Our Mission

Our mission is to increase access to EFT psychotherapy for clients throughout the Pacific Northwest (United States and Canada) through: educating and training professionals in EFT and creating a community for support, resources, and further development of EFT.

Trainers

Founder & Host

EFT for Individuals

Emotion-Focused Therapy for Individuals (EFT-I) is an empirically-supported therapy that has been developed through decades of scientific research on the processes of change. It is highly experiential and stems from the Person Centered, Gestalt, and Humanistic traditions.

EFT is based on the idea that emotions themselves are a rich source of important information about ourselves, our current situation, and what is generally supportive of our well-being. In instances in which a particular emotion is not supportive for our well-being, the therapist helps the client transform the emotion.

Considerable emphasis is placed on providing a highly empathic and validating therapeutic relationship in which the therapist guides the client's moment-by-moment productive processing of emotion.

EFT for Couples

EFT for Couples (EFT-C) was developed by Leslie Greenberg and Sue Johnson in the 1980s, who co-authored the first text in 1988. Following this, Johnson focused her efforts on developing and refining the couple therapy with an emphasis on attachment.

In 2008, Greenberg and Rhonda Goldman published an update on the EFT-C therapy that included additional steps, an integration of EFT-I interventions to help resolve individual impasses, and a conceptualization of relationship difficulties regarding both attachment and identity/self-esteem.

EFT-C is deemed an evidence-based therapy for the treatment of relationship distress with spouse/intimate partner according to the American Psychological Association.

Note that although Johnson's model is identified by "Emotionally-Focused" and Greenberg's and Goldman's model is identified by "Emotion-Focused," the underlying couple therapy originates from the same original text (i.e., Greenberg & Johnson, 1988).

Becoming a Certified EFT Therapist

The International Society of Emotion Focused Therapy offers certification in EFT for individuals (EFT-I) or couples (EFT-C). These are separate tracks for certification in either modality. Participants should have a minimum prior training: Must have a professional training in some form of therapy and be an accredited practitioner. If not humanistic-experiential therapy (e.g., person-centered, focusing-oriented, gestalt), it is recommended to obtain additional empathy and person-centered training.

ISEFT Training Standards for EFT Individual Therapy
ISEFT Training Standards for EFT for Couples Therapy

Levels of Recognition / Certification

At this time, EFTpnw is currently planning to offer courses that fulfill the requirements for Level A.

Level A — Completion of Basic EFT Training

Completion of Level A will allow individuals to be listed on the EFTpnw website and on the ISEFT website as having completed Level A training (if also a current ISEFT member and the individual agrees to be listed). Completing Level A training does not guarantee competence.

Levels A.1 & A.2 — Basic Didactic/Experiential Workshop Training

Minimum 8 days (but can be longer), run by certified or approved EFT trainers, covering at least:

• Empathy/relational skills
• Emotion theory, emotion change principles and emotional deepening
• Basic markers/tasks: focusing/clearing a space, unfolding, two chair (conflict and self-interruption splits, self-soothing), empty chair
• EFT case formulation

Level A.3 — Initial Supervisory Experience

• At least 3 days group supervision (with presentation of at least one client for 1 hour); or
• Five hours of individual supervision of own work with at least 2 clients

Must be signed off on by their approved EFT supervisor on the basis of actually doing EFT to at least a minimal degree, as demonstrated by: empathy, marker identification, emotional deepening, appropriate use of EFT tasks, and ability to think about clients in EFT terms.

Level B — Completion of EFT Supervised Practice

1. Completion of Basic EFT Training [Level A]
2. Direct Personal Supervision of own work (review of recordings of sessions): minimum 16 hrs, with at least 2 clients, in group or individual format. Must be by approved EFT supervisor. Must be signed off by their approved EFT supervisor at a moderate level of skill.
3. Recommended Practice: See at least two individual clients for a total of at least 60 sessions of EFT including empathy, deepening, tasks, and case formulation.

Level C — Certification as an EFT Therapist

Certification is granted by the training institute through which the therapist has completed Level A and Level B.

1. Completion of EFT Supervised Practice [Level B]
2. Evaluation of Therapist Skills in: Empathy, Marker Identification, Emotional Deepening, appropriate use of EFT tasks, and ability to think about clients in EFT terms.
3. Evaluation based on: two videotaped sessions (involving two different clients) with competent active task work; a brief case description including a competent case formulation; and one certified EFT supervisor who listens to and rates for competence on the EFT Therapist Evaluation Form.

This section offers resources that might be helpful at any given point in your training in EFT.