Emotionally focused therapy / EFT-A04-5
Protective Moves with Context — Review journal
Review an attempt at protective moves with context and choose what to keep, change, or leave aside.
10 minutes · Journal prompts · Adults; supported use as appropriate
Fictional example: Sam goes quiet to avoid arguing, while Alex experiences the silence as distance.
Use an ordinary or fictional example, with a clinician when appropriate. Protection can be understood while harmful behavior remains accountable.
Before looking back
Choose one ordinary attempt or decide to review the fictional example instead. This journal has no scores, required disclosure, or expectation of progress.
Revisit the practice
Describe a protective move, its history as you understand it, and its current relational cost.
Notice context and impact
Record what actually happened, including an unhelpful or neutral outcome. Note resources, power differences, accessibility, and changed conditions rather than attributing everything to personal effort.
Choose a revision
How can understanding the function coexist with changing the impact? Keep the approach, change one part, ask for support, or set it aside. A mismatch is useful information.
Prompts for this resource
- What I tried, or what happened in the fictional example:
- What I noticed before, during, and after; what remains uncertain:
- What helped, did not help, or was outside my control:
- How can understanding the function coexist with changing the impact? My optional adjustment or support request:
Conceptual background
What is EFT? — International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy
Background on the approach only. Original exercises and wording are by More Than Therapy with AI assistance; the source does not validate or endorse these materials.