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In a within-subjects design in which couples acted as their own controls, assessment was completed at four times: at the time of intial contact, after an eight-week waiting period, after eight sessions of Emotionally Focused Marital Therapy, and at an eight-week follow-up. Couples reported no significant changes on measures of dyadic adjustment, intimacy, target complaint reduction and goal attainment after the waiting period, but significant changes were found after treatment.

Although there are a growing number of outcome research studies in marital therapy, there is a complete absence of research on change processes, and how such processes relate to outcome. This study attempts to analyze the process of change in the “best” sessions of Emotionally Focused Marital Therapy (EFT) (Greenberg & Johnson, 1986). Client performance in therapy was rated on depth of experiencing and the quality of interpersonal interactions. The occurrence of particular change events arising from the theoretical principles of EFT was also noted. Results confirmed hypotheses that higher levels of experiencing and more autonomous and affiliative interactions characterized “best” sessions of couples who were successful in therapy. The implications for treatment are discussed.