Emotion-Focused Therapy Training
Level 2
Description
This intensive training is a broader and more in-depth training than level 1. Participants will deepen the skills they learned in level 1 and will be trained in advanced Emotion Focused Therapy skills and interventions. New training material includes, but is not limited to: specialized empathic responses and interpersonal skills necessary for EFT application, EFT-based case formulation models, Focusing and therapeutic tasks for reprocessing difficult or traumatic experiences, as well as different forms of chair work.
The new level 2 structure consists of 4 modules each focusing on specific skills and interventions. The time spacing between modules allows participants to apply what they learn in their practice with their own clients.
The training includes a mixture of brief lectures, group discussion, watching and commenting on EFT videos, live demonstrations, and experiential small group practice exercises supervised by the trainers and facilitators.
Completion of level 2 is a prerequisite for those wishing to become certified EFT therapists by the International Society for Emotion-Focused Therapy (ISEFT). After the training, participants can begin individual or group supervision (EFT level 3) to complete the hours required for certification as EFT therapists.
Who can participate
This course is open to anyone who has completed level 1 (on any ISEFT accredited program). It is also open to anyone who has already completed level 2 and wants to go deeper into specific modules.
The modules are independent and it is possible to take any module or combination of modules individually.
Modules
Module A: Advanced empathic attunement with Agathi Lakioti*
December 8-9, 2023, live and online via zoom. Hours 10:00 - 17:30.
* The workshop will be in Greek.
Empathic attunement is a key component of Emotion Focused Therapy. A strong empathic presence strengthens the working alliance with clients and without it therapeutic tasks are not as effective. This is why in EFT many types of empathic responses have been studied and taught. A comprehensive EFT training requires specialized training in the most basic of these empathic skills. This workshop will cover a number of basic and advanced empathic skills.
The workshop is designed to help you develop your empathic attitude (curiosity and openness toward the other), raise the level and quality of your empathic responses as well as broaden your repertoire of empathic responses. You will also learn how to develop advanced empathic skills so that you know when to help clients regulate, contain, process and transform emotional pain.
The workshop will begin with an integrative theoretical framework for therapist empathy that brings together emotion-focused therapy theory, social neuroscience, the empathy cycle, and the empathy channels model. Most of the workshop will involve skill practice using your personal material starting with the classic Opening Channels of Receptivity exercise, and progressing through separate modules on different empathic responses. Each of these will be clearly described and illustrated by a video or live demonstration, followed by skill practice and self-reflection.
Indicative topics to be covered include:
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Why is empathy important
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Definitions of empathy
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Empathy in emotion-focused therapy
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The empathy cycle
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The functions of empathy in different approaches
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Social neuroscience of empathy
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Assessing your current empathic practice
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Different types of empathic responses (evocative empathy, exploratory reflections, process reflection, empathic confirmation, empathic conjecture)
Module B: Case formulation & relational difficulties with Robert Elliott and Agathi Lakioti*
January 26-27 and February 2-3, 2024, ONLY online via zoom. Hours 18:30 - 22:30
* The workshop will be in English. Small group practice can be done in English or Greek.
Case formulation
Case formulation is an important process that brings together the various pieces of EFT theory and practice and contributes to the success of the therapy. It provides a map for the process and provides therapists with a way of understanding the emotional source of the clients' presenting problems. In addition, it gives therapists an organizing framework to help them identify how they need to respond to specific problems that arise at specific times during therapy.
In essence, case formulation helps therapists organize their thinking and better understand their clients' problems so that they can respond more effectively.
This workshop will introduce the general principles and the various case formulation models used in EFT and then focus on the five-dimensional model. Participants will practice case formulation by watching videos and practicing in small groups. They will also learn ways to encourage their clients collaboration and their ability to formulate their own process.
Indicative topics to be covered include:
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What is EFT case formulation (principles, models)
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Five-dimensional model:
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Main presenting issues /therapeutic focus
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Key task markers
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Key problematic emotions (emotion response types & schemes)
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Emotion processing modes (dysregulated, restricted, working)
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Self-other themes (self=>self; others=>self; self=>others)
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How to do empathic case formulation responses
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How to do case formulation after therapeutic works
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How to do a case formulation at the end of the session
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Suggestions for developing case formulation skills
Relational difficulties
It is almost universally accepted that the therapeutic alliance is an important factor contributing to therapeutic change. Emotion-Focused Therapy is a relational therapy in which therapists provide the person-centered conditions of empathic attunement, unconditional acceptance, and congruence or genuineness. The therapeutic relationship that is based on these conditions contributes to therapeutic change in itself as it provides a corrective emotional experience and helps clients internalize a caring, understanding relationship with themselves. In addition, the therapist's genuine empathy and appreciation create the climate of interpersonal safety which is necessary for clients to explore, deepen, and change painful emotions through the more active EFT interventions.
For these reasons, EFT emphasizes both the building of a strong therapeutic relationship in the early stages of therapy and the repair of ruptures that may occur during therapy. Specifically, EFT involves two relational projects, alliance formation at the beginning of therapy that aims to create a productive working environment and relational dialogue that aims to repair the relationship when problems arise in it.
In this workshop participants will receive training in the two relational tasks and will learn how to deal with the difficulties that may arise in the therapeutic relationship both at the beginning and during the course of therapy.
Indicative topics to be covered include:
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What are the difficulties that can occur at the beginning of therapy and how they are dealt with in EFT (e.g. reluctance, social anxiety)
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What are the EFT therapist's experiential ways of responding?
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How you can enhance your therapeutic presence
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What are the principles for working with relational difficulties in EFT
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The kinds of different relational difficulties that can arise and how they are dealt with in EFT (e.g. clients complaining about the process or judging the therapist, clients refusing or rejecting the therapist's suggestions, therapists' difficulties with their own acceptance, etc.)
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What are the steps in the relational dialogue task for resolving difficulties
Module C: Focusing and reprocessing tasks with Robert Elliott and Agathi Lakioti*
March 29-30, 2024, ONLY online via zoom. Hours 15:00 - 22:30
* The workshop will be in English. Small group practice can be done in English or Greek.
Focusing
Focusing is increasingly recognized as an important part of Emotion-Focused Therapy. It is a valuable process that can be used in many ways. First, it can be used as a therapeutic task when clients when clients experience unclear feelings, when they are confused about what they feel, or they have a complex or troubling sense. It is a useful process when clients are not in touch with what they are experiencing, talking in an external or conceptual way, or when they feel blank or stuck. Therapists can also use the Focusing steps, exploratory questions, and invitations separately, to help clients access their experience during other therapeutic processes and tasks. Therapists are also encouraged to take the Focusing attitude towards their clients’ experience and to use Focusing to educate clients about basic experiential concepts when they first begin therapy.jects.
In this workshop participants will learn what Focusing is and how they can use it with their clients. Most importantly, they will practice getting in touch with their own lived experience through the Focusing process. They will also be taught the process of clearing a space that can be used when clients feel overwhelmed by worries and concerns or when they have no therapeutic focus for the session.
Indicative topics to be covered include:
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What is Focusing and how it was discovered
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What is the Focusing attitude
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EFT adaptations of Focusing
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Focusing markers
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Focusing steps
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Clearing a space and how it can be applied in the session
Reprocessing tasks
Reprocessing tasks are used when clients bring specific problematic or difficult experiences that are troubling or distressing to them and involve systematic evocative unfolding, trauma retelling and meaning creation. All three therapeutic tasks emphasize processes of reliving and revisiting puzzling, painful or significant life events. They are particularly useful for unexpected life events or sudden reactions such as post-traumatic difficulties, panic attacks, phobic reactions or borderline processes. These tasks emphasize the importance of the narrative perspective in EFT and how emotion and narrative complement each other. The goal is to help clients retell the story in a more emotionally grounded and productive way.
This workshop will delve deeper in the therapeutic task of systematic evocative unfolding presented in level 1 and participants will be trained in two new therapeutic tasks, trauma retelling for traumatic experiences and difficult life stories and meaning creation for meaning protests, meaning life events that violate cherished beliefs.
Indicative topics to be covered include:
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Basic principles and general approach to reprocessing tasks
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What are the differential markers for the tasks of systematic evocative unfolding, trauma retelling and meaning creation
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What are the basic processes of change in reprocessing tasks
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Useful therapeutic responses
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Applications and steps in task resolution
Module D: Chair work and compassionate self-soothing with Robert Elliott and Agathi Lakioti*
May 17-18 and 24-25 ,2024, ONLY online via zoom. Hours 18:30 - 22:30
* The workshop will be in English. Small group practice can be done in English or Greek.
Chair work comes under the active expressive therapeutic tasks of EFT that originate in gestalt therapy and psychodrama. In these tasks the client is asked to enact a conversation between two sides of the self or between the self and a significant other. These tasks are particularly useful to help clients change the way they behave towards themselves (for example from being critical to being supportive of themselves) or to help them express their core emotions towards significant others and get in touch with unmet needs so that they can find new ways of meeting them.
In this workshop participants will delve into the four basic forms of chair work which include two chair dialogue for internal conflicts, two chair enactment for blocking emotion, empty chair work for dealing with unfinished business with significant others, and compassionate self-soothing for painful emotions and unmet existential needs.
Indicative topics to be covered include:
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What are the different types of markers for working with chairs
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What are the therapists' helpful response modes
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The model and steps for resolving each therapeutic task
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Alternative ways of working for each therapeutic task
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Practical tips: how to introduce chair work, working with chairs in online sessions
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The experience of the collapsed experiencer and how to work with it
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When to ignore the self-interruption in empty chair work
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Different markers of unfinished business
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Other ways to work with unfinished business
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Variations of the compassionate self-soothing task
Trainers
Agathi Lakioti, Ph.D.
Agathi Lakioti, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and the founder and clinical director of the Hellenic Institute of Emotion-Focused Therapy (HiEFT). She is a certified EFT therapist and supervisor by the International Society of Emotion-Focused Therapy and a certified Focusing trainer and Focusing-Oriented Therapist by the International Focusing Institute. Agathi studied psychology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Panteion University and her MSc in Person-Centred Counselling and Psychotherapy from the University of Strathclyde. She teaches counselling and psychotherapy, Positive Psychology and research methodology at undergraduate and postgraduate level and has been a trainer and supervisor in the Person-Centred approach for over 15 years.
Place
The first session will be live (in Athens) and online. Modules B, C, and D will be done online via zoom.
Language
Module A will be in Greek. Modules B, C, and D will be in English (small group practice may be in Greek or English).
Cost
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900 euros (225 euros per module)
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810 euros for all the modules if paid in full by November 15, 2023
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625 euros for modules B, C, and D if paid in full by January 12, 2024.
Cancellation policy
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If you cancel participation 30 days or more prior to the workshop date you will be refunded the participation fee minus 25 euros for administration costs.
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If you cancel less than 30 days prior to the workshop date you will receive a credit, which you can use for a future workshop.
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If you do not notify us in advance of the workshop date you will not receive a refund or credit.
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You may transfer your registration to another individual at no extra cost. In this case, you need to notify us of the name of the person.
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The organizers reserve the right to cancel the workshop due to instructor illness, extreme weather, under - enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances. If a workshop is cancelled, the participation fee will be refunded in full.
Registration
To register for the whole level 2 or any of the individual modules please fill in this form.
To reserve your place, you must pay the full fee or pay a deposit of 225 euros for the whole level 2 and EUR 50 for each module.
For more information and registration please contact here , at agathilakioti@gmail.com, or at 6944964300
The Institute is recognized by the International Society of Emotion Focused Therapy
(ISEFT)
