In-Person in Largo, MD | Online Across DC, MD & VA
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy
Get to the root of your patterns—and build secure emotional footing.
You’re not “too emotional”—you’re just craving emotional safety.
EFIT is ideal for clients who are emotionally aware—but feel stuck repeating the same painful patterns in relationships, self-worth, or coping.
You might resonate with this approach if:
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- You feel anxious, avoidant, or disconnected in close relationships
- You’ve struggled with people-pleasing or fear of being “too much”
- You over-intellectualize emotions to stay in control
- You want deeper healing, not just surface-level mindset work
- You crave closeness but panic when it gets too real
- You know your history impacts your present—but don’t want to stay stuck in the past
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EFIT meets you with compassion and structure. It’s especially powerful if you’ve done talk therapy before and want to shift how you feel, not just how you think.
What is Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT)?
EFIT is a structured, attachment-based approach to individual therapy that helps you explore the emotional patterns keeping you stuck in cycles of disconnection, self-doubt, or anxiety. It’s not just about coping—it’s about creating new emotional experiences that lead to deep, lasting change.
This approach recognizes that emotional pain isn’t just in your head—it’s wired into your nervous system through past experiences. EFIT helps you safely access and process those emotions so you can respond differently in the present.
Using EFIT, we’ll gently explore your core emotional patterns—how they show up in your relationships, your self-talk, and the ways you protect yourself from pain. You’ll learn to move from shutdown or overdrive into emotional balance and self-trust.
We’ll identify the deeper needs beneath anxiety, anger, or withdrawal—and work toward new experiences that strengthen your ability to feel safe, connected, and secure.
How EFIT Works
In EFIT sessions, we focus less on analyzing and more on feeling. You won’t be pushed or rushed—but we will get honest about what’s happening inside. We’ll slow down together and listen for the parts of you that have been ignored, silenced, or dismissed.
You’ll be invited to track sensations in the body, name emotions as they arise, and experience corrective emotional moments—in real time. Over time, this helps rewire your emotional responses and builds new pathways for intimacy, self-acceptance, and calm.
We’ll move through three main stages of the process:
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- De-escalation & Stabilization: We start by creating emotional safety, identifying the negative patterns that keep you stuck, and gently accessing the underlying emotions beneath your defenses.
- Restructuring & Deepening: In this stage, you’ll learn how to safely feel and process the emotions you’ve been protecting yourself from. This is where emotional shifts begin to take root, and your responses start to change.
- Consolidation & Integration: As healing unfolds, we’ll reinforce your new experiences, strengthen self-compassion, and help you apply these insights in daily life—so the change isn’t just felt, it’s lived.
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Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy can help you…
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- Understand your emotional patterns and where they come from
- Strengthen your ability to stay present in moments of stress or conflict
- Build self-trust and inner emotional safety
- Shift how you respond in relationships—without self-abandoning
- Rewire painful beliefs like “I’m too much” or “I always mess this up”
- Release fear and anxiety that’s rooted in past emotional wounds
- Feel more connected—to yourself and others
- Cultivate secure, healthy relationships from a place of worthiness
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You can heal the patterns that keep sabotaging your relationships—from the inside out.
FAQ's
Q: What’s the difference between EFIT and regular talk therapy?
A: EFIT (Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy) focuses on your emotional experiences and the deeper patterns that shape how you relate to yourself and others. While traditional talk therapy may center around analyzing thoughts, EFIT helps you feel and process the emotions that drive those thoughts—so you can actually shift the patterns, not just talk about them.
Q: Is EFIT only for people with relationship problems?
A: Not at all. While EFIT is great for exploring how you show up in relationships, it’s also powerful for healing attachment wounds, building emotional regulation, and working through anxiety, depression, or trauma. This approach helps you reconnect with your core self—not just the roles you’ve learned to play.
Q: Do I have to be super in touch with my emotions to do this work?
A: Nope. In fact, many of my clients come to EFIT because they feel disconnected, overwhelmed, or numb. We go at your pace. I’ll help you learn how to tune in to what’s happening internally, without pressure or judgment. You don’t have to “know the right words”—you just have to show up.
Q: How long does EFIT take to work?
A: Therapy isn’t one-size-fits-all, but most people start noticing shifts within a few months. EFIT is focused and transformative, but we’re not rushing—healing patterns wired over years takes time. We’ll collaborate on goals and check in regularly to make sure you’re feeling progress and support.
Here to help you with:
People pleasing and self-sacrificing patterns
Emotional disconnection or numbness
Difficulty identifying or expressing emotions
High-functioning anxiety and perfectionism
Relationship anxiety and feal of abandonment
Shame and self-criticism
Breakup recovery and grief
Rebuilding trust and emotional safety
Trust issues rooted in past betrayals
Feeling “too much” or “not enough” in relationships
You’re not too much. You’ve just been carrying too much alone.
Let’s get to the root of it—and shift the patterns that keep you stuck in survival mode. You deserve relationships where you feel seen, safe, and secure—including the one with yourself.