THE EFFECTS OF TRAINING IN EFT COUPLE THERAPY

Session 202--EFT Track

The Process of Learning EFT

Hanna Levenson, PhD

Mira Svatovic, MA &

Michelle Montagno, MA

There are no conclusive data on what makes psychotherapy training effective despite three decades of research on the topic. Even less is known about training in EFT.

What are the Short-Term and Long-Term Effects of Taking the EFT Externship

FOCUS FOR THE STUDIES

We looked at professional and personal correlates of EFT training.

FOCUS (con’t)

Professional EFT information learned EFT skills learned

FOCUS (con’t)

Personal--because EFT is an attachment-based, emotionally-focused, and nonjudgmental model, we looked at therapist’s: Attachment style Emotional processing Self-compassion

EFT EXTERNSHIP

Goals of training--learning to Understand partner distress from an

attachment perspective Help partners reprocess emotional

responses Shape new interactions/bonding events Overcome therapeutic impasses

PROCEDURES FOR STUDY 1

Externships in Salt Lake City San Francisco Houston Los Angeles Ottawa

PROCEDURES (con’t)

110 attendees took measures morning of Day 1 (Pre-training) & afternoon of Day 4 (Post-training)

76 attendees with complete data

PROCEDURES (cont)

FOLLOW-UP -- STUDY 2

Participants mailed measures 8 months (on average) after Externship.

49% sent back measures N = 29 attendees with complete data

MEASURES DEMOGRAPHIC QUESTIONNAIRE

Age Gender Relationship Status Theoretical Orientation How long practicing Degree

MEASURES (con’t)

EFT KNOWLEDGE AND COMPETENCY SCALE (EFT-KACS)

Rate yourself (1-7) on how knowledgeable and competent you are on 12 items describing EFT skills

“Creating safety in session and maintaining positive alliance.”

“Using enactments therapeutically.”

MEASURES (con’t)

EXPERIENCES IN CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS (Fraley et al., 2000)

Measures romantic attachment anxiety and avoidance

“I am afraid I will lose my partner’s love.”“I don’t feel comfortable opening up.”

MEASURES (con’t)

SELF-COMPASSION SCALE (Neff, 2003)

Measures self-kindness, common humanity, mindfulness

“I’m tolerant of my own flaws and inadequacies.”“When times are tough, I tend to be tough on myself.”

MEASURES (con’t)

EMOTIONAL PROCESSING INVENTORY (Reid & Harper, 2008)

Measures ability to identify, communicate, & regulate feelings.

“I choose to keep my feelings private.”

“I feel flooded and overwhelmed by my emotions.”

MEASURES (con’t)

OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS

Qualitative and quantitative data on personal relationships with self and others.

“EFT training has changed the way I approach romantic relationships.”

AVERAGE PARTICIPANT

47 years old Caucasian woman Partnered In practice almost 13 years MFT Integrative orientation

AVERAGE PARTICIPANT

Over 90% had read at least 1 EFT book Two-thirds had seen at least 1 EFT

video More securely attached than a national

sample

PRELIMINARY ANALYSES

Factor analysis of EFT-KACS--Three factors:

Alliance (2 Items) Knowledge (10 items) Competency (10 items)

PRELIMINARY ANALYSES

No effects for training:

training siteagegendereducation

.

FINDINGS

Study 1Mira Svatovic

Changes with Training

“This has certainly given me a map- when I work with couples I’ll have a sense of where we are going and how.”

-EFT Externship Participant

“Emotion is an area I naturally tune into but the training helped me to understand how to better heighten and use emotion as a process in therapy.”

-EFT Externship Participant

“I will work hard to slow things down, try even harder than I do now to stay out of the content and focus on process.”

-EFT Externship Participant

Self-Compassion

Participants entered the training with mid-range levels of self-compassion with participant’s average score being 3.4 on a 5 point scale.

Knowledge/Competence and Self-Compassion

There were no direct changes in Self-Compassion scores related to training.

Emotional Processing

Participants entered the training with moderately high levels on emotional processing with participant’s average score being 3.9 on a 5 point scale at pretest.

Competence and Emotional Processing

As participants’ competence increased they became more open to processing their emotions.

Emotional Processing and Self Compassion

And as their openness to feelings increased, they became more self compassionate.

“I understand much better why I am so deeply affected by things that happen in my relationship. I feel less inclined to be harsh with myself.”

-EFT Externship Participant

Long-Term Effects of Training Michelle Montagno

THE FOLLOW-UP- STUDY 2

Average of 8 months post externship N = 29

FOLLOW-UP SAMPLE

FOLLOW-UP RESULTS

ATTACHMENT

ATTACHMENT FINDINGS

The more avoidant someone was at the beginning of the externship, the less they were personally affected by the training at follow-up (r = -.43, p < .03).

No significant findings regarding anxious attachment.

EFFECT ON CLINICIANS’ PERSONAL LIVES

Participants rated the greatest impact of training was on:

their romantic relationships understanding of their life experiences relationships with others

EFFECT ON ROMANTIC RELATIONSHIPS

“I have a model now from which I not only see other romantic relationships, but also my own.”

UNDERSTANDING LIFE EXPERIENCES

“EFT has improved my understanding of my past relationships and relationship history.”

RELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHERS

“EFT has helped me link my own internal dynamics to an understanding of my early attachment experiences. These understandings have helped me in my marriage and other relationships.”

CLINICIANS MOST PERSONALLY EFFECTED

Older participants Those who learned the most in the

externship

CONCLUSIONS

Our study suggests that the EFT externship creates positive and enduring changes in therapists’ professional and personal lives.

Future work is needed to demonstrate the clinical relevancy of these findings.

Thank You!