Building Family Resilience

Emotion Focused Family Counseling Approach

Gian Sugiana Sugara and Rina Rindanah

Department of Guidance and Counseling, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia

giansugiana@gmail.com

Keywords: Emotionally Focused Family Counselling, Resilience, Attachment.

Abstract: Changes in the family have a significant impact on family members. The difficult and pressing situation makes

family members are in a stressful situation. For that, it needs to increase is the resilience to be able to confront

the situation. Attachment theory offers robust developmental models for conceptualizing emotional distress

and symptomatic behavior as an adaptive response to emotional insecurity in parent-child relationships.

Recent developments in emotionally focused family counselling and attachment-based family therapy

demonstrate promising empirical support for the application of attachment theory to the treatment of

childhood disorders and family distress. This article explains apply emotionally focused family counselling

to improve family resilience.

1 INTRODUCTION

Resilience in the family becomes an important factor

in developing the mental health of a family member

(Stavrianopoulos, Faller and Furrow, 2014). Situation

and challenges of life weight and pressure that often

create stress individual demands individuals to

develop psychological resilience in the face. Families

who have a good psychological toughness will cause

all members feel the security and harmony in the

family. Resilience in families formed by a strong

emotional bond among family members (Aquilino,

1999). Interwoven good emotional reinforce the

psychological power among members that will give a

sense of security so that in a stressful situation, each

family member has a psychological resistance.

Emotional bonds within the family formed by

attachment among family members. Johnson (2006)

describes the more people have an emotional

attachment to their family members, then increasing

psychological resilience. Attachment concept became

a phenomenon that many take to help individuals in

the family. There are two approaches that use the

concept of attachment counselling to help families to

improve the resilience that family counselling is

based on attachment (Diamond, Siqueland, and

Diamond, 2003) and emotion-focused family

counselling (Johnsonand Lee, 2000; Johnson,

Maddeaux, and Blouin, 1998). As developed at this

time indicates that the family counselling practice

focuses emotions can help families to improve the

resilience of individuals.

This article contains the emotion-focused family

counselling in improving the resilience of the family.

Emotion-focused family counselling is an approach

that is heavily influenced by the humanistic

approach', family systems theory, and the most

important is attachment theory (Johnson and

Greenman, 2006). Through the integration of

emotional response intrapsychic and interactional

patterns of interpersonal, emotion-focused family

counselling to help families to create a more secure

connection between each other (Johnson, Hunsley,

Greenberg, and Schindler, 1999). This approach

allows clients to explore the resentment they feel, and

see how it impacts the relationship and then apply the

new information that they should find to build

stronger relationships and emotional as well as a safe

one another (Johnson, 2007). The goal of emotion

focused family counselling is to identify the

projective, develop stickiness "attachment",

rebuilding healthy family relationships, find and

explain the needs of the individual, encouraging

autonomy as explained by the theory of Bowen

namely differentiation, and work under the task of life

development (Makinen and Johnson, 2006).

Sugara, G. and Rindanah, R.

Building Family Resilience - Emotion Focused Family Counseling Approach.

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences (ICES 2017) - Volume 2, pages 57-62

ISBN: 978-989-758-314-8

2 THE CONCEPT OF EMOTION

FOCUSED FAMILY

COUNSELING TO IMPROVE

RESILIENCE

2.1 Basic Assumptions

Emotion focused family counselling aims to reduce

stress and anxiety in adult relationships and create or

re-create a more secure attachment bond (Makinen

and Johnson, 2006). Emotion-focused family

counselling is a variant of emotion focused therapy

applied in the family setting. Focusing on the key

element of emotion is an important transformation in

the treatment of emotional focus. By focusing on

emotions, are egalitarian, counsellors can create a

"safe environment" for clients (Greenberg et al.,

1993). As mentioned earlier, emotion-focused family

counselling based on the theory of attachment.

However, the emotion-focused counselling also uses

elements of Gestalt counselling and family systems

theory. As noted by Greenberg and Johnson (1988),

the second theory sees humans as "the process of

becoming", not "made up," capable of living in the

volatile life. Both good Gestalt theory and systems

theory also focus on the "here and now" is different

in the construction of history that is often found in the

more traditional psychodynamic approach to therapy.

Emotion focused counselling produces basic

theories explaining the importance of involving the

"real relationship of the inner psychological world of

the two partners in interaction" (Greenberg and

Johnson, 1988) and contextual relationships as the

basis also of each person's behavior in relation to

intrapsychic experience. The following is a summary

of the principles of emotion-focused family

counselling:

• Counselors act as a consultant during the

counseling process and help families and

collaborating that will allow them to create a

secure bond and explore their emotions.

• Emotions are the key element in the

relationship. It regulates the viscosity behavior

and affects how people feel about themselves

and how they had an intimate relationship with

another person

• Need for close family members (attachment) is

the desire healthy and adaptive. Problems occur

when people are not able to enforce those

requirements or feel the need for a couple or a

family member in a safe manner. For example,

a girl wants to be closer to his mother (which is

the desire of a very precise), but he does it by

acting out (pattern of unsafe behavior).

• Problems occur when people develop their

interaction patterns based on negative emotions

and based on the experience they have in a

relationship. According to Johnson (1996),

emotional and interactional patterns will

develop a self-reinforcing feedback.

• Changes occur by creating new emotional

experiences in this relationship which is based

on the interaction of a secure attachment-boost.

This theory does not focus on insight into the

past, catharsis, or negotiation.

• The counselor looked at partner relationship

with "clients" in the session. The purpose of

counseling is to create a relationship based on a

secure bond.

Emotion focused counselling believes that "bond"

exists between the people, and if a couple or family

come to counselling, the bond has been compromised

in some form (Johnson and Talitman, 1997). Trust

may be broken, people may feel insecure in

relationships, and family members may not believe

that other people can be trusted or even safe. Based

on this belief, emotion-focused family counselling

strategy is to heal the broken bond, to restore

confidence, and to help create a safe environment for

its members, and not to resolve introjects and

projections in childhood (Johnson and Talitman,

1997).

Emotion focused family counsellor has three main

tasks: first, to create and maintain a therapeutic

relationship that is "safe" in which each member of

the family to explore themselves and others. The

second task is to access the client emotions and then

formulate them into a new basic emotion and more

positive among family members. The third task is the

restructuring of the interaction between members of

the family, which in essence is the change

problematic behavior patterns become more positive

patterns (Johnson et al., 2005). To accomplish this

task, the counsellor focuses emotion took the three-

stage process of counselling and nine steps in family

counselling (Johnson et al., 2005).

2.2 Views on the Family Resilience

Emotion focused family counselling defines "health"

as flexibility, rather than being caught in a tight

pattern of emotional and behavioural responses.

When individual healthy, then he has the ability to

regulate emotions in a healthy and able to relate to

others in a healthy way by creating a sense of security

in relationship (Johnson, 2002). This includes the

ability to access, receive and understand the emotions

ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences

of a person. Pathology refers to the concept of

emotional response, behavioural, cognitive, and

perception does not match for the reality of the

current context (Johnson, 2002).

When families or couples go into counselling

sessions, emotion focused family counselling view

that family healthy but currently stuck in repetitive

behavior patterns resulting from injury viscosity, or

feel the loss of a sense of security and comfort.

Counsellors focus on seeing how the cycle of

behavior and interaction created between members of

a running system (Greenberg and Johnson, 1988;

Johnson, 1996). By examining the behavior of

communication through the frame attachment theory,

emotion-focused family counsellor family assumes

creating negative emotional patterns that make them

"trapped" in a cycle of repeated interactions. The

views of family are not based on pathological, but

rather on the view that the family spouse has a habit

of a negative interactional cycle that clients are

complaining about (Johnson and Denton, 2007). This

system is healthy and intact, only this time in the

cycle of unproductive and repetitive that can be

interrupted with the behavioural patterns just good

emotional, cognitive and perceptual experiences that

will create new homeostasis relationships (Johnson et

al., 2005).

2.3 How Change Happens in

Counselling

According to emotion focused family counselling

changes occur when families are able to restructure

their interactions so affiliation and autonomy are both

received and maintained in a relationship (Moser and

Johnson, 2008). Changes occur in relationship

counselling when the counsellor was able to create a

safe environment for every member to acknowledge

and explore their own emotions and find acceptance

and understanding (Johnson et al., 2005). The

counsellor then consults with the couple through the

three stages described earlier. The process of change

is illustrated in the following case studies:

Indra and Santi have been married for 2 years.

They have a good bond of love at the beginning of

their marriage, but that all changed when Indra lost

his job and Santi pregnant with their first child. Santi

and Indra made the decision that, after the birth of a

child, Indra will stay in the house and Santi works at

the hospital. The arrangement turned out to be very

stressful for both partners, when the economic

downturn, Andi attempts job search is not successful

and Santi need to better understand it and spend less

time with his family. During the first session, Andi

said that Santi was always grumpy and do not provide

emotional support, and he worried that he would

leave her. Santi was always angry and complained

that he could spend more time with the child and then

distanced himself from Andi. In the same session,

Santi tells about his doubts about not being adequate

breast and said that the feelings are not worthy of

caring for her child.

Counselling process as focusing the families of

emotions are illustrated as follows, counsellors spent

the first session-second to build collaborative

relationships with clients, observing patterns of

interaction partner and identifying the cycle that

creates the problem. Andi complained about the

unavailability of Santi, and he interpreted the

complaint as criticism as a mother and became angry.

He would then withdraw, which would increase Andi

feeling insecure in the relationship. Before change

can happen, both partners must be aware of the

emotional experience that is felt in the relationship, to

learn that they are not the enemy, and know that the

negative cycle of their interactions cause them to feel

pain and insecurity. This concept is carried out in the

first stage.

In the second stage, Indra and Santi encouraged to

re-join the fight against the negative cycle of negative

interactions they create. Stickiness unmet needs

(Andi will criticize and then scared, and she would

get angry and then withdrew). After they both

understand the cycle and be ready to change it, the

counsellor began to restructure the pattern of negative

emotional interactions that happened to them, where

they become more open and responsive to each other.

New interactions will lead to Indra and Santi to form

an emotional bond that is more secure.

In the final stage, the process of change is

occurring and the pair were able to apply new

learning cycle for the specific situation. Indra and

Santi are able to recognize and identify patterns of

their responses that trigger a negative cycle and feel

secure with each other to openly discuss it and ask for

a commitment to one another.

This example illustrates the use of emotion-

focused counselling in the process of change in the

counselling sessions. During this session, the couple

learned that by expressing fear, vulnerability, and the

need for mutual support to one another, they were

able to create a real language relationship in which

there is a sense of acceptance, understanding, and

change in response (Johnson and Greenman 2006).

By focusing on the interaction process, the counsellor

can work on patterns that support problem and turn it

into a pattern that supports the solution (Johnson et

al., 2005). By doing the proper response, counsellors

Building Family Resilience - Emotion Focused Family Counseling Approach

promote change by changing the consciousness of

what is being communicated to what is needed by

everyone. This example also illustrates that the

counsellor does not need to be stuck on the content

issue but should effectively address the problem to

make changes (Johnson et al., 2005). All of this is

aimed at achieving the restructuring interaction using

new emotions to motivate new behavioural response

(Johnson and Greenman, 2006). When one member

actually aware of the needs of other members and be

able to understand their needs in themselves and in a

relationship, they are motivated to provide new

behavior in the form of a new emotional response.

Restructuring cycle begins by changing the behavior

of the response of emotional experiences in a new

way. Changes occur through focus and restructuring

of emotional experience (Johnson and Greenman,

2006).

2.4 Technique of Emotion Focused

Family Counselling

In creating and maintaining a therapeutic relationship

with the client, the counsellor focuses emotion

emphasize how it works by using empathy,

originality, and respect and has the ability to focus on

the interactional system family (Johnson et al., 2005).

Not only to create a therapeutic relationship, has

emotion-focused family counselling also emphasized

the restructuring expressions and emotions. It

requires skills in accessing emotional and do

reformulation of the emotion. Greenberg and Johnson

(1988) summarized these skills are attending skill,

refocusing, closeness, expression analysis,

intensification, symbolization, and create goals.

• Present involved in helping clients to gain new

experiences

• Refocusing is a technique in which the

counselor asks the client to remain focused on

what she was feeling and experience that feeling

intensify.

• Proximity means that the focus is on the here

and now experience

• Expression Analysis teaches his clients to pay

attention to nonverbal communication.

• Intensification is the experience of

consciousness through repetition or metaphor.

• Symbolization help clients to understand the

essence of what has happened in the therapeutic

environment.

• Setting goals means that the client is able to

formulate a new behavior based on new

experiences found in the therapeutic

environment.

Emotion focused family counselling is one of the

best models are validated empirically, in a couple or

family counselling (Baucom, Shoham, Mueser,

Daiuto, and Stickle, 1998). Inventors emotionally

focused family counselling consistent emotional

support progress through empirical research. Their

study tested the efficacy of the overall counselling

and support focused emotions (Greenberg and

Johnson, 1985). Then another study conducted by

Greenberg and Johnson (1988) discusses the process

of change in the counselling sessions and analyse the

factors of success in emotion-focused counselling. A

meta-analysis conducted by Johnson et al. (1999)

showed that emotion-focused counselling effective in

dealing with couples experiencing marital misery.

Study counselling focuses emotion, discussed

earlier, as well as numerous other studies conducted

to test this intervention, shows that on average, 90%

of couples who assisted using this model to report an

increase in significant positive changes in their

relationships compared to couples who do not

conduct counselling sessions. Similar studies provide

evidence that 70% to 73% of couples recover from

emotional stress after a family counselling session

focused emotions (Johnson et al., 1999). Research on

emotion-focused counselling and practice shows that

this model can be used with different populations and

different issues. The counselling focuses emotions

also can effectively work with a partner with the

behavior of hypersexual (Reid and Woolley, 2006),

the couple depression (Dessaulles, Johnson, and

Denton, 2003), families who have children with

chronic diseases (Kowal, Johnson, and Lee 2003;

Walker, Johnson, Manion, and Cloutier, 1996), and

the families who have members suffering from

bulimia (Johnson, Maddeaux, and Blouin, 1998).

Research also shows that the effectiveness of

emotion-focused family counselling clients is not

affected by age, education, income, or cognitive

complexity (Denton, Burleson, Clark, Rodriguez, and

Hobbs, 2000).

3 PROCESS OF EMOTION

FOCUSED FAMILY

COUNSELING TO IMPROVE

RESILIENCE

Emotion focused family counselling initiate a

response by one or two counselling sessions focusing

on current and emerging issues and dynamics that

occur between family members. Counsellors build a

good relationship with clients in order to secure the

establishment of counselling sessions feeling. A

ICES 2017 - 1st International Conference on Educational Sciences

mode that counsellors do in this stage is to reflect and

validate against every experience that every member

of the family (Johnson, 2004). In this phase, each

family member is given the opportunity to express

their feelings felt and put forward issues of concern

in family issues and reactions to these issues.

Counsellors conduct searches and to reflect on the

experience and to identify patterns that occur between

the negative emotions among members of the family

(Stavrianopoulos, Faller and Furrow, 2014).

Counsellors do access the negative emotional

patterns that occur between family members in a

circular manner. Each member is facilitated to

express his feelings from the experience in the family.

Counsellors do reconstruct the issues raised in the

crisis of family problems attachment make every

member feel unsafe. At this stage, the counsellor

identification of conflicts between family members

and the identification of negative emotions and

attachment to individual happens to family members

(Johnson, 2004). Accessing primary emotions such as

fear, hurt and sadness create empathy among family

members, responsiveness, and help escalation

returning family (Johnson et al., 2005).

The second stage is to transform the interactional

patterns that have been identified in the first stage.

Counsellors focus on how the attachment between

family members needs are not met and do change

patterns of emotion is a reaction to that situation

(Johnson, 2004). At this stage, the counsellor

facilitates changes unmet basic emotional needs that

need to happen between children and parents.

Changes occur when parent’s responsive attachment

needs of children resulting in a positive emotional

relationship that makes the relationship to be safe and

healthy. During phase two therapists recognized the

need to support children and parents in working

through the fear often associated with vulnerabilities

experienced in family relationships depressed and re-

engaging new patterns of availability and

responsiveness (Johnson, 2004).

The final stage of emotion-focused family

counselling is the consolidation of family change has

been made in the second phase. At the end of this

stage, the family is able to integrate new ways and

engaged and feeling of security among family

members (Johnson et al., 2005). Discussions were

characterized by openness, responsiveness, and

engagement among family members. It's important

for families to learn how to repair a failed attempt to

connect outside of the session. Prior to termination,

the counsellor wanted to see how families deal with

an old problem with a new resolve by the way.

Counsellors also want to help families strengthen

their vision to make changes that positively affect the

connection between family members.

4 CONCLUSION

Emotion Focused Family Counselling is a

counselling approach oriented attachment theory.

Emotions in perspective focus emotional counselling

based on the results of positive attachment

relationships among family members. Emotion-

focused family counselling can help family members

to improve the resilience of self. This is done by

developing a healthy emotional management in the

relationship between family members. The counsellor

acts as a consultant to help clients with the process

which provides a sense of security among family

members, identifying patterns of negative emotions in

the interaction and helping to carry out the

reconstruction of negative emotions by changing the

way people are responding or a new one. Process

changes made in the emotion-focused family

counselling to help clients find fulfilment attachment

expected ushered the family members that will help

family members to increase psychological resilience.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The writers would like to express their gratitude to the

Indonesian government especially the Indonesian

Directorate General of Higher Education (DIKTI),

Indonesia Endowment Fund for Education (LPDP) in

funding this research and Indonesia University of

Education (UPI) for permitting them to conduct a

development research in education field.

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