Workshops
One-day workshops on couples or family therapy are available as an introduction to EFT/EFFT and are designed to help you:

• Understand the phenomenon of marital / family distress in an attachment context

• Identify specific interventions to help couples / families reprocess negative affect and restructure negative interactions 

• Create powerful change events in therapy that foster a more secure bond between partners/family members

• Deal with common impasses and difficult issues in marital / family therapy

Externships in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy ® 

General Objectives: Externships in EFCT:

~participants will obtain a clear understanding of the basic experiential and systemic concepts of an "Emotionally Focused" approach to couples therapy.
~participants will be able to conceptualize couple distress and relationship repair based on theories of attachment and emotion.
~participants will develop skills in helping partners reprocess the emotional responses that maintain relational distress.
~participants will develop skills in helping partners shape new interaction patterns and bonding events.
~participants will develop skills to overcome therapeutic impasses with couples.

These objectives were formulated with the help of Dr. Jim Furrow.

An Externship includes observation of live therapy sessions, presentations of theory and clinical techniques, skills training exercises, and discussion of specific cases, clinical material and issues.

Who should attend?

The externship is recommended to all professionals who counsel couples, including psychiatrists, psychologists, family physicians, social workers, psychiatric nurses, counsellors, pastors and clergy, and students training in these professions.

Participants learn to:

See marital distress from an attachment perspective, help partners reprocess the emotional responses that maintain marital distress, shape key new interaction and bonding events, and overcome therapeutic impasses. Participants are strongly encouraged to read the 2004 book on EFT - Creating Connections, before coming to the externship. Ideally participants will also have viewed the first training tape - Healing Broken Bonds.

• To see the schedule, click here.
• To see comments from participants, click here.

Advanced Externships
Two day Advanced Externships in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy ®
This externship is  led by a Certified EFT Supervisor or Trainer and is limited to 12 participants. Each participant will present their own work through audio or video tape accompanied with a transcript of at least 15 minutes of the session. This is an opportunity to receive feedback on your work plus the opportunity to learn from the other group members.

Core Skills Advanced Training
EFT Core Skills Advanced Training sessions are offered by Certified EFT Trainers in different locations. Core skills training consists of small groups (approx. 12 people) learning the skills essential to the practice of EFT. The training typically takes place over four 2-day events, 12 hours per 2-day event, every three to four months over the space of approximately one year. Participants are required to have completed an EFT externship and be willing to present their own work through audio/videotape presentation.
Core Skills Advanced Training is one option available towards partially meeting certification requirements.  (see EFT Therapist Certification Requirements)
Interested groups of EFT therapists interested in hosting Core Skills Advanced Training are invited to contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Teleconference (10 Hours)
Teleconferences involve a structured discussion of cases led by Certified EFT Trainers over the phone. Participants need to present one case for one half hour and provide a transcript of the session (6-8 pages) that is shared with all participants. Participating in a teleconference can be counted as group supervision hours in the EFT certification process.

Clinical EFT Supervision
Supervision in EFT/EFFT is offered by Certified EFT Supervisors and is available on an individual or group basis. Group supervision can also be accessed through Teleconferences or  Core Skills Advanced Training. The key principles of EFT clinical supervision are:

• A positive working alliance between the supervisor and supervisee is fostered - safety enhances learning.
• Modeling is available: the supervisor actively demonstrates EFT interventions (e.g., demonstrates attachment language and non-verbal behaviours of EFT).
• Observation of therapy sessions occurs or transcripts are examined. Role plays with feedback give opportunity for rehearsal.
• Feedback to supervisee is clear, focused, supportive, and congruent with supervisee's stage of learning.
• Specific elements are pointed out for the supervisee to improve or work on.
• Written theory and techniques of the EFT model are referred to and taught in relation to practice (e.g., steps, stages, interventions, experiential and non-pathologizing approach).

These principles were formulated with the help of Lisa Palmer-Olsen and the work of Eugene Mead.

NOTE:  On this website, the words "supervisor" and "supervision" are used expressly for the purpose of training in the EFT model, and do not imply / constitute any ethical / legal responsibility for cases discussed. For all intents and purposes, a Certified EFT Supervisor is an EFT consultant.  All therapists receiving such supervision / consultation are wholly responsible for the therapy they provide and they are also responsible for receiving appropriate supervision, as required, by their respective governing and/or licensing authorities.  ICEEFT requires that every effort be make to protect confidentiality of the client.  Any web based sharing of information or encryption of sessions must be done in accordance with the standards of the professional college of the supervisor.  ICEEFT is not responsible for supervisor's actions in this regard.

Recommended Reading List on Supervision

Liddle, H. (1988) Handbook of family therapy training and supervision. New York: Guilford Press.

Liddle, H. (1991). "Training and supervision in family therapy: A comprehensive review and critical analysis." In A. Gurman & D. Kniskern (Eds.), Handbook of Family Therapy, 2nd edition (pp. 638-697). New York: Brunner/Mazel

Mead, D. (1990). Effective supervision: A Task oriented model for mental health professions. New York: Brunner/Mazel

Sprenkle & Blow (2004). "Common Factors and sacred models." Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. 30(2):113-29

Storm, C.L., McDowell, T., & Long, J. K. (2003). "The metamorphosis of training and supervision." In T. L. Sexton, G. R. Weeks, & M. S. Robbins (Eds.), Handbook of family therapy (pp. 431-446). New York: Brunner-Routledge.