Robert Elliott
Co-developed EFT and advanced psychotherapy research.
A co-originator of emotion-focused therapy and a leading process researcher who developed methods to study how change happens.
terms
techniques
Emotions tell us what is important in a situation and guide us toward what we need.
Who they were
Robert Elliott earned his clinical psychology doctorate at UCLA in 1978. He is Professor of Counselling at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow and professor emeritus at the University of Toledo. With Leslie Greenberg and Laura Rice he helped develop EFT, and he is widely recognized for innovations in psychotherapy research methodology, including the Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design.
Terms they cared about
Ideas worth knowing
Their techniques
How the work was done
Their big idea
Emotion-Focused Theory
Emotions are adaptive signals; change comes from reaching, processing and transforming them.
The approach they founded
Emotion-Focused Therapy
Treats emotions as signals — helping you reach, understand, and transform them rather than override them.
Questions in their spirit
What they’d ask you
Sit with one. Answer online, or in the app.
Carry the idea forward
Elliott — What they’d ask you
Psipas asks you one small, honest question at a time — and builds the picture from your answers.