Knowing When to Follow and When to Guide

One of the defining features of Emotion Focused Therapy is the therapist’s ability to remain closely attuned to the client’s moment-by-moment emotional process while actively guiding that process toward therapeutic change. Achieving this balance is challenging and even experienced therapists report struggling with it. Knowing when to follow the client’s experience through empathic exploration and when to guide the process with more active interventions requires careful clinical judgment and continual attention to the client’s emotional process. 

Following the client’s narrative or emotional process for too long can result in therapy losing focus or becoming stalled in unproductive emotional reactions and repetitive patterns. In contrast, guiding too quickly or too actively can interrupt the client’s emotional process, reduce empathic attunement, and weaken the therapeutic alliance. This workshop teaches about how to make flexible, moment-to-moment decisions about when to follow clients’ experience and when to provide more active therapeutic guidance. 

This workshop provides an in-depth exploration of the moment-to-moment clinical decisions involved in following and guiding clients in psychotherapy. Through detailed discussion and analysis of therapy videos, participants will observe how experienced EFT therapists assess a client’s emotional process, determine when to follow and when to guide, and select interventions that deepen emotional experiencing while maintaining empathic attunement and a strong therapeutic relationship.

For therapists who are newer to EFT 

With the purchase of this workshop, participants will automatically receive 2-month access to a 3-hour recorded workshop with Dr. Leslie Greenberg introducing Emotion Focused Therapy. We recommend watching this recorded workshop before attending as it reviews foundational knowledge and skills to work with emotion in psychotherapy.

Learning Objectives

In this workshop, participants will learn how to: 

• Distinguish the complementary roles of following and guiding in EFT. 
• Recognize when following is facilitating productive emotional process and when it is no longer therapeutically productive. 
• Shift from following to more active guidance based on clinical micro-markers.
• Deepen emotional experience while maintaining empathic attunement using therapist micro-interventions.
• Recognize and navigate common challenges in following and guiding. 

CONTINUING EDUCATION CREDITS (CECs)

Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA)

• Pending Approval

Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals (OAMHP)

• Pending Approval

Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)

• Pending Approval

Ontario Psychological Association (OPA)

• Pending Approval

Please note that live attendance is required in order to receive CE credits

REFUND & CANCELLATION POLICY

Cancelling 7 days or more prior to the start of a live one or two day workshop, or webinar series:

Refund: Full refund will be processed, minus a $50 administrative fee

or

Transfer: Full payment can be transferred to another upcoming workshop or training that we provide. Please email our training and workshop team at training@greenbergiseft.ca to request a transfer.

Cancelling after 7 days prior to the start of a live one or two day workshop, or webinar series:

Refund: No refund

Transfers: Full payment can be transferred to another upcoming workshop or training that we provide. Please email our training and workshop team at training@greenbergiseft.ca to request a transfer.