Working with Attachment Injuries via Emotion Focused Therapy: A Case Presentation-Mrs. R. Case

Habibe Aykan, 2020

Emotion Focused Therapy is based on awareness, acceptence, expression, utilization, regulation and transformation of emotion. Goals of the therapy are empowering the self, regulation of emotions and creating new meanings. The basic motivation of human being is making bond with others. A safe relation of the person with himself/herself and with the others is building block for well-being and development. The main tool that makes a person make a bond with another person is emotion. Since the first years of the life, the relationships that the person have with important others for fulfilling the need for care and need for safety, form attachment patterns. Attachment patterns can change with experiences, and changes continue through life-span. In this study, it is aimed that Mrs. R. would  change her attachment patterns and regulate her relationship with her husband and especially with herself by having new experiences via emotion focused therapy. Mrs. R. was having problems with regulating her relationships with herself and with her husband. After they applied a couple therapist for their marriage and after therapist said that her emotions are like emotions of a child and her expectations from her husband are like a child’s expectations from the father, 26 years old and married for 11 months Mrs. R. has decided to apply for knowing herself and her emotions. After taking her history, it is determined that emotion-focused therapy could work with the client. As the client expressed, she does not know her emotions at all and she cannot interpret her emotions. Mrs. R. was looking like an ice mass and she was expressing what she experiences is like “being caught in a trap and being in a trap”. She was stating that she cannot make a warm relationship with anybody, she feels like rootless, and she is not going to ever make a close relationship and make a bond with anyone. Firstly, empathic reflection, empathic exploration and empathic interpretation techniques are used for making a trust relationship with Mrs. R. As the sessions have continued, attachment injuries have been worked with emotion focused therapy tecniques by tracing the signals with the guidance of emotions. It is attest to change of the client from an insecure child to a mature adult. As the half of the therapy sessions are completed, it is seen that the client take the responsibilities of her own emotions and she was able to express and make sense of her own emotions. Towards the end of the therapy, the client stated that the problems that she had with her husband has decreased, she was able to express her emotions to her husband and they were able to maintain a closer and secure based relationship. In the journey of the client in development as a secure person, road map of attachment theory and emotion to emotion change techniques of emotion focused therapy had essential role. 

Keywords: Attachment wound, emotion focused therapy, change of emotion