Description: EFT is an empirically supported approach based on attachment theory that gets to the heart of relationship problems. Dr. Paul Guillory will teach EFT through a cultural lens, deftly weaving in the dynamics of race-matter and attachment bonds. This participatory workshop will provide practices for helping couples recognize and contain their distress-maintaining patterns, navigate and heal relational wounds and the intergenerational impact of trauma, and engage with vulnerability, attunement, and compassion. Participants will learn and practice with EFT through a mix of didactic instruction, skill-building practices, and watching and discussing demonstrations from training tapes and live interactions that include couples with racially marginalized identities and interracial couples.
The first day provides foundational content. The second training is more interactive and focuses on enhancing practice. Participants are encouraged to practice skills in between the training dates.
Learning objectives: At the end of the training participants will be able to:
- Describe at least 1 way that EFT works with the process of emotion to shape change.
- Identify at least 3 stages of change in the EFT model.
- Apply at least 3 basic EFT skills to assessment, alliance building, and empathic attunement with clients.
- Name and describe at least 3 elements of the EFT case formulation process.
- Identify at least 1 way in which the negative interaction pattern (cycle) is the problem.
- Identify at least 2 experiential and systemic micro interventions.
- Articulate at least 2 insights into the way that history and racially-based stress can affect relationships and sense of self
- Apply at least 1 strategy to increase client attunement and awareness of the impact of racial stress, trauma, and threats to love that shape sharing of emotions.
Agenda:
Day 1 (Jan 12)– Introduction to EFT and race-matters
- 9:00–9:30 – Introduction to EFT, objectives, and overview
- 9:30–10:30 – EFT Model and integration with race-matters and cultural humility
(10:30–10:45 break) - 10:45–11:30 – Emotions as process, clinical attitude, interventions, Tango moves and race-matters
- 11:30–12:15 – Practice with Attachment & Cultural/Race-matters interview/Questionnaire
(12:15–1:00 lunch) - 1:00–2:00 – Multiple video tape examples/exercises/Q&A (Group instructions)
Day 2 (Jan 26)- More advanced and experiential engagement
- 9:00 – 9:30 – Review and opening discussion and orientation
- 9:30 – 10:30 – Clinical engagement with EFT Model with race/culture through live practices and recorded examples Attachment and Culture Race-Related Interview Questions
(10:30–10:45 break) - 10:45–12:15 – Clinical engagement with EFT Model with race/culture through live practices and recorded examples
(12:15–1:00 lunch) - 1:00–1:45 – Practice and processing
- 1:45–2:00 – Wrap up
Trainer:
Paul Guillory, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the University of California, Berkeley in the Clinical Science Program, Psychology Department and certified trainer, supervisor, and therapist of Emotionally Focused Therapy. He has also been in private practice for more than 30 years. Dr. Guillory has taught courses and presented widely on EFT and how to integrate EFT with a cultural lens. He authored Emotionally Focused Therapy with African American Couples: Love Heals (Routledge, 2021), and has produced related training videos on working with culture and race in couple’s therapy. He founded the Family Enrichment Network in Oakland and served as chair of the Northern California Community of Emotionally Focused Therapy, and Director of the Center for Family Counseling in Oakland California. He has also consulted for the Oakland Raiders, the Sacramento Kings, and the National Football League and National Basketball Players Association. He is a lifetime member of the Association of Black Psychologists and the USA Masters Track & Field Association. Prior to his career in psychology, he served in the Peace Corps in the West Indies, the US Naval Reserves, and as a fire fighter and a loan manager.
References:
Allan, R., Wiebe, S. A., Johnson, S. M., Piaseckyj, O., & Campbell, T. L. (2021). Practicing emotionally focused therapy online: Calling all relationships. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 47(2), 424-439. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12507
Bloch, L., & Guillory, P. T. (2011). The attachment frame is the thing: Emotion-focused family therapy in adolescence. Journal of Couple & Relationship Therapy, 10(3), 229-245. https://doi.org/10.1080/15332691.2011.588090
Brigance, C. A., Brown, E. C., & Cottone, R. R. (2021). Therapeutic intervention for couples experiencing infertility: An emotionally focused couples therapy approach. The Family Journal, 29(1), 72-79. https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480720973420
Burgess Moser, M., Johnson, S. M., Dalgleish, T. L., Lafontaine, M., Wiebe, S. A., & Tasca, G. A. (2016). Changes in relationship-specific attachment in emotionally focused couple therapy. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 42(2), 231-245. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12139
Greenman, P. S., & Johnson, S. M. (2022). Emotionally focused therapy: Attachment, connection, and health. Current Opinion in Psychology, 43, 146-150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.06.015
Guillory, P.T. (2021). Emotionally focused therapy with African American couples. New York: Routledge Press.
Johnson, S. M., Moser, M. B., Beckes, L., Smith, A., Dalgleish, T., Halchuk, R., Hasselmo, K., Greenman, P. S., Merali, Z., & Coan, J. A. (2013). Soothing the threatened brain: Leveraging contact comfort with emotionally focused therapy. PloS One, 8(11), e79314-e79314. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0079314
Wiebe, S. A., & Johnson, S. M. (2016). A review of the research in emotionally focused therapy for couples. Family Process, 55(3), 390-407. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12229
A more comprehensive list of references will be available to participants.