Restoring Connections and Promoting Resilience
Presented by Dr. Jim Furrow
Friday June 4 - Saturday June 5
**please note that the system is currently being updated—this may mean that you are not able to register. Send an email to scamftboard@gmail.com so that we can get you registered if you are experiencing this issue! We are committed to not letting technology issues get in the way of a fabulous conference!
Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT) is an attachment-based approach that combines both systemic and experiential interventions to mend broken bonds and heal fractured families. EFFT therapists focus on the emotional experience within a family and the problem patterns that block family members from accessing the resources they would otherwise share. A primary goal of EFFT is to reduce problematic behavior by creating new patterns of emotional accessibility and responsiveness that offer a secure base for children to develop and families to thrive. EFFT provides a practical approach to engaging families at an emotional level. Accessing, processing, and connecting family members through the power of emotional experience promotes healing and fosters a family’s resilience to the everyday and unexpected challenges of life.
This workshop will demonstrate how the EFT model of working with couples is extended and modified to fit the family context. Attention will be given to how EFT practice with families is different and what additional skills are needed. For example, how to process parental blocks to emotional accessibility and responsiveness while also keeping the child safe will be a dynamic addressed. Participants will learn a powerful transformative approach that is foundational in helping parents and children who are struggling with remaining securely attached.
This workshop will combine didactic instruction, experiential exercises, and case examples to demonstrate the practice of EFFT. Participants are encouraged to bring examples from their casework to explore the application of EFFT to their own work.
Learning Objectives
Participants will:
- Conceptualize family distress using theories of emotion and attachment.
- Delineate key practices of EFFT from EFT work with couples.
- Identify the stages and markers of change in the EFFT approach.
- Identify therapist practices that promote a working alliance with parents and children.
- Gain strategies for strengthening parental ownership of the EFFT process.
- Practice key interventions common to processing attachment related affect.
- Examine a 5-step sequence for accessing and working with emotion in family relationships.
- Analyze parent child interactions using EFT practices to work through specific relational blocks.
- Identify EFT interventions used to restructure new patterns and promote safety and security in the family.
- Conceptualize the role of emotion and attachment in stepfamily development and distress.
- Utilize principles from EFT to work through negative interaction patterns in remarried couples.
- Recognize EFT strategies for resolving parental blocks and promoting felt security in stepfamilies.
- Explore the relationship of secure attachment to family patterns of resilience.
James Furrow, Ph.D., is a recognized leader in the development and practice of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with couples and families. He is contributing author and editor to five EFT texts including Emotionally Focus Family Therapy: Restoring Connection and Promoting Resilience and the forthcoming Becoming an Emotionally Focused Therapist: The Workbook. His research on couple therapy and positive youth development and spirituality are featured in leading professional journals. He is a clinical fellow and an approved supervisor with the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, a member of the National Council on Family Relations, and a Certified Family Life Educator. Jim co-founded the Los Angeles Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy and is an ICEEFT certified EFT therapist, supervisor, and trainer.
Event Schedule
Day 1 (Friday, June 4)
- Morning Session (9-12:15 with 15 minute break)
-
- Introduction: Attachment, Emotion, and the Family System
Focus: Conceptualizing the family as an emotional system.
-
- Overview of Emotionally Focused Therapy and Families
Focus: Introduction of Emotionally Focused Therapy and Family Treatment including markers of change and common interventions.
- Lunch (approx 12:15-1:15)
- Afternoon Session (1:15-4:30 with 15 minute break)
-
- EFFT: Assessment and Alliance Building
Focus: Stage 1 Practices in assessing families and building alliances.
-
- EFFT: Processing Patterns of Family Distress
Focus: Tracking and reframing family distress as an escalating pattern. Working through parental blocks.
Day 2 (Saturday, June 5)
- Morning Sessions (9-12:15 with 15 minute break)
-
- EFFT: Changing Family Patterns
Focus: Working through blocks to vulnerability
-
- EFFT: Stage 3: Consolidation and Promoting Resilience
Focus: Review of final steps in EFFT and promoting family resilience through attachment
- Lunch (approx 12:15-1:15)
- Afternoon Sessions (1:15-4:30 with 15 minute break)
-
- EFFT: Attachment and Stepfamily Development
Focus: Loyalties and Competing Attachments
-
- EFFT: Promoting Felt-Security in Stepfamilies
Focus: Application of EFFT to Stepfamilies: Obstacles and Opportunities
**Please note that the entire conference will be held online. Should you download the event to your calendar, please edit the location (there will be no gathering in Charleston).
12 CEs available. CE's approved by AAMFT for LPC and LMFT in South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia and Social Work in the state of Georgia; approval is being pursued for SW in South Carolina and North Carolina.