Emotionally Focused

Robin Magdahlen

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC RDT

Emotionally focused therapy proposes that emotions themselves have an innately adaptive potential that, if activated, can help clients change problematic emotional states or unwanted self-experiences. Emotions themselves do not inhibit the therapeutic process, however learning better coping strategies enables clients to move through old behaviors and patterns into a state of increased well being.

Tori Morrison (she/they)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

M.A., Marriage & Family Therapist Associate

Kelle DeBruin (she/her)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

As humans our natural state is for companionship, intimacy, and support as we journey through challenges and joys in life. Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) works to understand needs of attachment and builds emotional bonds between couples and families.

Stacey Vallas (she/her)

Professional Counselor Associate

MS, NCC

Emotions can illuminate our genuine needs and guide us in fulfilling them. But when our feelings aren't recognized and valued, we learn to respond to life with patterns of emotion that undermine our well being and even mask what we authentically feel. I will support your experiencing and working through of your own emotional patterns to gain clarity about your authentic feelings and needs.

Darin Bergen (he/him)

Clinical Psychologist

PsyD

My Emotion-Focused Therapy (for individuals) training has roots in the beginning of graduate school and it helps with the processing of emotional problems and healing old wounds. EFT has a strong basis in the science of emotion and therapeutic change. I have completed the Level 1 and Level 2 Emotion-Focused Therapy training with Les Greenberg.

Paula Emerick (she/they)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

LMFT

It's not as fluffy as it sounds. I believe in it. It works. But it goes deep. In a nutshell - integrating emotional understanding with intellectual meaning and attending to the body while creating a trusting relationship with me working from the foundation of attachment. Wow. That's quite a sentence, Paula! Or just google it. ;)

Alana R. Ogilvie (she/her)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

LMFT, CST

Using an integrated EFT approach I help couples and individuals identify their primary emotions, work through maladaptive responses, and develop empathy and compassion for themselves and others.

Chelsea Kellogg (she/her/hers)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

M.A. Marriage, Couple, and Family Therapy

Sometimes when we're stressed, tired, spread too thin, or triggered we can struggle to connect emotionally with our partners. I use Emotionally Focused Therapy to help couples reconnect, both with themselves and with each other.

Benita Munson

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC, CRC, CADC I

I am trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples through Edwards Psychotherapy in Portland. In EFT I will teach you how to access your primary emotions (IE sadness, fear) that are underlying secondary defensive reactions (resentment, jealousy). Once a person can communicate their primary emotion to a partner, it helps to increase connection and attachment. We will also do enactments in session which heighten emotion and also build connection and attachment.

C.J. Sanders

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

I am an EFT-informed couples therapist. This means that I prioritize your emotional way of relating to one another. This helps us get to deeper issues beyond what is on the surface level. We will unlock stalemates, break negative communication cycles and improve bonding, communication and intimacy.

Sarah Zimmerman (she/her)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

M.A. in Marriage, Couple and Family Therapy

Couples and intimate partners all have patterns in the way that they relate based on their early attachment histories. EFT uses present-moment experience to become more aware of these usually unconscious ways of relating and help partners find more connection by communicating more vulnerably and directly to each other.

Anchor Within Counseling

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

MSW, LCSW

Mary Bruce-Owenby (she/her)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

LGBTQIA-affirmative couples therapist

I have studied EFT in my training programs and use this approach in conjunction with others when working with couples. EFT's tools of engagement and attunement help us to first identify and deescalate negative patterns that have kept the couple isolated from one another, and then restructure and rebuild the trust, strengthening the emotional bond and renewing connection.

Varsha Ruparel MS,CMHC,NCC

Professional Counselor Associate

EFT emphasizes creating and strengthening emotional bonds between family members or partners. I have successfully helped individuals identify adaptive and maladaptive relational patterns and develop more open, attuned, responsive, and loving relationships. I like this approach because it helps in addressing the underlying relational disturbance between people suffering from dysregulation.

Chris Lehman

Professional Counselor Associate

I studied and practiced emotionally focused therapy at Portland State University. In my experience I find this approach to be an effective way for a client to change and grow through an authentic relationship with their therapist.

Michael Wilson, MA

Licensed Professional Counselor

I view my therapy through an attachment lens. Attachment lays the groundwork for how we will interpret and process the world around us. Utilizing EFT I examine my clients attachment style, identify mismanaged emotions, and develop healthier strategies of coping with negative emotional experiences.

Kelly Arthur, LPC, CADC I

Licensed Professional Counselor

Emotionally Focused Therapy has been my primary modality in working with couples since 2015. I find it a most beneficial therapeutic modality because it enables me to help couples get right down to the root of what's happening in problematic interactions. Using EFT helps me help couples much more quickly because we work with the shared human experience of emotions rather than staying in the story.

Kimberly Noall, MS, MFT (she/her/hers)

Professional Counselor Associate

Dasia Star (she/they)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

Master of Arts in Marriage, Couple, and Family Therapy

We all get into patterns based on our attachment histories. Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) supports relationships (couples, nonmonogamous partners, friends) in getting to the heart of what is causing ongoing conflicts or difficult stuck points. Using EFT, we can slow down and uncover our attachment dance, find more authentic connection, and move toward relationship repair.

Julie Finnell

Professional Counselor Associate

I have completed EFT Externship with Sue Johnson, the creator of the EFT approach for couples therapy.

Courtney Watson (She/Her)

Professional Counselor Associate

MA, Professional Counselor Associate, CHT

When we work together, we will speak in the language of emotion. I believe that our emotions are a key aspect of who we are, how we perceive the world, and how we respond to those perceptions. It is my understanding that our emotions can sometimes run the show without our conscious awareness of how or why. When we speak in the language of emotion, we can better understand this realm and better understand the how and why. I also integrate this within IFS (along with somatic language).

Alicia Turgesen (She/Her)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

MA

Emotionally Focused therapy is centered in attachment. As people, we all crave and deserve secure attachments and relationships. In therapy, we work to rebuild those secure bonds.

Marla Christensen LPC NCC (she/her)

Marriage and Family Therapist

MA LPC NBCC

My approach is also connected with Dr. Sue Johnson’s Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Integrated Behavioral Couple therapy (Neil Jacobson and Andrew Christensen). Emotionally Focused Therapy allows the therapeutic relationship to identify vital information that client emotions can provide as an attempt to develop strong, safe relationships.

Hayden Collier

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC, CADC-I

Sarah Hardin

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

What feelings underlie your behaviors and your ways of relating to others? This approach helps you identify your core emotional needs and learn ways to express those to others. EFT works wonderfully with individuals, couples, and families alike to deepen connection and fine-tune communication skills. I excel at helping folks uncover the feelings that are often difficult to name.

David Zimmerman (he/him)

Professional Counselor Associate

M.A., LPC Intern

We all find ourselves in patterns of relating to our emotional experience. By helping understand our individual cycle and the emotional patterns we engage in when we interact with others, we can start to have new experiences of feeling connected to ourselves and those we love.

Margot Standeven (she/her/hers)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

Masters in Marriage, Couple, & Family Counseling

EFT helps couples recognize and understand the negative cycle that interferes with their communication. With this awareness, less time and energy is spent on regulating negative emotions and protecting individual vulnerabilities. Instead, the partners can turn to each other for comfort and support so as to be resilient and meet life’s challenges

Stacey Johnson (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC, LMHC, EMDRIA Certified EMDR therapist

I trained in Emotion Focused Therapy for Individuals with Edwards Psychotherapy.

Gayle Waitches

Professional Counselor Associate

Emotion Focused Therapy suggests that our emotional inner life can be our most valuable guide rather than felt as mere states of being. As we allow ourselves to more deeply experience our emotional climate, we can become more intentional, aware and discerning with our life choices.

Jenna Washburn (she / her)

Professional Counselor Associate

MA: Mental Health Counseling - Specialization in Addictions

While I also use CBT often, I always pair it with Emotionally Focused Therapy because it allows a more well-rounded approach and links together the cognitive with the emotional spheres of a client's experience.

Lindsay Anderson

Professional Counselor Associate

M.A., NCC, LPC-intern, MHCA

When we suppress or numb our emotions we don't get to pick and choose the ones we want to feel, they all get suppressed. Emotions are information and they are often trying to tell us important things. Recognizing and sitting with our emotions is a practice that we can get better at; allowing us to move deeper into our understanding of ourselves and others.

Lauren Saville (She/They)

Licensed Professional Counselor

C5949

Taylor Kravitz (She/Her/Hers)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

Do you find you and your partner(s) are getting stuck in the same argument over and over? You know you both care for each other but neither of you feel heard and seen. Using Emotionally Focused Therapy, I can help you get in touch with your deeper emotions, address your relational conflict cycle, and build safe & emotionally connected relationships.

Alex Bistroi

Licensed Professional Counselor

I completed training in Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) for individuals. I also completed training in EFT for couples.

Nicole Kammerlocher (she/her/hers)

Professional Counselor Associate

Emotionally Focused Therapy is based in attachment theory and focuses on recognizing how we experience our emotions, what we do with them, and how we can connect more effectively and fully with our partners.

Caitlin Beckwith-Ferguson (she/her)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

I use emotionally-focused therapy to help couples connect in a deeper, more vulnerable way. So often, couples are caught in a negative cycle of interaction. We will identify your attachment needs and your emotions and work towards expressing them openly to each other. I have completed these trainings: Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT): Attachment-based Interventions to Treat Trauma, Anxiety, and Depression training Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy – ICEEFT Externship

Eric Nielson

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

I integrate Emotionally Focused Therapy (or, 'EFT') in my work with couples and with families. I have done training with Sue Johnson, one of the progenitors of EFT, and am engaged in on-going supervision and training in this therapeutic model.

Erin Axelrod, MA

Professional Counselor Associate

Honoring emotion is a continuous thread throughout our work together. As recent research demonstrates: we are not thinking beings who sometimes feel, but rather feeling beings who sometimes think. We will explore how to safely notice, express, and move emotions in service of individual and collective healing.

Ajay Dheer (He/They)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

M.S. Marriage and Family Therapy

I am currently being trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with anticipated completion in spring of 2021. EFT attunes to our own emotions and emotional regulation as well as how they interact with those of our partner(s). I primarily use EFT with relationships (monogamous couples as well as polyamorous/open relationships), though the benefits of my training can also be utilized with individuals.

Karin Pfeiffer-Robinson (she/her)

Professional Counselor Associate

M.A., NCC

In my work with clients, and in my own personal journey, I have observed that it is very common to feel overwhelmed and confused by our emotions. Developing the ability to recognize, accept, and address our emotions can be the basis of a more grounded and meaningful life.

Amelia Righi (they/them)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

Tever Nickerson

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

I have done extensive training in emotionally-focused therapy for both individuals and couples. I believe EFT work gets to the heart of people's pain by examining how maladaptive emotions get in the way of our health and happiness. EFT allows us to work on shifting less helpful feelings and responses to allow room for more adaptive emotions.

"Paisley" Jen Burrell (she/her)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

LPC, LMFT

Emotion must be evoked, experienced, validated, respected and accepted in order to move forward. People get stuck when their emotions have been denied, repressed, depressed, dismissed or invalidated. EFT works with clients difficult and sometimes painful emotions to allow the necessary healing and integration to occur.

Sonia Holdaway (she/her)

Professional Counselor Associate

MS

My approach to counseling is grounded primarily in Emotion-Focused therapy, which encourages exploring and experiencing your emotions in real time in session, to help you connect with, and better articulate, your deeper needs. Many of us can understand our struggles very well on a cognitive level, but have trouble figuring out how to actually feel better. I love that emotion-focused therapy uses in-the-moment, emotional change experiences in session to actually create lasting change.

Maegan Megginson (she/her)

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

MA, LMFT, LPC, AASECT CST

I have trained in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and Emotionally Focused Therapy for individuals. This is the foundation from which I work with all clients in my therapy practice.

Catherine Palmer; MS, LPC, MFT (She/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

Miranda Bayard-Clark, LPC (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

Attachment is one of the key drives all humans need. We learn attachment from our primary caregivers, which is translated to our intimate partners. When we feel emotionally secure and attached, we feel good and safe. When our emotional connections are not validated, we feel threatened. I work with couples understand each other on a primary level, and create strong, secure attachments.

Sarah Small

Professional Counselor Associate

MA

Emotions are temporary physical sensations that allow our body to communicate with us. There is no such thing as a 'bad' emotion, but there are plenty that are highly uncomfortable or difficult to manage. Emotions have the power to help us change, heal, and grow. I work with individuals to accurately identify their emotions and understand how to regulate them productively and meaningfully.

JESSICA VAN DER MERWE (She/Her)

Professional Counselor

LMHC, LPC Intern

EFT focuses on individual emotional states (or lack thereof) as the “barometer” for the one's most important and unresolved issues. According to this form of therapy, emotions are adaptive but can become problematic. EFT works to identify core emotions and beliefs, and transform them to resolve conflict.

Josh Clark, PhD

Clinical Psychologist

Emotion-Focused therapy, or EFT, can help you identify, utilize, and process emotions. Suffering comes when we encounter distressing emotions but try to resist or avoid them rather than accept and feel them fully. With EFT, I help patients learn to recognize their emotions and feel them in a safe and validating way.

Henry Cameron (He/Him)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

I have taken courses taught by Sue Johnson, founder of EFT

Brittany Boney, LMFT

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

Emotions are often assigned a negative reputation, but they hold innate power to help us change and grow. I work with individuals and couples to help them identify and better regulate their emotions. With couples, this work includes identifying the patterns which serve as barriers to connection.

Carewell Portland Carewell Portland/Julie Berman (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

Emotionally Focused Therapy helps people understand themselves better so they can make big changes.

Cayla Panitz (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

I utilize Emotion Focused Family Therapy to support caregivers who are facilitating mental health recovery of their loved ones.

Kristen Genzano (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

MA, LPC, NCC

I am trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy and use this orientation to inform my work with individuals and couples. Emotions are central to the human experience. By being aware of and expressing our emotions we can more deeply understand ourselves. Deeper self-understanding gives way for more authentic self-expression.

Bree Koenig (she/her/hers)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

MS Clinical Psychology, San Francisco State University

Leslie Jones

Licensed Professional Counselor

I have formal training in Emotionally-Focused Therapy, applied specifically to the work I do with couples. This modality has enhanced my ability to help clients see the foundational causes of the emotion that comes to the surface; the root cause is able to be addressed and remedied. I have been able to apply this theory to all of the clinical work I do.

Mira Shah, LPC, ATR, LAT (she/her)

Art Therapist

LPC, LAT, ATR

Emotionally Focused Therapy is rooted in the theory that as humans, we all need secure attachment and healthy relationship. We work to rebuild those secure bonds by helping clients learn to recognize their emotions and feel them in a safe and validating way. I will support your work to recognize the emotional patterns we get into when our relational needs aren't met and grow healthy tools to break the pattern.

Amanda Fitzpatrick (She/they)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

LMFT Associate

I have additional training specifically in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy and attachment theory. I believe engaging in the emotional climate of a couple is where change happens.

Richard Marshall

Licensed Marriage Family Therapist

M.A., LMFT

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) is an evidence-based treatment, and together with the Gottman Method, is the therapeutic model I most commonly use with couples. Its power comes from its ability to tap into people's primal need for a close attachment bond to others. It helps people express their softer, more vulnerable emotions with the aim of increasing connection and closeness to others.

Marena Passarelli (She/Her/Hers)

Licensed Professional Counselor

MA, LPC, LMHC

I believe that all emotions serve a purpose or function. I work to help clients identify, regulate, and express their emotions in more effective ways.

Ayala Parker (she/they)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

LMFT-I

Heather Simpson (she/her)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

MA LMFT Intern

Portland Counseling & Anxiety Specialists

Licensed Professional Counselor

Myra Sicilia (she/her)

Licensed Professional Counselor

LPC

As I have grown into a professional license counselor I have come to realize the benefits of deep work to heal trauma and various other human concerns. It helps individuals accept, regulate, express, and bring awareness of the complexity of human emotions. Understanding emotions help guides us to our needs or wants.

Ashley Adler (she/her/hers)

Marriage and Family Therapist Associate

M.A. Marriage and Family Therapy, Sex Therapy Emphasis

Using Emotionally Focused Therapy, I help individuals and couples explore maladaptive patterns and the underlying emotions influencing them. With this knowledge, we compassionately work to create change by inviting vulnerability and empathy into your relationship with yourself and others.