Training in
Emotion Focused Therapy
Emotion-Focused Therapy training is delivered by the Emotion-Focused Therapy Institute of England, based within the Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology at Canterbury Christ Church University. Our programmes are accredited by the International Society for Emotion-Focused Therapy (isEFT), founded to promote EFT worldwide and to support a global community of trainers, supervisors, and therapists.
As Director and Lead Trainer of the Institute, I oversee all training programmes.
Explore and book our upcoming courses below, or get in touch to discuss your training needs, including bespoke CPD workshops.
This intensive four-day, in-person training provides a thorough introduction to the theory and practice of Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT). The programme offers a strong foundation in both the theoretical model and the practical application of core EFT tasks.
The training is highly experiential, with a focus on helping clients access, regulate, and transform emotion, especially ‘stuck’ or maladaptive emotional states.
Key Learning Aims.
Teaching Approach.
Training is delivered in an interactive and supportive format, combining:
Participants consistently reflect on the warm, inclusive atmosphere and how quickly the group bonds. We foster a space where therapists feel safe to take emotional risks, practise new techniques, and reflect openly on their learning.
By the end of the training, you’ll be equipped to begin integrating EFT tasks and principles into your current therapeutic work.
Designed for therapists who want to work more directly with emotion, the training is suitable for anybody with professional training and accreditation as a practitioner in some form of therapy who is looking to add to their clinical practice. It will particularly appeal to people who are interested in finding new ways to work with emotion or in developing experiential practice skills.
This Core Skills (Level 1) training equips clinicians with new evidence-based single session interventions that can be easily integrated into existing clinical practice regardless of previous theoretical orientation.
This training is led by Dr Anna Oldershaw (accredited International Trainer with the International Society of Emotion Focused Therapy) and co-facilitated by Amy Peach (EFT supervisor-in-training).
Our 2025 Core Skills training is now FULLY BOOKED!
We’d love you to join our 2026 cohort! Dates for the next in-person training at the Salomons Institute for Applied Psychology in Tunbridge Wells will be released soon. In the meantime, express interest and join our mailing list
This intensive four-day course builds on your EFT Level 1 training, supporting the continued development of your skills in individual emotion-focused therapy. Through a mix of brief lectures, video demonstrations, case discussions, and in-depth skills practice—as both therapist and client in small, trainer-supervised groups—you’ll deepen your confidence and fluency with the model.
With a strong emphasis on empathy, presence, tracking, and attunement, this training focuses on:
Case formulation of complex emotional processes, including micro-markers
Advanced variants of chairwork
Working with self-interruption and symptomatic processes
Holding vulnerability and self-soothing
Advanced emotion assessment and emotional productivity
You’ll revisit the steps of the model and the stages of key tasks, with dedicated time to explore EFT applications for depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.
Level 2 consolidates your existing knowledge and equips you with the advanced tools needed to navigate more complex clinical presentations with confidence and compassion.
Advanced Skills (Level 2) is suitable for anybody who has completed Core Skills (Level 1) training anywhere in the world who wants to deepen their EFT knowledge and competence as well as widen their practice to new skills and tasks.
For those interested in certification as an Emotion Focused Therapist, completion of Advanced Skills (Level 2) is a core component of the accreditation pathway, following on from Core Skills (Level 1).
Attendees to this training will benefit from its delivery by two experienced trainers both accredited with the International Society of Emotion Focused Therapy (isEFT) – Dr Anna Oldershaw from the Emotion Focused Therapy Institute of England and Dr Christina Michael from the Cyprus Institute for Emotion Focused Therapy.
This workshop is delivered over four full-day sessions. It is delivered via online video platform.
Supervised practice for accreditation as an Emotion Focused Therapist with the International Society of Emotion Focused Therapy (isEFT) can be obtained in either individual or group setting.
A popular option is our Emotion-Focused Therapy Group Supervision Series run in collaboration with the Emotion Focused Therapy Institute of Cyprus. It is designed for counsellors and psychotherapists who have completed Level Two EFT training and are either working toward accreditation or seeking to deepen their skills through supervised practice. Completion of the Level 3 Supervision series leads to fulfilment of Level A with isEFT (‘Completion of Basic EFT Training’).
This ten month group programme involves:
Our Emotion-Focused Therapy Level 3 Supervision Series is suitable for anyone who has completed a minimum of Core Skills (Level 1) and Advanced Skills (Level 2) training.
For those interested in certification as an Emotion Focused Therapist, completion of Supervised Practice (Level 3) is a core component of the accreditation pathway.
In addition to the supervision series, individual supervision or supervision for teams is also available and also counts towards accreditation. Contact us if you are interested in supervision outside of our supervision series.
The Emotion-Focused Therapy Level 3 Supervision Series runs for 10 sessions from January to October each year in monthly online video sessions, each lasting two hours.
Our 2025 supervision series is fully booked and underway. Dates vary slightly each year and dates for 2026 will be provided in the autumn of 2025.
In our complex and increasingly polarised world, there are many forms of marginalisation that can result in people experiencing emotional injuries due to feeling marginalised, for example based on gender, skin colour, sexual orientation or other identities.
In this two-part experiential masterclass, three diverse Emotion-Focused therapists offer an exciting overview of an emerging body of cutting-edge Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) theory and practice on work with clients who have experiences of marginalisation.
This workshop is tailored for mental health professionals from any training background who want to learn approaches to sensitively and effectively respond to the hurt experienced by marginalised individuals.
No prior experience in Emotion Focused Therapy is required.
This workshop is delivered over two half-day sessions via online video platform
This training offers an in-depth exploration of the nature of complex trauma and the pivotal role emotional processes play in the development of psychological disturbance. Participants will gain a solid understanding of the Emotion-Focused Therapy for Trauma (EFTT) model and how it addresses core features of trauma-related disturbance.
You’ll learn through numerous video demonstrations of real EFTT sessions that highlight key treatment principles and interventions.
Practical training will focus on EFTT interventions specifically adapted to the needs of clients with complex trauma—such as reducing fear, avoidance, and shame; engaging in memory work and emotional reprocessing; and working with trauma material using alternatives to traditional chair work. These interventions will be taught in the context of the various phases of EFTT treatment.
This two-day training is geared toward practicing and qualified therapists with a basic knowledge of emotion-focused therapy.
Two Day Workshop Online.
To be announced soon for 2026.
To be announced soon
Empathy is consistently shown to be a strong predictor of therapeutic outcome and is core to any effective therapeutic relationship. It is thus an essential part of clinical practice. This Advanced Empathy training focuses on further developing therapist empathic attunement and resonance. It seeks to help clinicians to hone and maximise their existing empathy skills enabling them to get the most from this in their clinical practice and their therapeutic relationships.
Developed within the field of Emotion Focused Therapy, and drawing on a range of social neuroscience and emotion theory, this training covers core principles of empathy, embodied experience, deepening of emotion, and effective and efficient guiding of client experiencing. It aims to build and improve empathy skills including effective communication of empathy and empathic presence and how to support emotional deepening.
Using an experiential and interactive format you will engage in short teaching sessions, video examples, skills practise and small group exercises.
Key Learning Aims.
Open to all qualified therapists and students regardless of main therapeutic practice. It may be particularly of interest to person-centred, psychodynamic, CBT, ACT, and related backgrounds and to therapists who have attended any training in EFT.
This is a highly recommended training component for those seeking accreditation as an Emotion Focused Therapist.
This workshop is designed and delivered by Anna Oldershaw
This training is delivered via online video platform.
Our next Advanced Empathy training will be announced soon. Express interest now to be informed of our next training dates as soon as they are available.
We offer in-house CPD workshops for clinical services, with particular relevance for NHS settings where Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) is recommended – such as in Person-Centred Experiential Counselling for Depression (PCE-CfD), a NICE-approved intervention within NHS Talking Therapies.
EFT is a core component of PCE-CfD, and many clinicians have found EFT tasks especially helpful in their work. In response to requests for ongoing training, we’ve developed a series of well-received online one-day workshops that have been running successfully for over two years.
100% of attendees have said they would recommend our workshops to colleagues. Each workshop is designed to build confidence and competence in using specific EFT tasks (e.g. two-chair work with an inner critic) and content aligns with the key required competencies of a team, such as BACP’s National Curriculum for PCE-CfD
What’s included in your training:
Bespoke training packages are available for both NHS and private services for those looking to build skills and confidence in Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) or the SPEAKS intervention. All training is delivered by our accredited and experienced team, and each session is tailored to suit the specific needs and goals of your service; whether just starting out or expanding existing practice.
CPD and Bespoke EFT workshops are designed and delivered by Anna Oldershaw after exploration of your team’s learning needs. I’m happy to offer a free initial consultation to discuss your goals and explore how I can support you and your Team’s professional development.
These workshops are typically one-day in duration and delivered via online video platform.
Dates are by arrangement with each service and can be flexible to meet your needs.
Bookings are now open for bespoke workshops in 2026. Please note, a limited number of CPD workshops can be offered each year, and early booking is recommended.
Workshops are £1100 per day for the whole team, including bespoke training materials and workbooks
Emotion Focused Therapy training is booked through the Emotion Focused Therapy Institute of England, whereas SPEAKS training is booked directly through me. Please follow the booking link that relates to the subject and level of the training you are interested in. Or Contact Me if you are unsure.
Join our mailing list to be kept updated on all our upcoming training events. If there is a particular training you are keen to attend then email me and let me know! We sometimes have extra capacity to run additional events if we have enough interest.
Emotion Focused Therapy accreditation involves a taught component and supervised practice. The Level 1 (core skills), level 2 (advanced skills) and advanced empathy are the required taught components for people seeking to be an accredited EFT therapist. Once you have completed the taught components, the level you are trained to depends on how much supervised practice you decide to complete, and whether you would like to submit tapes of your practice to be rated. The International Society for Emotion Focused Therapy sets out on its website the different levels and what is required to reach that level, all the way through to becoming a certified trainer. You can find it here.
Training is delivered online or in person. When training is in person, it runs out of the Emotion Focused Therapy Institute England, based at the Salomons Institute of Applied Psychology, Canterbury Christ Church University in central Tunbridge Wells. Click here for a map showing accommodation nearby.