Fundamentals of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) - October 2026

LIVE ONLINE WORKSHOP

Day 1: 27 October 2026 | 10.00am–1.30pm AEST

Day 2: 9 November 2026 | 10.00am–1.30pm AEST

Capability Level: Emerging & Evolving

Completing the Emotionally Focused Therapy Fundamentals course will give you a solid introduction to all 3 modalities of EFT: Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT), Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT), and Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT). EFT is a highly evidence-based modality that is grounded in attachment science and the science of emotion. You will be introduced to EFT skills that allow you to work with clients within a deeply relational, attachment-informed, and systemic approach.

This 7-hour course will help you understand distress not simply as an individual symptom, but in the context of relationships, patterns of disconnection in attachment relationships, and the accompanying emotional experiences that shape us. This introductory course is designed to assist practitioners who are new to EFT in acquiring an awareness both micro and macro EFT interventions. The curriculum encompasses moment-to-moment attunement, de-escalation strategies, and emotional processing, as well as broader competencies such as case formulation, cycle mapping, and the restructuring of interactions.

Whether working with individuals, couples, families, or carers, EFT Fundamentals will strengthen your systemic practice, clinical confidence, and therapeutic impact.

Who should attend?

Emotionally Focused Therapy Fundamentals is a foundational course and is well suited to social workers at a range of career stages. It is appropriate for emerging practitioners, early career social workers, and more experienced clinicians who want to strengthen their therapeutic skills through an attachment informed, emotion-focused, and systemic lens.

The course does not require prior EFT training, so it is accessible to those wanting a solid introduction, while still offering enough depth to be highly relevant for established practitioners. It is especially useful for social workers working with individuals, couples, families, parents, or carers, in a therapeutic setting, and for those wanting to build confidence in applying focused psychological strategies, relational case formulation, and both micro and macro interventions in practice. It suits clinicians looking to deepen their understanding of emotional process, patterns of interaction, and how to work more effectively with distress, disconnection, conflict, and vulnerability across a range of settings.

Learning Outcomes

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

Summarise the EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy) perspective – experiential, growth oriented.

Describe the key tenets of attachment theory.

Identify the goals and stages of the EFT model across modalities.

Outline the core EFT interventions as they apply and differ in three modalities: individuals suffering from depression, anxiety and PTSD, distressed couples and distressed families.

Specify the strengths of attachment theory and science as a map to understanding of client problems and strengths and how attachment guides every session.

Utilise attachment science as a moment-to-moment guide to the shaping of potent systematic change in sessions.

Define the moves of the EFT Tango and how they differ across modalities.

Event Structure:

Day 1

Introduction

Learning Session 1: Identify the goals and stages of the EFT model across modalities.

Learning Activity 1: Interactive group discussion and breakout room

Learning Session 2: Describe the key tenets of attachment theory.

Learning Activity 2: Interactive group discussion and breakout room

Learning Session 3: Outline the core EFT interventions as they apply and differ in three modalities: individuals suffering from depression, anxiety and PTSD, distressed couples and distressed families.

Learning Activity 3: Interactive group discussion and breakout room

Conclusion and Q&A

Day 2

Introduction

Learning Session 3: Specify the strengths of attachment theory and science as a map to understanding of client problems and strengths and how attachment guides every session.

Learning Activity 3: Open discussion and Breakout room

Learning Session 4: Utilise attachment science as a moment-to-moment guide to the shaping of potent systematic change in sessions.

Learning Activity 4: Open discussion and Breakout room

Learning Session 5: Define the moves of the EFT Tango and how they differ across modalities.

Learning Activity 5: Open discussion and Breakout room

Conclusion and Q&A

AASW Credentials: FPS (MH)

Emotionally Focused Therapy sharpens practitioners’ ability to identify patterns, track triggers, understand links between emotions, thoughts and behaviour, and support clients to experience new felt responses and corrective emotional experiences. These are important underpinnings of many approaches on the FPS list. At the same time, EFT training will help practitioners formulate the larger relational cycles that maintain distress, conflict, withdrawal, and disconnection. The result is FPS work that is more attuned, targeted, and effective across individual, couple, and family settings, with both practical in-session strategies and a deeper map of what is driving the problem. This workshop will additionally help with working with emotional regulation, communication work, parent-focused interventions and provide new psycho-ed that can be shared with clients.

This Workshop is not recorded, however, you will have access to materials and resources on AASW Online Learning for 4 weeks after the completion of the workshop.

FPS: Skills Training will be incorporated into a section of this workshop under e. (iii and iv) of Medicare schedule https://www9.health.gov.au/mbs/fullDisplay.cfm?type=note&q=MN.7.4&qt=noteID&criteria=MN%2E7%2E4)

Please consider the AASW CPD Policy regarding FPS when logging your FPS hours manually: