Satir's Communication Stances and Pursue–Withdraw Cycles: An Enhanced Emotionally Focused Therapy Framework of Couple Interaction

Couple interactions have long been conceptualized in terms of pursue and withdraw. Emotionally focused therapy is an approach that is largely based on this conceptualization of couple interaction. However, the interaction cycle utilized by emotionally focused therapy is limited in terms of the description of the forms of communication utilized by partners during an interaction cycle and does not provide a flexible framework for conceptualizing heterogeneous couple interactions. Diverse forms of communication that do not fall into the stereotypical pursue/blame-withdraw/placate pattern can be identified and labeled with the communication styles created by Virginia Satir. The current article articulates a rich framework for viewing couple interaction that integrates the communication styles of Satir into emotionally focused therapy's pursuer-withdrawer pattern. Examples are provided for illustration and clinical implications are discussed. A worksheet is provided for training beginning couples therapists on identifying interaction cycles and communication styles within the proposed enhanced EFT framework.