Certified Emotion Focused Therapy, Couples – Level 1

Early Bird Rate Available until October 16th, 2026

Overview

Developed by Leslie Greenberg and Rhonda Goldman, Emotion Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT-C) is one of the world’s most researched, evidence-based approaches to couples’ therapy. Building on the pioneering work of Leslie Greenberg and Sue Johnson (1988), this intensive 4 day certification training provides therapists with a powerful framework for helping couples move beyond conflict, heal emotional injuries, and build stronger, more secure relationships.

Unlike approaches that focus primarily on attachment, EFT-C also addresses identity needs, including power, self-esteem, shame, and vulnerability, giving therapists a comprehensive model for understanding and treating relationship distress. You will learn how to recognize and transform the emotional processes that maintain conflict while helping partners create new patterns of connection.

Throughout this intensive 4 day certification training, you will learn the foundations of the 5 stages and 14 steps of the EFT-C model, including recent advances in theory and practice. 

You will learn how to:

• Identify and de-escalate destructive interactional cycles and survival strategies
• Help partners identify and express their sensitivities and vulnerabilities
• Create new patterns of emotional responsiveness and secure connection
• Work effectively with attachment emotions such as anxiety, sadness, and longing
• Work effectively with identity-based emotions including shame, fear, anger, and struggles around power and self-worth
• Work with blocks, avoidances and interruptions
• Set up successful enactments
• Assign homework between sessions
• Engage in relapse prevention
• Use individual sessions within the couple’s therapy
• Recognize contraindications to therapy and address them
• Facilitate partners to self-soothe when needed
• Foster positive emotions such as warmth, love, caring, joy, and hope
• Apply the Forgiveness Treatment Approach for working with emotional injuries and betrayal, developed by Greenberg, Warwar, and Malcolm (2010)

Learning includes didactic lectures, video demonstrations, case discussions, and extensive supervised role-play in small break-out groups to build both conceptual understanding and practical therapeutic skills.

Who should attend: Licensed psychologists, registered psychotherapists, social workers, marriage and family therapists, counsellors, and other regulated mental health professionals. Graduate students are also welcome. No prior couples training is required.

Please note, participation for the full 4 days is required in order to receive a completion certificate. 

Please contact us directly at [email protected] to inquire about your credentials and eligibility to take the trainings. 

CE Credits

• Pending Approval with CPA