When working in the EFT model, the therapist works with certain core assumptions. The EFT therapist takes a non-pathologizing stance. We do not see partners as sick, developmentally delayed or unskilled. We see them as caught in habitual ways of dealing with negative emotion, and engaging with their partner in rigid interactional patterns that block emotional authenticity and engagement. These more rigid interactions reflect and create emotional states — and those emotional states reflect and create rigid interactions. This pattern becomes a self-perpetuating feedback loop that can quickly hijack the couple, rendering them unable to get their emotional needs met in their relationship. Without accessibility and empathic responsiveness from their partner, the ingredients for secure attachment or a loving bond, the partners remain distressed and unable to connect with each other.