EFT Certification Program
Emotion Focused Therapy for Couples Level 1
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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.
This highly experiential training combines brief lectures, extensive clinical video demonstrations, supervised small-group practice, live coaching and modelling interventions, as well as feedback to help participants integrate advanced EFT skills into their clinical practice.
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. No prior couples training is required.
Please note, participation for the full 4 days is required in order to receive a completion certificate.
Learning Objectives
Throughout this intensive 4 day certification training, participants will learn the foundations of the 5 stages and 14 steps of the EFT-C model, including recent advances in theory and practice. Participants 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)
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Upcoming Dates
Emotion Focused Therapy for Couples Level 1
Next Training Session: November 16, 17, 23, & 24, 2026
Time: 9:00am - 5:00pm (Eastern Standard Time)
EFT Trainer: Dr. Serine Warwar
Format: Live Online Training
Continuing Education Credits (CECs)
Canadian Psychological Association (CPA)
- Pending Approval
The Greenberg Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy has the right to cancel or reschedule any Emotion-Focused Therapy Training Institutes. In the event that the Greenberg Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy 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.
Please note that live attendance is required in order to receive CE credits
