Attachment-Based Couples Therapy
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) in Colorado
You’ve had this argument before, and the topic is never the point. One of you pushes for an answer, the other goes quiet, and by the end neither of you remembers what started it. EFT works on the pattern underneath.
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Schedule a Therapist Match CallClinically reviewed by Ali Waldmer, MA, LMFT, LAC • Last reviewed August 24, 2026
The Method
What is Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)?
Emotionally Focused Therapy is a structured approach built on attachment science. It treats most relationship distress as a predictable cycle instead of a fault in either person. The work is to slow that cycle down until both of you can see what drives it. Sue Johnson developed the approach in the 1980s.
Emotionally focused therapy is one of the approaches you’ll find among our therapy methods. Colorado Women’s Center offers both of the main couples models, EFT and the Gottman Method. Partners of any gender are welcome in the room. There are also forms for one person working alone and for families, both covered further down this page. Sessions run at five Front Range offices and over secure video anywhere in Colorado.
Both people in the room, working on the same pattern.
Our Promise to You
We Guarantee Our Therapist Matching
EFT asks both people to say things they have been working around for a long time. That’s hard enough without wondering whether the therapist has quietly taken a side. If the first match isn’t right, tell us and we’ll match you with another at no additional cost.
Request a Free ConsultationWhat This Works On
What EFT Helps With
Most couples arrive knowing something is wrong and disagreeing about what it is. None of it has to reach a crisis before it’s worth bringing in. These are what EFT gets used for at Colorado Women’s Center, in couples work and in individual and family sessions.
The Same Argument on Repeat
The subject changes and the ending never does. EFT names the cycle you are both caught in and treats the cycle as the problem, which takes it off either person’s shoulders.
Distance That Crept In
Nothing dramatic happened. You’re polite, well coordinated, and further apart than you used to be. Couples and marriage therapy using EFT works on what went quiet before it went distant.
Losing Yourself in the Relationship
You track their mood better than your own and you’ve stopped registering what you want. Codependency therapy that draws on EFT works on the attachment fear sitting under all that accommodating.
Fear of Abandonment
You brace for someone to leave, and that shapes how you act long before anybody goes anywhere. Abandonment therapy using EFT goes at the fear itself instead of the behavior it produces.
Shutting Down or Chasing
One of you pushes for resolution and the other needs the conversation to stop. Both are protecting the same relationship. EFT gets each of you to see what the other is doing.
Unresolved Trauma
Something older changes what feels safe in a relationship now, often without announcing itself. EFT works on how emotion moves in the moment, which is usually what has to steady first.
Anxiety and Depression
Used with one person, EFT looks at how you handle emotion inside and how attachment shapes what you do with it. That is the individual form of the model.
After a Breach of Trust
You can’t rebuild by explaining what happened one more time. EFT has a structured way of working through the injury so it stops surfacing inside unrelated arguments.
Family Transitions
A move, a diagnosis, or a child leaving and moving back in all change the arrangement everyone got used to. EFT with families works on how people reach each other after that.
Our Approach
How EFT Runs at Colorado Women’s Center
EFT moves in a fairly consistent order, whether there are two people in the room or one. Here is what that looks like.
Start With a Match Call
You begin with a Wellness Coordinator. She asks what you’re looking for, including whether you want EFT and whether you’re coming as a couple, on your own, or as a family. Then she matches you on that, on which office suits you, and on therapist specialty and experience.
Find the Cycle
The first sessions map what happens between you. You look at who moves toward, who moves away, and what each of you does once it starts. Naming that out loud is usually the first thing that changes anything, because it stops being a fight about who is difficult.
Get Underneath It
Under the pushing and the withdrawing there is almost always something softer that neither of you has said plainly. Your therapist slows the conversation down enough for it to come out in the room, with the other person there to hear it.
Build Something Different
Once each of you can say the hard thing and get a response you didn’t expect, the sessions turn toward practicing it. A cycle shifts through repetition, not insight. Sessions run at five offices and over secure video, seven days a week, 8am to 8pm.
Three Forms of EFT
Couples, or EFCT
Works on the negative cycle between partners, rebuilding trust and the sense of a secure bond. This is the most common form here.
Individuals, or EFIT
Works with one person on trauma, depression, or anxiety. It goes at how you handle emotion inside and how you attach to yourself and to others.
Families, or EFFT
Works on how family members reach each other, including parents and adult children.
Common Questions
EFT Questions We Get Asked
Is EFT only for couples?
No. Most of the EFT at Colorado Women’s Center is couples work, and there are established forms for individuals and for families. The individual form works on how you handle emotion inside and how you attach to yourself and to other people. The family form works on connection between family members. Say which one you’re after on the Match Call.
Does my partner have to come?
For couples work, yes, both of you attend. If your partner isn’t willing yet, individual EFT is a real option rather than a consolation prize. Plenty of people start on their own and a partner joins later once they can see what the sessions are like. Either way is worth raising on the Match Call.
Is this the same as EFT tapping?
No. Emotionally Focused Therapy and Emotional Freedom Techniques share an acronym and nothing else. Emotionally Focused Therapy is an attachment-based talking therapy developed by Sue Johnson and delivered by a therapist in a session room. The tapping practice is a separate thing, and it is not what Colorado Women’s Center offers under this name.
How is EFT different from the Gottman Method?
Both are couples approaches and Colorado Women’s Center offers both. EFT works on the emotional bond and the cycle running underneath the conflict. The Gottman Method leans more on structured assessment and specific skills for handling conflict. Which one suits you is something you and your therapist sort out together, and some couples get elements of each.
Does EFT work online?
Yes. Couples sessions run over secure video, as long as both of you can be somewhere private. That can mean side by side or in two different places. Individual and family sessions work the same way. It covers anywhere in Colorado, which matters when one partner travels for work. Our online therapy page has the details.
How long does EFT take?
That’s decided between you and your therapist rather than set in advance. It depends on what you’re bringing in and how the sessions go once the cycle is on the table. Your therapist builds a plan with you early on and revisits it with you as things change.
How soon can we start?
Match Calls are usually available within 48 hours, often within 24. Most clients are with a therapist within about a week, depending on availability, which for couples means two calendars instead of one. Offices are open seven days a week, 8am to 8pm, and online sessions run the same hours. Call 720.810.2355 or use the form on this page.
Related Methods
Approaches That Sit Close to EFT
Colorado Women’s Center therapists work in more than one model, and these two come up alongside EFT most often.
