DESCRIPTION

Part of the Emotion-Focused “family” and rooted in a deep belief in the healing power of parents, the essence of EFST is to afford caregivers a role in their child’s recovery, regardless of their age, level of motivation or involvement in formal treatment themselves. The clinician’s role is to support parents and caregivers to increase their involvement through four steps including recovery coaching, emotion coaching, relationship repair, and identifying, understanding, and transforming “emotion blocks” that lead to therapy-interfering attitudes or behaviors in caregivers.

This final component is critical since throughout the course of treatment, some well-intentioned caregivers can struggle to support their loved one’s treatment. They may even engage in behaviors that enable their loved one’s symptoms, creating challenges for the most experienced clinicians. For this reason, the EFST model includes a module for clinician challenges as well.

This training is suited for newcomers to EFST as well as those with prior training and experience. The training model will introduce beginners to the approach and give them a working experiential knowledge of the model. Those with previous experience will have the opportunity to deepen their experiential practice, and further expand their skill set.