Introduction to the special section on Learning Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy.

The purpose of this special section is to highlight three cutting edge articles relating to the experience of learning Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). The year 2010 marks 25 years since the initial publication regarding a new, emerging model of couples’ therapy, later named EFT (Johnson & Greenberg, 1985, 1988; see Johnson, 2004 for a comprehensive description of EFT). Since that time, there has been a literal explosion of research regarding the clinical and costeffectiveness of the model (Byrne, Carr, & Clark, 2004; Caldwell, Woolley, & Caldwell, 2007; Johnson, Hunsely, Greenberg, & Schindler, 1999; Wood, Crane, Schaalje, & Law, 2005) and its practical utility across a number of presenting problems (Johnson, 2002; Kowal, Johnson, & Lee, 2003; Reid & Woolley, 2006; Smith, 2005). Specifically, existing research suggests that EFT can be an effective couples-based approach for treating the effects of childhood sexual abuse, depression (Denton, Burleson, Clark, Rodriguez, & Hobbs, 2000; Dessaulles, Johnson, & Denton, 2003), attachment injuries (Makinen & Johnson, 2006), as well as helping couples facing trauma, for example couples with a chronically ill child (Walker, 2008) or breast cancer (Naaman, 2009). Likewise, an emerging body of literature has applied EFT to specific issues confronting Latino ⁄ a immigrant (Parra-Cardona, Córdova, Holtrop, Escobar-Chew, & Horsford, 2009), First Nations (Berg, 2009), intercultural (Greenman, Young, & Johnson, 2009), and same-sex (Josephson, 2003) couples. The growing interest in and proliferation of scholarship about Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy over the last decade has been astounding. Despite well over 125 professional or scholarly manuscripts in print (as of 2010) relating to EFT, there is a clear lack of research regarding the experience of learning this structured, manualized approach to couples therapy. In many ways, the model developer and core trainers have struggled to produce materials, procedures, and requirements fast enough to meet the rapidly growing, international demand for training (Johnson, Bradley, Furrow, Lee, Palmer, Tilley, & Woolley, 2005; Johnson, 2010; see also http://www.iceeft.com/). In an effort to provide needed information about how EFT training impacts the personal and professional lives of the clinicians who have sought it, this special section highlights three distinct manuscripts regarding that training process. The section also concludes with a commentary on the three articles by model developer Susan Johnson. The first article, ‘‘Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Training in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: Professional and Personal Aspects’’ by Michelle Montagno, Mira Svatovic, and Hanna Levenson, is a prospective (pre, post, and follow-up) study of the impact of EFT training on clinicians. Drawing upon data gathered from clinicians receiving their initial EFT training at five distinct sites, this methodologically sound, longitudinal study tracks changes in key training outcomes (EFT knowledge and competence, openness to own feelings, self compas-