When: Mondays, March 28, 2022; April 11, 2022; April 25, 2022; and May 16, 2022; 12-3:15 ET
Where: On Zoom
Instructor: Gail Palmer, MSW, RMFT
Rates: Early Bird extended until 2/28/22
Regular Rate Full – $450, Regular Rate Early Bird – $425; Student/Agency Clinician Rate* Full — $375, Student/Agency Clinician Rate* Early Bird — $350; Equity Rate* Full — $350, Equity Rate* Early Bird — $325
Additional Rate for CEs: $30
CEs: 12 CEs pending for LMFTs, LICSWs, LMHCs, and Lic. Psychologists
Target Audience: Marriage & Family Therapists, Social Workers, Mental Health Counselors, Psychologists
Level: Intermediate; prior attendance of Emotionally Focused Family Training: Level 1 required
Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) is an attachment-based approach that combines both systemic and experiential interventions to restore family relationships and strengthen their resilience. A primary goal of EFFT is to reduce problematic behavior by creating new patterns of emotional accessibility and responsiveness that offer a secure base for children to develop and families to thrive. EFFT provides a practical approach to engaging families at an emotional level. Accessing, processing, and connecting family members through the power of emotional experience promotes healing and fosters a family’s resilience to the everyday and unexpected challenges of life.
This advanced training builds on previous EFFT training providing further training on the six core competencies of EFFT practice. Participants focused on key change events in EFFT and therapist practices used to promote parental openness and child vulnerability. The training provided direction in transforming parental intention into more effective engagement of caregiving and engaging attachment responses within the family system. Specific strategies were reviewed for working through relational blocks and re-engaging attachment related-needs across the family. This training follows an intensive focus on key elements in the EFT process applied to family relationships. Demonstration and practice exercises provided participants opportunities to deepen their EFT skills in intervening with family relationships broadening their understanding of emotion and attachment in family life and strengthening the bonds they share.
At the conclusion of this program, participants were better able to:
- Describe 3 features of family distress from an attachment lens.
- Assess for 1 central feature of safety, as well as 2 ways to determine appropriate and relevant family members for treatment.
- Assemble 4 ways to promote parental investment and goal alliance in family treatment.
- Construct 5 ways to lead the EFT tango in family sessions.
- List 4 ways to process parental blocks to caregiving in creating parental accessibility and responsiveness.
- Describe 4 ways to access child vulnerability related to attachment needs, as well as 2 ways to process blocks in a safe and developmentally appropriate way.
- Structure 2 meaningful enactments within a family context.
- Demonstrate 2 ways to create family sessions that meet the unique needs of stepfamily life.
Schedule (all times in ET):
Monday, March 28
12-12:20pm Welcome
- Introductions and Logistics
- Map: Where Are You From?
- Objectives, Overview of Workshop
12:20-1:30pm Review: Tango Focus
- Review EFFT Core Competencies
- EFT Tango (Camel Video—link on slide)
- Exercise: Random Breakout Groups of 4
1:30-1:45pm Break
1:45-3:15pm Tango Slides
- Exercise: Identify Tango Moves / Interventions
- Video (56:15-110:45)
- Slide: Tango Move 2 Review
- Exercises: Random Groups of 3—Sharing Around a Painful Childhood Memory
- Competency 1: Conceptualizing Family Distress
- Attachment Frame Slides
- Video (41.50-100.32)
- Exercise: Breakout Groups of 3
Monday, April 11, 2022
12-1:30pm Attachment Challenges Slides—Examples of Misses
- Video: Adult child—Triage Clip
- Slides: Competing Attachments
- Step-Couple Video
1:30-1:45pm Break
1:45- 3:15pm
- Competency 2: Family Assessment and Treatment Planning
- Slides: Assessment
- CARE Model: Slides and Handout
- Exercise: Breakout Groups of 3—Practice Parental Buy-in
Monday, April 25, 2022
12-1:30pm
- Review and Check-in
- Competency 4: Working Through Parental Blocks to Availability
- Slides and Handout—Working with Parental Blocks
- Video: Father and Daughter (13.58 – 21.09)
1:30-1:45pm Break
1:45- 3:15pm
- Exercise: Breakout with Facilitator, Groups of 4-5 (60min)
- Debrief
Monday, May 16, 2022
12- 1:30pm Review and Check-in
- Competency 5: Accessing and Engaging Child Vulnerability
- Slides: Focusing on Child Blocks
- Handout: Working with Child Blocks
- Video (37-42)
- Exercise: Role Plays—Breakout Groups of 4 (60min)
2- 2:15pm Break
2:15-3:15pm
- Competency 6: Structuring Successful Encounters
- Slides: Discussion and Wrap- up
- Review of Workshop / Q&A
- Evaluations
Gail Palmer, MSW, RMFT is one of the Founding Members of the Ottawa Couple and Family Institute and Co-Director of the International Center of Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy. She holds a Masters degree in Social Work and is a Registered Marriage and Family Therapist in Canada. Over the past 30 years, Gail has worked closely with Dr. Sue Johnson, creator of Emotionally Focused Therapy, and is an experienced supervisor and trainer in EFT. She currently offers workshops, externships, and core skills trainings to mental health professionals in a variety of different settings across the world. She chairs the ICEEFT Education Committee and is responsible for mentoring and training EFT trainers internationally. Gail is an adjunct faculty member at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Canada and a sessional lecturer at Oxford University, Oxford, England.
Gail has a particular interest in applying the model with work with families. For the past decade, she has been one of the lead EFT trainers who have developed and expanded on Sue Johnson’s EFFT method. The definite text co-authored by Gail Emotionally Focused Family Therapy: Restoring Connection and Promoting Resilience is now available. Gail’s work has included EFFT trainings across North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand, presentations at EFT summits, workshops at the Networker and AAMFT, publications in the EFFT workbook and casebook, articles in professional journals and the ICEEFT newsletter. Professionally, Gail’s primary passion is to help therapists who are both new to EFT and trained in EFT, to bring the powerful interventions and skills of this model to the family therapy room.
*Agency Clinician/Student Rate: We offer this discounted rate to enable students and clinicians working in community mental health settings on a full-time basis to be able to participate. Group practices are not eligible.
*Equity Rate: This registration option is for participants with historical/institutional barriers to access. Please choose equity pricing only if you are a member of one or more historically marginalized communities.
This activity is pending approval by the International Centre of Excellence for Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT).
CE Sponsorship Info:
This activity is pending certification by the New England Association for Family and Systemic Therapy (NEAFAST) on behalf of the Massachusetts Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health & Human Services Professions for LMFT professional continuing education.
This activity is pending certification by the The Massachusetts Mental Health Counselors Association (MaMHCA) on behalf of the Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health & Human Services Professions for LMHC/LPC professional continuing education.
This activity is pending certification by the The National Association of Social Workers Massachusetts Chapter (NASW-MA) on behalf of the Board of Registration of Allied Mental Health & Human Services Professions for LICSW/LCSW professional continuing education.
This activity is pending certification by Amego, Inc. (DBA Amego Prepare) on behalf of the American Psychological Association for Licensed Psychologists.
NOTE: It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their state boards to determine CE requirements and rules of reciprocity, i.e. to assess whether out-of-state and/or APA-approved certificates can be accepted.
This program is being offered independent of any commercial support or conflict of interest. Clinicians with any level of experience are welcome to participate.