In Memory of Dr. Sue Johnson 1947- 2024
Mission
At the San Francisco Consultancy in Emotionally Focused Therapy (SFCEFT), our mission is to foster lasting emotional connection in couples, individuals, and families by advancing excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). We are dedicated to providing high-quality clinical services, supervision, and training rooted in attachment science, cultural humility, and the transformative power of emotion. Through collaborative consultation and education, we empower therapists to become confident, attuned, and ethically grounded practitioners.
Dr. Sam Jinich offers online psychotherapy and supports therapists by providing EFT trainings and clinical supervision in EFT to local, national and international EFT practitioners and organizations.
Sam Jinich, PhD
Clinical Psychologist
Director
ICEEFT Certified EFT
Trainer, Supervisor & Therapist
Dr. Sue Johnson
EFT Founder
“A landmark study of EFT shows that we can now effectively help couples, not just understand their relationship a little better or fight a little less, but create the secure loving bonds that soothe our brains.” — Dr. Sue Johnson
Learn how to help couples strengthen their loving attachment bond and improve closeness and connection with Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), developed by Dr. Sue Johnson.
What is Emotionally Focused Therapy?
Most couples in conflict tend to react to each other in particular ways that keeps the conflict going. Over time, a repetitive pattern emerges that keeps the couple locked in a negative cycle.
We help to interrupt their repetitive negative interactions and learn to reach for each other for nurturance and support.
By strengthening their emotional bond and feelings of secure attachment, EFT therapists help couples to create a more emotionally open and receptive way of interacting. The goal of EFT is to help couples to feel safe sharing their vulnerable feelings, fears and attachment-related longings.
Learning Emotionally Focused Therapy
Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy is an empirically validated, humanistic psychotherapeutic approach developed by Dr. Sue Johnson and Dr. Les Greenberg in the 1980’s. Since then, Sue Johnson developed the model further adding John Bowlby’s Attachment Theory to further understand couple relationships and to guide therapists in helping them. EFT is also used with families and individuals.
The Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) model is based on the belief that all human beings need safe, secure emotional connections in their intimate relationships and that relationship distress occurs in moments of disconnection.
EFT is one of the most thoroughly researched, clearly delineated and empirically validated approaches in the field of couples therapy. It reflects the most recent research on the nature of relationship distress, adult love and emotion. Research studies find that after treatment with EFT couples therapy, 70-75% of couples move from distress to recovery and 90% of couples show significant improvement. EFT therapists view the couple’s presenting issues through an attachment lens and they get to the heart of their problems.
EFT is being taught all over the world in many languages. The San Francisco Center for EFT offers EFT trainings in English and Spanish.
Learning EFT
As an organization committed to excellence in EFT training, the San Francisco Consultancy in EFT (SFCEFT) offers all levels of instruction: Introductions to the EFT model, 4-day EFT Externships, Core Skills Trainings in EFT and EFT Core Skills Refreshers. In addition, it offers Special Topic EFT trainings such as EFT Certification Intensives, the Forgiveness Training for Therapists and the Attunement Training for Therapists. SFCEFT facilitates and sponsors workshops by ICEEFT Certified Supervisors and Trainers in a variety of special topics.
Dr Sue Johnson’s Article on Latest EFT Research:
Changes in Relationship-Specific Attachment in EFT
Scientific American Recognizes Sue Johnson’s Work in Human Attachment!
We are delighted to inform you that Scientific American, the internationally respected journal of scientific discovery and research news has published a wonderfully accessible article about Sue Johnson’s work with attachment and helping people have more fulfilling relationships. View the complete article here.
SFCEFT Core Principles & Values
At the San Francisco Consultancy in Emotionally Focused Therapy (SFCEFT), I am committed to cultivating a climate of inclusion, safety, and deep human connection. Whether in clinical consultation, training, supervision, or therapy, my goal is to create an environment where every person feels seen, valued, and free to bring their full humanity into the room.
I strive to embody what I hope to foster in the world: a more just, compassionate, and emotionally attuned community—one where all people can safely express their most fundamental human need for connection without fear of marginalization or persecution based on religion, race, ethnicity, national origin, sexual or affectional orientation, gender identity or expression, family structure, age, class, mental health, physical characteristics, or ability status.
These values are inherent in both the attachment science and humanistic foundation of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), which underpins all aspects of my work.
Specifically:
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EFT is collaborative and respectful. It treats people as whole persons, not diagnoses, labels, or “types.”
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It is non-pathologizing, rooted in a belief in the resilience and worth of every client.
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It honors individual differences while holding to the universals of emotion and attachment as the core of change.
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It sees human relationships as sacred spaces—worthy of care, attention, and healing.
I operate from the foundational belief that relationships are central to human flourishing. Empirical research confirms that emotionally secure bonds support not only mental and physical well-being but also the capacity for resilience, growth, and creativity. Emotionally focused interventions have the power to heal ruptures, restore trust, and deepen intimacy in ways that profoundly shape individual and relational life.
In all of my work at SFCEFT, I aim to provide a nurturing professional environment where therapists and clients alike can grow—not only in skill, but in self-awareness, compassion, and connection.