EFT for Couple Level 1 – November 16, 17, 23 & 24, 2026

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.

No prior couples training is required.

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.

CE Credits

• Pending Approval with CPA

Cancelling 30 days or more prior to the start of a training:

• Refund: Full refund will be processed, minus a $200 administrative fee

or

• Transfer: Full payment will be transferred to a future Emotion Focused Therapy Training Institute. You may transfer your payment to another EFT training institute one time.

Cancelling after 30 days prior to the start of a training:

• Refund: No refund
• Transfers: No transfers to another EFT Training Institute

The Centre for Psychology and Emotional Health has the right to cancel or reschedule any Emotion Focused Therapy Training Institutes. In the event that the Centre for Psychology and Emotional Health needs to cancel or reschedule an upcoming EFT Training Institute, you will have the option to either receive a full refund, or transfer the full training fee to another available training.