Our Leadership

Advancing Emotion Focused Therapy Through Collaboration

Dr. Serine Warwar is a Clinical Psychologist and Director of the Greenberg Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy, which provides EFT training worldwide. She is also the Founder and Director of Education and Training at the Centre for Psychology and Emotional Health, a centre for individual, couple, family, child, adolescent, and group

therapies, as well as training and education for clients and therapists. In addition, shei s the Director of the York University Emotion Focused Therapy Clinic in Toronto, Ontario. Dr. Warwar serves on the board of the International Society for Emotion Focused Therapy (isEFT). 

For over 30 years she has been providing EFT international trainings, workshops, skills training, and advanced classes on emotion regulation, individual and couple therapy, case formulation, experiential teaching, homework, and resolving emotional injuries and forgiveness.

Dr. Warwar has been a therapist and researcher for several EFT randomized control trials, for the treatment of depression, and emotional injuries in individuals and couples. As the

Director of the York University Forgiveness Project, she co-developed with Dr. Greenberg, EFT psychotherapy treatment and research programs for forgiveness to help couples and individuals resolve emotional injuries. She has published in the areas of: emotional processing; homework and experiential teaching; suicide and borderline personality disorder; and resolving emotional injuries and forgiveness in individuals and couples. Special interests include: experiential teaching as she has developed EFT mapping tools and resources for clients and therapists; and identifying in-session micro-markers, and micro-skills that facilitate emotional change. Her approach is evidence-based and her therapeutic style is compassionate, collaborative, and empathic, incorporating an emotion coaching, scaffolding approach to help people tap into their strengths and develop internal resources. She finds great beauty and joy in the work that she does with clients, and in training students and therapists.

Dr. Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D., C. Psych.

Dr. Leslie Greenberg is a Distinguished Research Professor at York University, in Toronto. He is Director of the Emotion Focused Therapy Clinic a division of the York University Psychology Clinic and one of the world’s leading authorities on working with emotions in psychotherapy. The Emotion Focused Therapy Clinic provides EFT therapy to individuals and couples, and training and supervision to therapists wanting to enhance their skills in this modality.

Dr. Greenberg is a founding member of the Society of the Exploration of Psychotherapy

Integration (SEPI). He is on the editorial board of many psychotherapy journals, including the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, the Journal of Psychotherapy Integration and the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy.

Dr. Greenberg’s professional publications include over 100 peer-reviewed papers, 90 book chapters, and 16 books. Among his most influential writings are Emotion Focused Therapy: Teaching Clients to Work through Their Feelings (American Psychological Association, 2002).

Dr. Greenberg received the 2004 Distinguished Research Career Award of the International Society for Psychotherapy Research, of which he was a past President. He has been awarded the Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Program Award for Excellence in Professional Training and the Canadian Psychological Association Professional Award for distinguished contributions to Psychology as a profession as well as the Carl Rogers award of the American Psychology Association’s Society for Humanistic Psychology.

Dr. Greenberg uses a combination of lectures, videotape demonstrations, live role-plays and supervised practice periods to maximize skill acquisition. His teaching is practical and specific. Workshop participants leave with techniques they can readily integrate into their everyday practice.

Dr. Greenberg’s workshops are renowned for their atmosphere of authenticity and warmth. His workshops have brought him critical acclaim throughout Canada, and in the United Stated, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

Carmine Malfitano, Ph.D., M.S.W., R.S.W.

Carmine Malfitano, PhD, MSW, RSW, is Director of Training and Education at the Greenberg Institute for Emotion-Focused Therapy and the Centre for Psychology and Emotional Health. Working closely with Dr. Leslie Greenberg and Dr. Serine Warwar, he contributes to the development and oversight of training, supervision, and educational initiatives aimed at advancing the practice and dissemination of Emotion-Focused Therapy. Carmine has more than 15 years of experience across clinical practice, psychotherapy research, education, and program development. He has extensive experience translating psychotherapy theory and research into experiential, practice-oriented training for students and trainees.

Carmine is also a Sessional Lecturer at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, where he teaches a graduate course in Emotion-Focused Therapy. He developed and leads a specialized two-year psychotherapy training program for Master of Social Work students through the Centre for Psychology and Emotional Health and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. He also trains counsellors serving 2SLGBTQIA+ communities through the Sexual and Gender Minority Counselling Training Hub at Toronto Metropolitan University.

In addition to his educational roles, Carmine is a Clinical Social Work Specialist in the Department of Supportive Care at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. His clinical and research work has focused on psychotherapy for individuals, couples, and families facing advanced cancer, traumatic stress, caregiving distress, grief, and end-of-life concerns. He holds a PhD focused on traumatic stress among family caregivers of people with advanced cancer, a Master of Social Work from the University of Toronto, and a Bachelor of Science with a specialization in neuroscience.