Dear EFT Community,
Our hearts are filled with sorrow as we grieve the sad loss of our beloved Sue Johnson, developer of Emotionally Focused Therapy, who passed away on April 23, 2024 after a three year battle with cancer. A true visionary, her contributions to the field of psychotherapy have been enormous and profound for which she has been recognized in numerous ways. Sue was most touched by being awarded the Order of Canada from her adopted home country in 2016, but she also received the Networker Lifetime Achievement award, Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Marital and Family Therapy Award and the Professional Training Award both by AAMFT to name just a few of her many achievements. What we admire most about this incredible woman, however, is how she used her gifts as a clinician, writer, and mentor spending her entire life spreading messages of love and hope around the world.
You can find Sue’s full obituary here.
Below we have selected a few clips that capture Sue’s career, her as a person, and her impact in the field of psychotherapy.
Watch a short documentary created for the Psychotherapy Networker Lifetime Achievement Award in which Sue’s close colleagues and collaborators share about their experience of working with her:
Watch a presentation of the Psychotherapy Networker Lifetime Achievement Award to Sue Johnson and her acceptance speech:
Watch a moving tribute song to Sue:
Sue will be deeply missed by all of us at the Vancouver Couple & Family Institute and Vancouver Centre for EFT. We were blessed to have her join us for several special events over the years and she participated in our ribbon cutting ceremony when we opened our new suite. We feel such gratitude to have learned from a true master and in some small way we all carry on her legacy collectively in every therapy, supervision and training session we do. Our hearts go out to her family, husband John, children, Sarah, Tim, and Emma, and her granddaughter Amelie. We will miss her warmth and charisma, how she championed love and emotion above all else, her endless energy and passion for her craft, tireless determination to break through the many barriers she encountered, her profound wisdom, sharp wit, generosity of spirit, but most of all her depth of humanity.