Free Workshop Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) to Resolve Unfinished Business: Foundational Skills

Unfinished Business refers to unresolved emotional pain (such as hurt, anger, shame, complicated grief, resignation, or hopelessness) related to unmet needs from past relationships, often with a parent, caregiver, or significant person. These longstanding emotional wounds stem from experiences such as chronic neglect, emotional abandonment, the absence of warmth and caring, criticism, the experience of not being allowed to be who you are or not being accepted for who you are, experiences where support or love are conditional, or fear of an attachment figure who has been emotionally or physically abusive.  

Unresolved feelings from these experiences can result in emotional issues such as depression, anxiety, shame, unresolved grief, or damage to one’s sense of healthy identity and self-esteem. Clients with complex unfinished business often feel stuck in a cycle of bad feelings that do not resolve, and these feelings are easily triggered in current situations and relationships.   

This free workshop is designed for therapists who want to learn the foundations of working with unfinished business. It is developed by Dr. Serine Warwar, co-developer of an evidence-based Emotion Focused Therapy treatment for resolving emotional injuries and a world-renowned expert on EFT. Video-recorded clips of real therapy sessions will be used to illustrate key principles and interventions. 

No previous experience required. This workshop is recommended for the masterclass, Advanced Interventions in EFT to Resolve Complex UFB, on November 29, 2024. 

OBJECTIVES

This workshop is didactic and uses video clips demonstrating the 5 Stages of working with UFB.

Participants in this workshop will learn:

• The 5 Stages of UFB
• To recognize, confirm, and empathically reflect markers of unfinished business.
• To give a rationale and collaborate with clients – regarding the importance of going back into the past emotional memories to process the emotional injuries.
• To set up the intervention of empty chair work to resolve unfinished business .
• To help clients activate, express, and differentiate primary adaptive anger and hurt underlying secondary protective anger.
• To help clients express unmet relational needs and validate these needs.
• To help clients with different types of resolution: self-affirmation, self-assertion, boundary setting, letting go, forgiveness.
• To help clients process the impact of their emotional injuries related to UFB as relates to their current core issues.