Focusing within EFT: Therapists’ Perspectives on Integration

Interviews were done with twenty-one EFT therapists who completed Inner Relationship Focusing (IRF) training designed for EFT practitioners. Shifts described by therapists were organized around four dimensions: process orientation, timing, relational presence, and therapist development. From their accounts, twelve competencies were identified that offer therapists new options to draw on freely, depending on what the moment calls for. These include pausing, trusting the unclear edge, supporting fresh description, and fostering client agency. Therapists described experimenting with these skills in ways that sometimes reduced their own sense of pressure and, in their accounts, were linked with clients engaging differently. In this article we propose an integration model for EFT and Inner Relationship Focusing (IRF). This model rests on a dual core, where Focusing and focusing-oriented responses work alongside empathy and empathic responses.