The Role of Homework in EFT
The main therapeutic actions of emotional change in EFT are viewed as occurring in-session, however, homework can play an important role to deepen and consolidate in-session work, as well as carry forward in-session work to clients’ daily lives (Greenberg & Warwar, 2006; Warwar & Ellison, 2019). EFT does not typically use the term “homework” with clients to refer the between-session work as the word implies completion is necessary which does not fit the EFT perspective of homework. Rather, when speaking with clients, homework is referred to as an “experiment” or an “exercise” for the client to “try and see if it fits.” This paper uses the terms homework andbetween-session work interchangeably. Different types of homework in EFT include: 1)awareness which involves promoting awareness of something that emerged in session; 2)practice, which involves practicing a change that occurred in session; and 3)introducing novelty, which involves trying something new related to an awareness or change that occurred in-session. The use of homework in EFT is indicated and most effective when it is facilitated from current in-session work that is emotionally activated, alive, focused on the goals of therapy (which in EFT is synonymous with the client’s core pain), and guided by the principles of emotional change. In addition, homework that is co-constructed with the client and custom tailored to a client’s unique strengths and personal challenges is most successfully experienced. In EFT, offering homework is preceded by in-session experiential teaching, such as psychoeducation and rationales, which are also personalized and offered alongside the client’s current in-session work and guided by the client’s moment-by-moment process (Greenberg & Warwar, 2006; Warwar & Ellison, 2019). The goal of offering psychoeducation and rationales prior to collaborating on homework with the client is beneficial because it connects the in-session work to the homework and offers a justification of how it would be helpful to the current in-session work and the goals of therapy.
EFT involves a style of following and guiding the client’s experiential process based on two central principles: 1) providing an empathic relationship, and 2) facilitating therapeutic work focused on emotion (Greenberg et. al., 1993). Facilitating a therapeutic relationship is based on therapist presence, empathic attunement, the therapeutic bond, and task collaboration. Task collaboration emphasizes moment-by-moment and overall collaboration on the goals and tasks of therapy. Following clients requires empathy and attunement which facilitates acceptance and is necessary for guiding, while guiding clients allows them to process their emotions in novel ways. Consistent with this type of client-therapist relationship, EFT proposes a view of the therapist as an emotion coach who is a facilitator that helps guide clients toward their internal strengths and resources, to move them to their end goals (Greenberg, 2002; Greenberg & Warwar, 2006). The emotion coaching relationship in EFT is based on an experiential developmental framework, as emotional change and the development of emotion skills occur in the client’s zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1986) which is the optimal zone that a client can learn/experience new things with the guidance of the therapist. As an emotion coach, the EFT therapist offers experiential teaching, psychoeducation, interventions, in-session work, and homework suggestions that are in the client’s zone of proximal development. In this emotion coaching relationship, the EFT therapist is attuned to the client’s moment-by-moment: capabilities, emotional states, emotional pain, and current goals. In addition, the therapist follows or guides clients based on an assessment of these momentary states which helps determine the relevance and timing of in-session and between-session work being offered. From this perspective, in closely following and being attuned to the client, the EFT therapist guides homework suggestions that are within the client’s experiential and developmental grasp.
Clients are viewed as the experts of their experiences, and the therapeutic relationship always has priority over the achievement of a task. Homework and experiential teaching are offered in a tentative, non-imposing manner, in an atmosphere of collaboration and co-exploration, with interest and curiosity. The therapist collaboratively explores with clients how they can they be aware of, practice, or expand a moment of change in the session to between sessions. It is important to emphasize that compliance or completion of homework is not the goal. If homework is not completed, then the therapist takes responsibility for the homework suggestion not being suitable to the client’s present state or as not being offered with enough of a clear rationale linking the homework to the current in-session process and the goals of therapy. When a task is experienced by the client as contrary to their goals, therapists return to following the moment-by-moment process to become more attuned with their client’s goals. In fact, when homework is not completed the outcome can be more therapeutic and it is viewed as an opportunity to explore what was difficult and work on it directly in therapy which can be quite productive. If homework is not completed, from a framework of acceptance the therapist: validates and explores with the client what was challenging about it; works with the difficulty in-session; and collaborates on suggestions for homework that are more appropriate.