Requirement

All participants will have to have completed Externship in order to register and attend.

Join EFT Trainer George Faller and certified sex therapist and EFT therapist, Dr. Laurie Watson for an engaging exploration of sexual attachment in couple relationships. Drawing from Emotionally Focused Therapy, participants will learn how emotional and sexual cycles interact, how to identify a couple’s negative sexual attachment cycle, and how to help partners create greater emotional and erotic connection. Through teaching, case examples, and video demonstrations, therapists will gain practical tools for integrating sexuality into EFT and addressing one of the most powerful forces shaping the couple bond.

1. Identify the key assumptions of attachment theory as they apply to adult sexuality and romantic bonding.
2. Name the two primary sexual motives associated with secure sexual attachment.
3. Describe hypoactivating and hyperactivating attachment strategies in the negative sexual cycle.
4. Identify the emotional and sexual pursue-withdraw cycles and explain how they interact to shape relationship distress and connection.
5. List three qualities of secure sexual attachment.
6. Conduct a sexual assessment and identify common blocks to discussing sexuality in couple therapy.
7. Explain why seeking permission to discuss sexuality can facilitate greater openness and disclosure in therapy.
8. Utilize specificity in a couple’s sexual encounter description to assemble, deepen, distill, and share emotional experience.
9. Explain the impact of sexual dysfunctions on attachment security and the couple’s relational cycle.
10. Discuss common therapeutic impasses in the emotional and sexual cycle and apply EFT Stage 1 interventions to reduce reactivity and de-escalate conflict.
11. Apply EFT Stage 2 interventions to restructure the sexual cycle, promote vulnerability, and create new bonding interactions.
12. Help couples communicate sexual needs, desires, fears, and longings in ways that foster responsiveness, secure bonding, and greater sexual fulfillment.

Sex Is Not a Specialty: Practical Tools for Integrating Sexual Attachment into Couple Therapy

Therapists have often been taught that sexuality is a specialty area, but it cannot be separated from couple therapy. Attachment theory suggests that romantic relationships are organized around three interconnected systems: emotional attachment, caregiving, and sexuality. Together, these systems shape the strength and security of the bond. Sexuality, in particular, contributes the vitality, excitement, and longing that help sustain romantic connection. The power of sex in a relationship lies not only in physiology and pleasure. It’s a force for attachment.

Unfortunately, many couple therapists receive little training in how to address sexual concerns directly. Using an Emotionally Focused Therapy framework and inclusive language that affirms the diversity of sexual experiences and identities, this presentation provides a practical roadmap for assessing and intervening in the sexual cycle. Participants will learn to identify emotional and sexual pursue-withdraw patterns, assess how emotional and sexual cycles continuously reinforce and influence one another, and help couples recognize and transform the attachment meanings underlying sexual conflict.

The presentation includes practical strategies for introducing conversations about sex, conducting a comprehensive sexual assessment, understanding developmental and life-cycle challenges that affect sexuality, conceptualizing common sexual dysfunctions through an attachment lens, and working with Stage 1 de-escalation and Stage 2 restructuring of the sexual cycle. Through case examples and video demonstrations, therapists will learn concrete interventions for addressing blocks to emotional and sexual engagement, repairing sexual injuries, and fostering secure bonding.