Emotion Focused Therapy Level 1 – March 2024 – Hybrid

Emotion Focused Therapy – Level 1

Go beyond thoughts and beliefs by learning how to help clients become aware of, understand, and process their emotional experience.

This intensive four-day training (hybrid) provides participants with solid grounding in the skills required to work more directly with emotions in psychotherapy. The focus of the program will be experiential, learning how to promote change in core emotional structures. Participants receive in-depth skill training through a combination of brief lectures, video demonstrations, live modelling, case discussions and extensive supervised practice. On completion of Level 1 participants will be able to start incorporating EFT tasks and attitudes into their practice.

This intensive four-day training provides participants with a solid grounding in the skills required to work more directly with emotions in psychotherapy. The focus of the program will be experiential, learning how to promote change in core emotional structures using techniques including Focusing, Systematic Evocative Unfolding, and Two-Chair and Empty-Chair tasks.

Participants will receive in-depth skill training through a combination of brief lectures, video demonstrations, live modelling, case discussions, and extensive supervised practice. For those interested in certification as an Emotion Focused Therapist, completion of Level 1 constitutes the first half of the basic training component of the accreditation pathway.

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) is a humanistic, process-orientated, evidence-based approach that has been shown to be effective in the treatment of depression, anxiety, eating disorders, PTSD, Complex PTSD, and trauma.

Topics
Emotion

• Emotion theory
• Assessment and principles of change

Empathy, Validation and Focusing on Affect

• Creating an alliance
• Empathic attunement
• Evocation
• Conjecture
• Focusing

Process formulation, Developing a Collaborative Focus

• Identifying markers of underlying affective/cognitive problems

Evocation, Arousal and Exploration

• Focusing
• Evocative unfolding
• Two chair dialogue and splits

Accessing Primary Adaptive Emotions and Core Maladaptive Schemes

• Empty chair dialogue and unfinished business

Restructuring Core Schemes

• Supporting the emergence of primary needs
• Letting go of unmet needs

Tapping positive emotional resources
Provision of new experiences
Continued Skill Training in Evocative Methods

• Supporting a self-affirming stance
• Promoting new narrative constructions

Skill Training & Applications

• Depression
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Addictions
• Contraindications

Tasks

• Empathy tasks
• Systematic Evocative Unfolding
• Focusing
• Two Chair work
• Empty Chair work

Time:  9:30am – 5:00pm

Location: 
Via Zoom (link will be emailed to participants)

The Australian Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy
Level 1, 16 Toorak Rd, South Yarra Victoria 3141
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Parking:  There is some street parking available around the area, however, there is also an underground parking garage just off Toorak Road on Macfarlan Place which costs a little over $5. Street parking on Sundays is free.

Train:  Get off at South Yarra station. Turn right as you come out of the train station heading towards Punt Road (not Chapel Street). We are on the left hand side near Punt Road.

Tram:  Catch the No. 8 to Toorak. Get off at Stop 28. Cross over Punt Road and cross over Toorak Road at the lights. We are at the end of the first block.

Self Catering:  Tea/coffee and morning/afternoon tea will be provided. Lunch is BYO or there are plenty of options on Toorak Road.

DO NOT ATTEND IF YOU ARE FEELING UNWELL.If you have registered for a training workshop and cannot attend due to symptoms, you will have the option to credit the training fee towards a future event.

Dr Lou Cooper (she/they) - Lead Trainer

Lou is a Counselling Psychologist and the Lead Trainer of the Australian Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy, accredited as a practitioner and trainer by the International Society for Emotion Focused Therapy (isEFT). She is the Director of Talking Emotions, a private practice based in Fitzroy specialising in EFT. For many years Lou has facilitated training in LGBTQ-inclusive practice, trauma-informed practice, and mental health in the workplace.