Emotion-Focused Therapy - Level 1 

  • This workshop is the first step in becoming a certified EFT therapist with the International Society for Emotion-Focused Therapy (ISEFT), and is open to qualified clinical/counselling psychologists and accredited counsellors/psychotherapists. Clinicians who have attended previous EFT trainings are also invited to attend as a refresher. 

    Emotion-Focused Therapy

    Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) is an evidence-based experiential psychotherapy in the humanistic tradition of Person-Centered and Gestalt therapy, influenced by family & systemic therapy as well as ongoing research in affective neuroscience. EFT is established as a treatment for depression, trauma, and in its couples’ format, relationship distress. It has also been applied to the treatment of eating disorders, and most recently, to the treatment of anxiety, specifically social anxiety and generalized anxiety. EFT is a unique empirically based approach, based on methods designed to help people accept, express, regulate, make sense of, and transform emotion. It focuses on the development of emotional intelligence and on the importance of secure relationships. Based on emotion, attachment, and growth theory, it helps people identify which of their emotions they can trust and rely on as adaptive guides and which of their emotions are residues of painful memories that have become maladaptive and thus need to be changed. With the help of the therapist's empathic understanding and the use of experiential methods, clients learn how to make healthy contact with and transform, feelings, memories, thoughts, and physical sensations that have been ignored, feared or avoided.

    Workshop Content: Dr. Keogh will lead a 4-day introductory and experiential workshop on EFT as a treatment for working with complex emotions in individual psychotherapy. The approach will be illustrated with video recorded case studies, and significant time will be given to experiential exercises in small break out groups where participants will be supported in learning core EFT tasks. The phases of treatment will be described and the specific processes that led to the resolution of the clients’ presentation will be highlighted and illustrated.

    Dr. Daragh Keogh (D.Couns.Psych). is a Chartered Counselling Psychologist with the Psychological Society of Ireland, an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and a certified EFT therapist, supervisor and trainer (ISEFT). He has collaborated on a number of research studies investigating EFT as a treatment for depression, anxiety and related disorders including OCD and PTSD. He is currently engaged in research developing EFT as a treatment for eating disorders and exploring the application of EFT to work with children and caregivers. He is co-author (with Ladislav Timulak) of Transdiagnostic Emotion-Focused Therapy: A Clinical Guide for Transforming Emotional Pain, published by the American Psychological Association (2021). He maintains a part-time private practice.

    Training is open to qualified clinical/counselling psychologists and accredited counsellors/ psychotherapists and is the first step in becoming a certified EFT therapist with the International Society for Emotion-Focused Therapy (ISEFT).

    Places are limited. 

    For all enquiries and bookings please contact: admin@ieft.ie

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