Soothing Psychotherapists’ Brains With Neurobalm
Dr. Sue Johnson's promotion of Emotionally Focused Psychotherapy escalated the couples therapy wars with extraordinary claims, cherry-picked evidence, and undeclared conflicts of interest.
The temptation exists for researchers and clinicians to search for the strongest and most provocative version of their knowledge, which will create greatest publicity. The appeal is great; oversell and over-dramatize the result and attention will follow. --- Jay Lebow, Editor, Family Process
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
January 2024 Introduction: Creating the illusion of a powerful couples therapy grounded in neuroscience
Sue Johnson is unchallenged as the developer of emotionally focused couples therapy. She and I have a long history, dating back to the earliest conference presentations of couples therapy and the beginning of what became known as the couples therapy wars.
It was quite accidental that I was a participant. In 1977, I traveled to the MRI Brief Therapy Center in Palo Alto to deliver a brown bag talk, accompanied by my friend and colleague Robin Lakoff. Robin was already experienced in giving talks to this group that had a bit of a reputation for od…