional experiences) and gradually identifying, focusing, and expanding
on underlying fears and emotions “most salient to attachment needs and fears” while placing them in the attachment
context would also be fundamental (Johnson et al., p. 52). With congruence of verbal and nonverbal messages, stage
2 interventions help hold clients in the present moment and invite them deeper. The acronym RISSSC stands for the
interventions of: “Repeating key words and phrases;” using “Images or word pictures [or metaphors] that evoke
emotions,” particularly those provided by the client; framing responses “in Simple and concise phrases;” Slowing the
process by a slightly slower pace of speech (helping deepen the client’s emotional experience); using Soft and
soothing tone of voice (encouraging a deepening of the experience); and using the “Client’s words and phrases” in
“supportive and validating ways” (Johnson et al., pp. 53-54). Other stage 2 interventions include: evocative
responding (to explore and formulate the emotional experience), heightening (to highlight and understand key
experiences and reorganize interactions, often with use of metaphors), empathic conjecture and interpretation
(clarifying emotional experience and behaviors and formulating new meanings; including simple and complex
empathic conjectures, seeding attachment, disquisition (related story)), and self-disclosure. For restructuring
interactions in stage 3, Johnson et al. recommend: (1) tracking and reflecting the couple’s interactions (progressively
observing and reflecting simple actions, “perceptions, cued reactions, underlying emotional experience, cycles of
interaction, and attachment consequences”) (p. 81); (2) framing and reframing interactions; 19 (3) restructuring
interactions using enactments (enacting present positions, “turning new emotional experience into a specific new
response,” and “heightening new or rarely occurring responses”) (pp. 97-100).
There are a variety of complimentary experiential methods and techniques that this author also plans to
employ in therapeutic practice. Sand-tray therapy is a metaphorical, creative, and emotionally evocative means of
assessing, accessing, and processing systemic and intrapsychic dynamics and challenges (Begalka, 2017). It also
permits a practical application of the Satir experiential interventions of “parts parties”, “family sculpting”, and
“family reconstructions” (Begalka; Satir, Banmen, Gerber, & Gomori, 1991). After exploring primary emotions,
unmet needs, and how it would be to express these, enactments using empty-chair techniques, imagined enactments,
puppets, and drawing or journaling are other means of experiential processing and potential restructuring of
interactional patterns. Finally, genuine, congruent engagement of the person of the therapist in live interaction is an
essential ingredient in practicing experiential therapy and providing corrective experiences.
Focus on the Past, Present or Future?
This author sees it as necessary to consider past, present, and future in the therapeutic process. In
assessment, family and interpersonal history help identify attachment injuries and experiences that likely contribute
to the presenting attachment styles, behaviors, and dynamics and may also expose issues that take therapeutic
precedence (e.g., infidelity or abuse). Experiential therapy works fundamentally with the emotions and in the now,
employing current relationship(s) and real-time enactments to provide corrective experiences that help resolve issues
of the past and open new possibilities for future interactions and relationship. Accessing and heightening emotions
related to the past are experienced in the now and prime the brain for change. Hopes for the future can motivate
clients to stay present to and work through uncomfortable emotions so that these do not continue to drive unhelpful
and disruptive behaviors that frustrate the client relationships and attachment needs.
VI. Client Population, Roles in Therapy, and Proportion of Individual and Family Work.
Who Are Your Clients?
The author’s current client population consists of youth at risk (ages 15 to 19), their families or care-takers,
and, occasionally, their significant others in the context of Take a Hike Foundation for Youth at Risk (TAH). The
author will eventually also start private practice for couple’s counselling. Regardless of the demographic to which a
client belongs, each is an imago Dei, created by, for, and in the image of He who is Love and Truth (Jn 14:6; 1 Jn
4:8). As such, each bears intrinsic dignity and worth and needs unconditional love (with all of love’s dimensions:
agape, storge, phileo, and eros) and truth that unveil hurts and hindrances to healing and transformation, for "only
concrete love restores in each person the image of God" (Cousineau, n.d., translation mine; Olthuis, 2001; Pope
Benedict XVI, 2005). Truthful love and acceptance impart a sense of belonging, well-being, and secure attachment
which can be internalized and provide the context in which identity, ability, and sense of purpose can form,
propelling a person into life (Neufeld, 2013; Seamands, 2005).

19
The reframes are to emphasize that (a) each unwittingly helps create and is a victim of the other’s behavior and the NIC; (b) the NIC is driven
by powerful negative emotions and secondary emotions are reactions to and obscure underlying primary emotions “and attachment-related
emotional experiences” (p. 85); and (c) the NIC “and negative emotional experiences arise out of attachment” insecurities (p. 85). Key reframes
include: “fighting against the enemy of the negative cycle; fighting for secure attachment; withdrawal and stonewalling – protecting the
relationship; criticism and pursuing – fighting for connection; painting a picture and implying the possibility of secure attachment” (Johnson et al.,
2005, pp. 85-88).
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 16

Roles of Therapist and Clients and Proportion of Individual Versus Family Work
Clients, therapist, or TAH staff can initiate sessions during or after school hours. It is primarily the
therapist’s role (as one of the alpha attachment figures), to pursue attachment relationship with the students. This is
so because many of the students live in a nearly constant state of intensified pursuit of attachment (most being
strongly oriented toward their peers) which aggravates or may even be at the root of their attentional difficulties,
substance use, externalizing or internalizing behavior, defense against vulnerability, and anxiety and depression. For
the students to come to the class and therapist office as “homes” in which they belong and can fall apart, be
themselves, or at least rest from attachment anxiety and pursuit is the first step toward “un-stuck-ing” and priming
their developmental and maturation processes (Neufeld, 2013). Within the attachment village of TAH culture, the
therapist is available to students and parents but is particularly responsible for pursuing connection with the students
through formal sessions and especially through daily, real-life interaction or taking students for walks, errands,
cups of conversation, helping with academics and outdoor skills and planning, and outdoor activities (side-by-side
conversation being less anxiety provoking and more conducive to initial processing and joining). Thus, beyond
traditional therapy, the TAH therapist becomes an alpha attachment figure (reliable, adult care-taker) to whom
students can look for direction, guidance, and unconditional acceptance. The therapist and staff also pursue
relationship with the parents – offering regular updates and, whenever possible, reports on progress. The abundance
of real-time, intentional interactions provides ongoing corrective experiences and relationship that bring changes to
individual and family systems. The therapist is also, at times, a disciplinarian, not leveraging the relationship, the
clients’ sense of belonging, or what they care about against them, but by drawing the closer, removing them from
over-activating situations, facilitating emotional regulation. As much as possible, mishaps are addressed once de-
escalated, focusing on processing the experience intrapsychically to maximize the therapeutic opportunity that
mishaps provide. Within TAH, the therapist (and staff) most often initiate therapy sessions to assess and work
through family dynamics (most often using EFT with occasional use of sand-tray), current challenges, or mishaps –
seeking to employ mishaps them therapeutically (bridging and bolstering the parent-child and staff-child attachment
relationships). The therapist helps parents have eyes to see and understand what is happening with their child through
phone calls, family and parent sessions, and the bimonthly psychoeducational/psychotherapeutic group for parents
coordinated and facilitated by the therapist (focusing on practical application of attachment theory for parenting).
The therapist is also responsible for facilitating morning circles (cognitive and process level discussions), weekly and
trip journal questions (deeper, more process-level questions), psychotherapeutic groups for students (weekly) and
parents (bi-weekly).
Theologically speaking, the therapist is Christ's ears and a catalyst and intercessor, joining Christ as he
comes along-side the other who, consciously or not, is seeking Christ and the healing and transformation He wants to
effect (Seamands, 2005). The therapist’s empathic listening facilitates an experience of love, validation, and
belonging; it says: "you are heard, valued, and not alone." This is not to “fix the client” nor merely to alleviate or
console but to uncover clients’ buried hearts, desires, and selves, exposing the roots of dysfunctional coping,
fulfillment seeking, and the positive intentions, yearnings, and self that underlie them; it allows the impacts of past
experiences to be changed as the client vocalizes and orders the tohu bohu of unresolved emotions and experiences -
connecting the right and left hemispheres of the brain which create new pathways, meanings, and order, moving the
client forward in freedom, life, and integration as they are “transformed by the renewal of their minds” (Rm 12:2;
Slattery, 2002). This, all depends on clients’ willingness to be themselves and risk uncovering, acknowledging,
processing, and sharing about their experiences, needs, feelings, and challenges in ways and depths appropriate to the
contexts (circle, group therapy, and family or individual therapy sessions). It is the clients’ responsibility to try
themselves, rise to challenges, participate, and do the work and self-honest reflection necessary for them to mature
and become more complete versions of themselves. When client needs exceed the therapist’s or TAH’s scope of
competence (e.g., drug rehabilitation or pharmacotherapy), it is the role of therapist and staff to refer to outside
supports or agencies.
Most TAH therapy work consists of one-on-one sessions and interactions or group interactions with
students. Parent or family sessions occur at least once a semester and phone check-ins with students and/or parents
occur sometimes daily, sometimes monthly (as needed).
VII. Summary

What Are the Strengths and Weakness of EFT?

EFT has many strengths in its favor. Its clinical and empirical validation is strong and growing. It is firmly
and consistently founded in the theoretical framework of attachment theory which is itself continues to gain repute
and empirical validation. EFT offers a systematic, clearly delineated process of therapy and clearly defined
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 17

therapeutic interventions, providing a clear roadmap for the therapist to follow in implementing various experiential
(emotionally focused) mechanisms of change within its process. EFT can be applied to individual, couples, and
family counselling and uses now interactions, relationship, and emotions to effect change and resolve things of the
past without the need to hunt for them or cognitively figure them out. Rather than mere behavior modification, EFT
seeks intrapsychic, second-order change that brings more lasting intrapersonal and interpersonal transformation. Its
emphasis on congruence from both therapist and client(s) for emotionally engaged expression of needs and emotions
that invites the desired response gives a vision of human health and relationship that is realistic, theoretically
grounded, and normalizing of human experience and interpersonal intuition. Finally, EFT practically employs a
realist epistemology and has an anthropology that is generally compatible with most anthropologies including a
Christian anthropology and Trinitarian theology. One weakness of EFT is the artfulness of its application, making it
slightly more difficult to appropriate and somewhat dependent on therapist personality. From a Christian perspective,
its humanistic assumption of how much human love can accomplish and satisfy seem presumptuous. EFT’s entirely
positive view of the human condition also omits a consideration of the effects of sin and vice, making it non-
pathologizing but somewhat unrealistic or, at least, incomplete in its addressing of the human condition as
understood from a Christian perspective. Finally, it makes no explicit acknowledgement of the spiritual realm, the
spiritual aspect of human nature, nor the role of client spirituality, though a therapist may creatively incorporate
client spirituality according to the client’s wishes.
What Do You Want to Know More About? Final Conclusions?
This author would like to know more about the mechanism of change and recovery, especially regarding
abuse, trauma, anxiety, and depression. The impact of secure attachment and experiential, emotionally focused work
for those with symptoms qualifying for anxiety, depression, or schizoaffective disorders would also be interesting.
Finally, the therapeutic impact of a holistic, attachment-oriented, experiential-therapy-based boarding school that
effects a temporary systemic transplant of troubled teens while targeting therapeutic change of their home systems
would be of interest. It is the authors present conclusion that EFT is an effective, well-structured, well-supported, and
well-theoretically-founded systemic approach for working with individuals, couples, and families that is sufficiently
compatible with Catholic anthropology, spirituality, and theology.
 INTEGRATION OF EFT AND CATHOLIC PERSPECTIVES 18

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