This is the first step of the EFT process. It is the initial assessment of the couple/individuals. Understanding each person's view of the problem, attachment history, FOO, etc. Individual sessions to be conducted after one or two joint sessions. Questions to consider: - Who are these people? What does the general fabric of their life look like? The therapist gathers basic information. - How does each person deal with their emotions? Can they acknowledge them, accept them, formulate them, share them? - How did they decide to come for therapy at this particular time? - How does each of them see the problem in the relationship? Can they sustain a dialogue about their views, or are they radically different and/or rigidly held? - Does each of them see strengths in the relationship? What keeps them together? How do they describe each other? As they tell their stories, what kinds of problematic interactions are described, and how did they attempt to deal with them? - How do they view the history of the relationship and understand how they originally connected? - How does each of them present him or herself and his or her own history to the therapist? Does each person’s story suggest any particular attachment issues and/or problems? - How does the couple generally interact in the session? If asked to interact around a particular topic, how does the dialogue evolve? What messages are conveyed by each partner’s nonverbal responses? Related Notes: - [[Stages and steps of EFT]] - [[EFT Stage 1 - De-Escalation]]