What is RISSC and why is it used in EFT?
RISSC = Repeat, Images, Simple, Slow, Soft, Client’s word.
Used to slow down emotion, deepen experience, create safety, and help clients stay with the emotional moment instead or escaping it.
Give an Example of RISSIC in Session
“You say you feel ‘small’… small… small… like you shrink inside. Small and scared. Can you stay with that feeling for a moment?”
What is “Staying With Emotion” in EFT?
Therapist stays with the emotional moment instead of moving to content/problem-solving. Helps client feel, name, and own their primary experience.
What is Evocative Responding?
Therapist reflects emotional cues to help clients explore and deepen their experience. Example: “As you say ‘I’m fine,’ your voice shakes… something hurts here.”
What is Heightening and when is it used?
Amplifying key emotional moments through repetition, slowing, and imagery.
Used to crystallize new emotional experiences.
What is a Pursuer? What drives their moves?
They protest disconnection. Driven by fear of abandonment, longing, and unmet needs for closeness. Their escalations try to reach the partner.
What is a Withdrawer? What drives their moves?
They shut down to avoid failure, rejection, or overwhelming conflict. Motivated by fear of being inadequate or making things worse.
What does the therapist do first with a Withdrawer?
Build safety, validate overwhelm, slow things down, help them access emotion gently, track avoidance moves without shaming.
What does the therapist do first with a Pursuer?
Validate longing and hurt beneath criticism, slow escalation, help them access softer needs (fear of disconnection).
What is an EFT Enactment?
Therapist guides one partner to share a vulnerable emotion/need directly with the other. Creates bonding and changes the cycle.
Enactment Example
“Can you tell her, ‘When you walk away, I feel like I don’t matter, and that scares me’?”
What is an Attachment Injury?
A betrayal or abandonment moment that becomes a core wound in the relationship. Requires repair through structured emotional processing.
How do Attachment Injuries show up in Cycles?
They become triggers for fear/anger. Small moments feel big because they activate old wounds.
What does Minuchin mean by “symptoms come from faulty boundaries and structure”?
Symptoms happen when the family system is too enmeshed or too disengaged, creating stress that shows up as behaviour problems or conflict.
Example: A couple with weak boundaries gets stuck in chaos and over-involvement → fights escalate easily.
Why is the statement “Rogers believed change happens through interpretation and challenge” false?
Rogers believed change happens through empathy, presence, genuineness, and unconditional positive regard, not confrontational techniques.
Example: The therapist sits with the client’s fear instead of challenging it.
What is Minuchin’s purpose behind joining?
Joining strengthens the therapeutic alliance with the system so the therapist can later reshape the structure.
Example: Matching the family’s tone and rhythm so they accept the therapist before restructuring boundaries.
What is enmeshment (Minuchin)?
Boundaries are too diffuse; people are overly involved with little autonomy.
Example: One partner can’t make a decision without intense emotional reactions from the other.
Why is the statement “Empathy = matching tone and energy exactly” false?
Because empathy is understanding the client’s internal world, not imitating their mood or affect.
Example: You don’t yell just because a client yells; you reflect their fear underneath.
Why is “A reflection of soft emotion = validation” incorrect?
Reflecting tender emotion is Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR) — accepting the client’s deeper self, not simply validating facts or feelings.
Example: “A part of you gets really small here” = honoring the client’s vulnerable side.
Minuchin – Mapping
Understanding the organization of the family system: subsystems, boundaries, alliances, and coalitions.
Example: Therapist draws out how Partner A aligns with a parent against Partner B.
Minuchin – Reframing
Changing the meaning of a behaviour to reduce blame and create openness for change.
Example: “Your withdrawal isn’t you giving up — it’s you trying to prevent another explosion.”
Minuchin – Tracking
Moment-to-moment observation of interaction patterns as they happen in session.
Example: “Right now, as he raises his voice, you look down and freeze.”
Minuchin – Boundary Making
Structuring interactions to strengthen or soften boundaries between people.
Example: Asking partners to speak one at a time while physically spacing them apart.
EFT – Choreographing Interaction
Guiding partners through a new emotional sequence, shaping how they respond to each other.
Example: Therapist prompts Partner A to express fear → invites Partner B to respond with comfort.
