Reviewing Certification Requirements (Video)

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87926346343

Attachment-Based Suicide Assessment: An EFT-Informed Approach

Suicidality is one of the most challenging clinical experiences therapists encounter. As more individuals across the lifespan experience suicidal thoughts, clinicians need effective frameworks for understanding not only risk but also the deeper emotional and relational experiences that contribute to despair, hopelessness, and disconnection.

This workshop explores suicide risk assessment and intervention through an attachment-informed lens, integrating principles from Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and attachment science. Participants will learn how attachment patterns influence emotional regulation, interpersonal connection, and the experience of suicidality, while gaining practical tools for assessing and supporting clients in crisis.

Designed for social workers, professional counselors, marriage and family therapists, and psychologists, this training will help clinicians deepen their understanding of suicidal clients, strengthen therapeutic attunement, and apply attachment-based interventions to promote safety, connection, and healing.

Learn more about this workshop and registration details here

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87926346343

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87926346343

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87926346343

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87926346343

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87926346343

Please join us for our annual meeting.

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87926346343

Relentless Empathy with Challenging and Resistant Clients

This experiential workshop invites therapists into the heart of attuned persistence—the practice of Relentless Empathy.

Based on Dr. Anabelle Bugatti’s book, Using Relentless Empathy in the Therapeutic Relationship, this workshop explores how therapists can stay engaged, emotionally present, and grounded in empathy even in the face of resistance, withdrawal, or reactivity.

Participants will reflect on their own blocks to empathy, examine client defenses as protection of attachment wounds, and gain tools to foster deeper connection with their most challenging clients—without losing themselves in the process.

Through clinical examples, discussion, and experiential exercises, therapists will leave with renewed confidence and clarity in how to lean in, stay soft, and co-regulate even in difficult therapeutic moments.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Define the concept of Relentless Empathy and describe its role in strengthening the therapeutic alliance, particularly with resistant or avoidant clients.

2. Identify common therapist blocks to empathy and emotional engagement, and explore how to regulate and reconnect when feeling frustrated, ineffective, or shut down.

3. Apply specific interventions and emotional stances that embody Relentless Empathy in response to client defenses, shutdowns, or reactivity in therapy.

About Our Presenter: Dr. Anabelle Bugatti, Ph.D., LMFT

Dr. Anabelle Bugatti, Ph.D., LMFT, is a Certified EFT Supervisor and Therapist in EFCT, EFIT, and EFFT, and serves as the EFT Community Leader for Southern Nevada. She is dedicated to helping therapists deepen their understanding of EFT and harness the power of attachment science to foster lasting emotional bonds.

As the host of the popular YouTube channel and podcast, We Heart Therapy, Dr. Bugatti brings expert interviews, practical EFT insights, and training content to therapists worldwide. Her platform has become a valuable resource for clinicians seeking to expand their EFT knowledge and refine their therapeutic skills.

Dr. Bugatti is also the author of Relentless Empathy in Therapeutic Relationships: Connecting with Challenging and Resistant Clients, a book endorsed by Dr. Sue Johnson, the founder of EFT. In this work, she explores the critical role of empathy in transforming difficult client relationships and offers practical strategies for therapists to navigate resistance with confidence.

With a PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy, Dr. Bugatti combines academic expertise with real-world clinical experience to provide engaging, hands-on training. She is a sought-after speaker, trainer, and mentor, known for her dynamic teaching style and ability to make EFT concepts accessible and actionable for therapists at all levels.

Through her work, Dr. Bugatti is committed to empowering therapists to build stronger therapeutic alliances, deepen emotional healing, and create meaningful change in the lives of their clients.

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87926346343

The Reflect/Xivity Pendulum

Recently (May 2025) I finished my doctorate within a systemic programme in the UK. During this doctorate I developed a model for structured reflectivity and reflexivity, the reflect/xivity pendulum.

In this presentation I will introduce this pendulum, and I hope to do so in an engaging and experiential way, we will work with it, please do not expect an ‘old school lecture’.

Please ‘bring’ a case to the meeting on which you would like to reflect.

About Our Presenter ~ Petra Deij

My name is Petra Deij. Let me firstly introduce myself: I am from 1966, I am white, cisgender, straight, married, mum of three adult sons; a systemic family therapist, supervisor and trainer in the Netherlands, and an EFCT, EFFT and EFIT therapist and supervisor.

I truly love my profession, since early years, probably since my childhood I have been interested in patterns. In how people can make them work, and at times, don’t know how to disentangle destructive patterns. I see my work as a systemic EFT-therapist as a chance to (re-)connect people to each other in a way that is best for them. This is sometimes best done by co-creating distance, other times by working on and increase of connection.

Recently (May 2025) I finished my doctorate within a systemic programme in the UK. During this doctorate I developed a model for structured reflectivity and reflexivity, the reflect/xivity pendulum.

In this presentation I will introduce this pendulum, and I hope to do so in an engaging and experiential way, we will work with it, please do not expect an ‘old school lecture’.

Please ‘bring’ a case to the meeting on which you would like to reflect.

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86158001599

When Anger Visits Us in the Session

Strong emotions, especially anger, always make us feel alert and need to react and act. And here the two sides appear: the client's anger and our anger as therapists. And, many times, it is as if we are caught in a vortex that is getting more and more intense and all we want is to be able to stop everything, especially when the client turns to us with anger.

I propose that in this meeting we learn together how to get out of the spiral of anger, but at the same time we can allow the client to be with their own feelings, facilitate their understanding and support them in creating new ways to express it.

About Our Presenter ~ Roxana Alina Olaru

Hi! My name is Roxana Alina Olaru and I have been an experiential psychotherapist since 2006. My first training was at the SPER Institute Bucharest followed by training in Emotionally Focused Therapy in 2016. I have been certified by ICEEFT since 2018. In 2023 I became certified as an EFT supervisor by ICEEFT.

I work and live in Bucharest, Romania.

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86158001599

Creating a brave space for LGBTQIA+ clients –

how do we hold space for clients and couples who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community?

A. Introduction and welcome – own my own identity and invite people to step into a brave space. Grounding exercise.

B. Supervision and support – learning from each other; including LGBTQIA+ clients in training videos, live couple sessions, etc.

C. Signaling for safety vs. leaving clients to guess: equity statements, pronouns, inclusive language

D. Owning identities in therapy openly. Address client needs, own your identity in therapy, ask permission or reflect on the share with clients, etc.

E. Make it clear clients can bring fears/concerns to therapy, especially in light of the socio-political background. Clients need our validation and safety, not neutrality. Clients may lack the support they need outside of our office due to their families’ prejudices/biases and/or cultural oppression at large.

F. Sit with your own biases and prejudices. What are my inherent beliefs about relationships, upbringing, etc., and how do these show up in therapy?

G. Repairing when we misstep.

H. Resources and where do we go from here?

About our Presenter ~ Rachel Chiu, MS, LMFT

Rachel Chiu (she/her) is a licensed marriage and family therapist as well as LMFT supervisor located in Greenville, SC. She is also an EFT supervisor-in-training. Rachel fell in love with EFT back in her graduate program when her couples therapy seminar professor introduced her cohort to EFT and Dr. Sue Johnson. She began using EFT in 2012, thinking all she had to do was ask her couples to “share your feeling” with their partner. She has since learned there is more to EFT than enactments (A LOT more!) but EFT has been her anchor all these many years. Rachel believes each of us are born good, worthy of love and belonging, and seeks to create a community that is diverse, thriving, equitable, justice-oriented, and loving for all therapists and clients. She is passionate about her work with clients and therapists who are historically marginalized – Spanish-speaking clients, women (especially how women’s health impacts persons with female anatomy – such as perimenopause and menopause), LGBTQIA+ couples and clients, and often talks about the intersection of patriarchy and misogyny and how oppression shows up in relationships, the therapy room, and in supervision. When she isn’t working, she enjoys spending time with her family drinking lots of iced coffee, reluctantly exercising for her own perimenopausal health, and taking the occasional nap.

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86158001599

The Magic of the EFT Tango

The presentation simplifies the 5 basic moves of the EFT Tango and outlines how to skillfully choreograph a powerful transformational enactment.

Vulnerable sharing is key to assisting the couple in their quest to find the softer, more engaged and connected state they long for.

Participants will gain a clearer understanding of each of the 5 moves of the EFT Tango and increase their confidence in working with distressed couples.

About our Presenter ~ Dr Debi Gilmore, LMFT

Dr. Debi Gilmore is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, published author, public speaker, professional educator, and co-owner of The EFT Counseling and Education Center, a clinic specializing in couples therapy. Debi is an EFCT and EFIT Certified Supervisor. She has assisted in teaching numerous EFT Externships and Core Skills and trains therapists seeking licensure or EFT certification. She achieved her doctorate in Marriage and Family Therapy with a special focus on program and curriculum development, clinical skills, clinical supervision, business leadership and business development. 

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86158001599

Treating Betrayal Trauma

This presentation will introduce clinicians to a model for assessing, informing clients about, and treating trauma from intimate betrayal. The presenter will introduce assessing and psycho educating on betrayal trauma.  And discuss how to utilize EFT modality with these couples.  

About Our Presenter ~ David H. Jones, LMFT

David H. Jones, LMFT, is a dedicated and experienced Marriage and Family Therapist with over 10 years of professional experience in mental health therapy and 6 years in clinical supervision. David specializes in working with couples and is a Certified Emotionally Focused Couples Therapist and is also an EFT Supervisor in Training. He has a particular niche in working with couples who have experienced betrayal.  David is the Owner and Executive Director of Secure Connection Counseling in St. George, Utah, where he has a team of dedicated clinicians.  

As a clinical supervisor, David takes pride in mentoring and guiding new therapists through the licensure process, helping them refine their skills and build confidence in their clinical practice. He is an American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Approved Supervisor.  With a focus on systemic and ethical care, David supports therapists in creating meaningful connections with their clients and achieving professional fulfillment.

David earned a Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from Northcentral University, and has additional degrees and graduate work all around the betterment of families. He is also an Army Reserve Chaplain.  David's career spans various settings, including private practice, non-profit agencies, and educational institutions, and family program management, providing him with a comprehensive understanding of the field.

Outside of work, David enjoys sports, outdoor activities, binge watching with his wife, and spending time with family. David is also committed to continuous learning, staying informed on the latest therapeutic techniques and approaches to better serve clients and support the growth of the profession, as well as hiding others in their leadership and professional journey.

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86158001599

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86158001599

Kansas City Emotionally Focused Therapy Community Meeting - February 2025
Topic: Insights from the January 2025 ICEEFT Newsletter

Join us this month as we dive into the latest updates from ICEEFT, exploring powerful tools and strategies for Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). In this session, we will unpack key highlights from the January 2025 ICEEFT newsletter including:

• Engaging with Hope and Hopelessness in EFT: Learn practical techniques for navigating these intense emotions with clients, helping them find pathways forward in their healing journey.

• Finding Safety and Strength Within: Drawing inspiration from the EFIT Tango, we’ll explore how to help clients reconnect with their inner resilience and foster safety in their relationships.

• Four Doors of Attachment and Shame: Discover a valuable framework for understanding and addressing the complex emotions of attachment and shame, and how they play out in therapy.

• Tracking Cycles in the Present Moment in EFCT: Enhance your ability to observe and work with the dynamics of couples in real time, deepening your understanding of the EFT process.

• ICEEFT Updates: Stay informed on the latest developments and resources from ICEEFT to continue growing in your EFT practice.

Whether you’re new to EFT or a seasoned practitioner, this meeting offers an excellent opportunity for connection, learning, and growth. We’ll discuss these insights, share experiences, and brainstorm ways to integrate them into your practice.

Don’t miss out on this enriching opportunity to connect with fellow EFT practitioners and deepen your skills in a supportive, collaborative environment. We look forward to seeing you there!

This is a virtual event. Please join as this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/86158001599