Evidence-Based Therapy
Your emotions are not the problem — they are the key. Emotion-focused therapy helps you understand, make sense of, and transform difficult feelings into a source of insight and lasting change.
WorkCover, NDIS or TAC approved? YOU PAY NOTHING.
If your claim has been approved, we bill your funder directly. Zero out-of-pocket cost — no gap, no upfront payment, nothing.
Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) is an evidence-based, humanistic approach developed by psychologist Leslie Greenberg. It rests on a simple but powerful premise: emotions are fundamentally adaptive — they carry important information about our needs — and lasting change happens when we learn to access, understand, and transform them, rather than avoid or suppress them.
Rather than talking only about your problems, EFT helps you work directly with what you feel in the moment. Your psychologist guides you to notice bodily felt experience, put words to emotions, and make sense of what they are telling you — gently transforming painful feelings such as shame, fear, or unresolved hurt into more adaptive ones like self-compassion and healthy assertiveness.
EFT is well supported by research, particularly for depression, unresolved relationship injuries, and the emotional effects of trauma. It is used with both individuals and couples, and the emotional skills it builds tend to keep working long after therapy ends.
EFT sees emotions as adaptive guides. Signature techniques like the empty-chair and two-chair dialogues help you access unmet needs, resolve inner conflict, and heal unfinished emotional business — turning stuck feelings into movement.
Emotion-focused therapy is especially helpful when difficult emotions feel overwhelming, stuck, or hard to reach:
EFT is active, experiential, and led by what you feel in the session. Your psychologist offers a safe, empathic relationship and guides you to:
Slow down and notice what you are feeling in your body, with warm, non-judgemental support.
Put words to your experience and understand the needs and meanings your emotions carry.
Use experiential methods such as chair work to access healthier, more adaptive emotions and unmet needs.
Carry the new emotional stance into your relationships and daily life, so the change holds.
The number of sessions varies with your goals — some emotional injuries shift in a focused course, while longstanding patterns take longer. Your psychologist always works at your pace.
We believe cost should never be a barrier to quality mental health care. There are several ways to fund your sessions at The Talk Shop:
Medicare Mental Health Care Plan — up to 10 rebated sessions per calendar year with a GP referral. Bulk billing may be available.
WorkCover & TAC — no out-of-pocket cost with an approved claim; we bill your funder directly.
NDIS — supported for plan-managed and self-managed participants.
Private Health & self-funded — extras may apply; affordable rates from $50, no referral needed.
Not sure what you are eligible for? Call 1300 224 665 and our team will help you work out your options before your first session.
We offer emotion-focused therapy in-person at all four Melbourne clinics and via secure Telehealth Australia-wide:
No. Emotion-Focused Therapy, developed by Leslie Greenberg, is a research-supported experiential psychotherapy. It is not the same as ‘EFT tapping’ (Emotional Freedom Techniques), which is a separate practice. This page refers to the psychological therapy delivered by our registered psychologists.
EFT does involve working with difficult feelings, but always safely and at your pace, within a warm and supportive relationship. The aim is not to overwhelm you — it is to help painful emotions shift into something more adaptive.
EFT has good evidence for depression, unresolved relationship hurts, trauma, and self-criticism, and is also widely used with couples to repair and strengthen emotional bonds.
Chair work (the empty-chair and two-chair techniques) is a signature EFT method for exploring unfinished emotional business or inner conflict — for example, expressing something to an imagined person, or working through two sides of a difficult decision.
Yes. Emotion-focused therapy can be delivered effectively over secure video, and many people feel comfortable doing this deeper emotional work from their own space.
No referral is needed to book. A Mental Health Care Plan from your GP lets you access Medicare rebates for your sessions.
Elliott, R., Watson, J. C., Timulak, L., & Sharbanee, J. (2021). Research on humanistic-experiential psychotherapies: Updated review. In Bergin and Garfield’s Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change (7th ed., pp. 421–467). Wiley.
Watson, J. C., Gordon, L. B., Stermac, L., Kalogerakos, F., & Steckley, P. (2003). Comparing the effectiveness of process-experiential with cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy in the treatment of depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 71(4), 773–781. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.71.4.773
Timulak, L., & Keogh, D. (2020). Emotion-Focused Therapy: A transdiagnostic formulation. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 50, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-019-09426-7
Our Melbourne psychologists use emotion-focused therapy to help you understand and transform difficult feelings. Book online or call — no referral needed to start.
