In-person therapy available at all three of our VA office locations: Fairfax, Virginia Beach, and Newport News!
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) in Virginia Beach
Feel steadier, more confident, and more connected to yourself and others.
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy helps you understand the emotional patterns shaping your relationships so you can feel steadier, more confident, and more connected to yourself and others.
Flexible scheduling with evening and weekend appointments — online or in person. Superbills available for insurance reimbursement
Trusted by couples across Virginia for relationship-focused therapy
Do you feel overwhelmed by emotions or reacting in ways you don’t fully understand?
- Maybe your emotions feel intense or unpredictable.
- Maybe you notice yourself shutting down when things feel stressful.
- Maybe you want closeness in relationships but find yourself pulling away.
- Maybe past experiences still affect how you respond today—even when you don’t want them to.
- Maybe you’ve tried telling yourself to “move on” or “stay strong,” but something deeper keeps showing up anyway.
If this sounds familiar, Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy can help.
Why Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy is different from traditional individual therapy
Many individual therapy approaches focus mostly on managing thoughts or learning coping strategies.
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy helps you understand the emotional patterns underneath those thoughts so change feels deeper and more lasting. Instead of trying to push emotions away, EFIT helps you:
- Understand what your emotions are responding to
- Recognize patterns that began earlier in life
- Feel more confident expressing needs
- Build stronger and more secure relationships
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy may be especially helpful if
- You feel overwhelmed by emotions that are hard to explain
- You notice patterns repeating in relationships
- You struggle with self-criticism or feeling “not enough”
- You want to understand how past experiences still affect you today
- You want therapy that goes deeper than learning coping strategies
How EFIT works here
At Communicate & Connect Counseling, Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy follows the same attachment-based model we use in our work with couples and families.
Using EFIT and our Spiral to Team Process, we help you understand the emotional patterns that shape how you respond to stress, closeness, conflict, and connection.
Together we explore:
- How earlier experiences shaped emotional responses
- Why certain reactions feel automatic or hard to change
- How to respond to yourself with more understanding instead of criticism
- How to build stronger connection with the people who matter most
Sometimes this work includes gently revisiting earlier emotional experiences that still influence how you see yourself or your relationships today so those patterns begin to feel less automatic.
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy is based on attachment science and is part of the same research-supported model used in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy.
What you may begin noticing as therapy progresses
Many people begin to:
- Understand their emotional reactions more clearly
- Feel less controlled by anxiety or shutdown responses
- Recognize patterns that previously felt confusing
- Respond to themselves with more compassion
- Feel more confident expressing needs in relationships
Meaningful change becomes possible as your emotional experiences begin to make more sense.
What we often explore during EFIT
During sessions, clients often explore:
- Emotions that feel confusing, intense, or hard to express
- Patterns that keep relationships feeling stuck or distant
- Deeper needs underneath reactions and behaviors
- Experiences from earlier in life that still influence the present
- Ways to respond with care instead of criticism
- Building more secure, meaningful connections with others
In-Person and Online Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy
Evening and Weekend Appointments Available. Flexible session options designed around your needs
Life doesn’t slow down just because your relationship needs attention. That’s why we offer both in-person sessions at our Virginia Beach, Fairfax and Newport News offices and secure online therapy for couples across Virginia.
Evening and weekend appointments mean you don’t have to choose between your job and your mental health.
Clinic Hours
- Monday to Friday: 8 am to 8:30 pm
- Saturday to Sunday: 9 am to 4 pm
Do you qualify for Reimbursement?
We partner with Mentaya to help eligible clients use out-of-network benefits to reduce the cost of therapy.
Use the tool on this page to check whether you qualify.
Frequently Asked Questions
Great question! EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) was created by Dr. Sue Johnson to help couples repair their bond and build secure relationships. EFIT, on the other hand, adapts those same principles and the science of attachment to support individuals. So, when comparing EFT vs EFIT, think of it this way: EFT helps partners connect, while EFIT helps you understand and heal your relationship with yourself and others. Both follow the EFT model, but EFIT is tailored to individual emotional healing and growth.
In an EFIT therapy session, your therapist will guide you through the EFIT Tango — a series of steps that help you access and make sense of your emotional experiences. It’s not about talking in circles or just venting. EFIT is a therapeutic intervention that helps you identify patterns, access core emotions, and have corrective emotional experiences. It’s a gentle but powerful way to work with difficult feelings, inner conflict, and past wounds. Your therapist with training in EFIT will help you feel safe, seen, and validated as you explore these layers.
EFT for individuals is a form of psychotherapy especially helpful if you feel overwhelmed by emotions, stuck in repetitive patterns, or disconnected from your needs and relationships. Whether you’re navigating anxiety, depression, grief, past trauma, or general symptoms of distress, EFIT helps you restore emotional balance and create more secure ways of being. It’s also incredibly effective for people who want to better understand their interactions with others or their responses in relationships.
That’s completely valid. Many people come to EFIT after trying other approaches that didn’t quite get to the heart of what they were feeling. EFIT is different because it works at the emotional level, not just the behavioral or intellectual one. This modality helps you process deeper emotions, not just cope or “fix” surface symptoms. By focusing on the power of emotions, emotional reality, and the science of attachment, EFIT offers a unique and meaningful way to create lasting change from the inside out.
Yes—EFIT is grounded in more than 35 years of peer-reviewed clinical research. As part of the broader EFT model, it is supported by studies showing its impact on emotional processing and healing. The approach has been developed and refined through decades of work by Sue Johnson and Leanne Campbell, with contributions from the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT). EFIT has demonstrated its effectiveness across therapy with individuals from diverse backgrounds and emotional struggles.
Related Services
Marriage Intensives
Individual Counseling
Address anxiety and relationship concerns through individual counseling.
Marriage Counseling
Weekly guidance and practice so you can feel secure and satisfied in your marriage.
Ready to better understand your emotional patterns and feel more confident in your relationships?
As a group, we are committed to a non-judgmental experience. We all look through a lens that honors what makes us human. We are relational beings, hard-wired to connect. What makes us different is where we want to be especially open, curious and never presume that we are experts. We welcome all, including sexual orientation, age, race, disability, ethnicity/national origin, gender identity and religious/spiritual affiliation.
Book a Complimentary Consultation
Get your questions answered and make sure it's a good fit.
Get the support you need.
Understand your emotional responses and make decisions that reflect what matters most to you.
Have Clarity And Confidence
Move forward with a clearer sense of who you are and what you want
You don’t have to keep trying to figure this out on your own.
Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy helps you understand what your emotions are responding to so change can begin feeling clearer, steadier, and more possible.