Philadelphia Center for EFT

05/27/2026

Our next Chat with the Supervisors event is coming up on July 10th. This is a time to hang out with supervisors and supervisor candidates for an hour on an occasional Friday at lunch to chat about some interesting EFT topic.

We will meet on Zoom and have an informal conversation together and you are invited to eavesdrop! After our brief chat, we will open the floor for you to share your experience or ask questions. It will be informal, low key and FREE!

Please mark your calendars now to join us from 12 to 1 PM (ET) on:
July 10
Aug 7
Aug 28

For the Chat on July 10, we will talk about Move 3 of the Tango: Getting a Good Enactment. If you’d like to join us, RSVP here by July 9. We’ll send out the Zoom link on the morning of July 10.

SIGN UP VIA THE LINK IN THE COMMENTS.

05/26/2026

We want to share a really strong EFT conversation that we think many of you will appreciate; especially if you work with couples who feel stuck between longing for connection and protecting themselves from hurt.

In this discussion, Dr. Ting Liu joins Dr. Anabelle Bugatti to explore ambivalence through an EFT lens. This is something that almost every couples therapist encounters, whether it shows up as “I want closeness, but I’m terrified,” “I don’t know if I can trust again,” or even “I don’t know if I want to stay.”

This conversation doesn’t reduce ambivalence to resistance or indecision. It treats it as meaningful attachment communication. Often what looks like avoidance, withdrawal, criticism, or emotional confusion is actually a nervous system trying to manage fear, uncertainty, grief, shame, and longing all at once.

Some of the topics covered include:

- Working with emotional ambivalence in EFT
- Helping couples navigate uncertainty and disconnection
- Pursuer-withdrawer dynamics
- Attachment-based interventions when partners feel stuck between staying and leaving

For those of us doing this work clinically, conversations like this are important reminders that ambivalence is not the enemy of the process. Often, it is the process.

Definitely worth a listen.

In this powerful EFT training discussion, We Heart Therapy host (Anabelle Bugatti) Dr. Belle, PhD, LMFT/EFT Supervisor/Therapist sits down with Emotionally F...

05/22/2026

REGISTER TODAY:
Working With Le***an Couples: Special Issues Related to Attachment

(Presented by Robin Sesan, PhD., Certified EFT Therapist & Supervisor)

Being a well trained couples’ therapist is of course necessary to provide our couples with the best possible care. When working with le***an couples, this is also necessary, but not sufficient. Le***an couples may present unique challenges to therapists who lack the knowledge or sensitivity to address the intricacies associated with sexual minority stress, traumatic attachment histories, coming out experiences, internal and external homophobia, as well as the negative interactional cycles that can develop when two women are partnered.

In this workshop, Robin will discuss these issues, heightening our awareness of the specific needs and dynamics present in le***an couples, which may differ from those encountered in heterosexual relationships. Additionally, she will guide each of us in identifying areas of bias, often seen in acts of omission or lack of attunement, when working with le***an couples. It’s important to note that many of the concepts discussed will be applicable to all same-sex couples. There will be ample time for questions and answers to foster a deeper understanding of these critical topics.

When: Friday, June 5, 2026
Where: Live on Zoom
Time: 12-2 PM (Eastern)

Cost:
PCEFT Members: Free
Non-Members/Guests: $35

https://www.philadelphiacenterforeft.org/event/working-with-le***an-couples-special-issues-related-to-attachment/

04/27/2026

JOIN US IN SEPTEMBER FOR OUR NEXT EXTERNSHIP
If you’ve been circling Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)… reading about it, watching clips, maybe even trying to integrate pieces into your work...but it hasn’t quite landed yet…

This is the training that changes that.

The Philadelphia Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy Externship is a 4-day immersive experience designed to move EFT from theory into something you can actually use in the room. It’s not passive. It’s not abstract. It’s hands-on, experiential, and grounded in what actually happens between you and your clients.

You’ll learn how to:

Understand relationship distress through attachment and emotion, not just content
Track and work with patterns in real time
Use the EFT Tango in a way that’s fluid, not mechanical
Stay engaged, attuned, and effective when things get complex or stuck
This is the first step toward certification, but more importantly, it’s where therapists start to feel confident in the model, not just familiar with it.

If you’ve been wanting a framework that actually helps you go deeper—without getting lost in the weeds—this is it.

Dates: September 24-27, 2026
Location: The Retreat at St. Thomas (7020 Camp Hill Rd., Fort Washington, PA 19034)

Cost:
Early Bird Rate (until 8/24/26): $1350
Full Rate (after 8/24/26): $1550
CMH Clinician/Equity, Student Rate: $985

Register now: https://www.philadelphiacenterforeft.org/for-therapists/externship-program/

04/15/2026

Check out the latest issue of "The Attachment Brief," PCEFT's quarterly newsletter.

In this issue:

- Ruptures, Repair, and Resilience in Emotionally Focused Therapy by Purvi Parikh-Shah, PhD

- Navigating Connection: A Comparison of EFT and IFIO Couple Therapy by Lucy Raizman, LCSW, LMFT

- A Quick Thought: The Technique of "Being" by Roslyn Still, PhD, LPC

- PCEFT Supervisors-in-Training Interviews by Gretchen Mahoney

- Upcoming Training Opportunities

In Emotionally Focused Therapy, we conceptualize ruptures as inherent in the attachment fabric whether they occur between clients or with them. I want to explore the latter in the context of repair. As our therapeutic alliance is the foundation of safety for our clients, it's important to mend it wh...

04/11/2026

Working With Le***an Couples: Special Issues Related to Attachment

Presented by Robin Sesan, Ph.D., Certified EFT Therapist and Supervisor

June 5 @ 12:00 pm - 2:00 pm

PCEFT Members: Free
Non-members/Guests: $35

Being a well trained couples’ therapist is of course necessary to provide our couples with the best possible care. When working with le***an couples, this is also necessary, but not sufficient. Le***an couples may present unique challenges to therapists who lack the knowledge or sensitivity to address the intricacies associated with sexual minority stress, traumatic attachment histories, coming out experiences, internal and external homophobia, as well as the negative interactional cycles that can develop when two women are partnered.

In this workshop, Robin will discuss these issues, heightening our awareness of the specific needs and dynamics present in le***an couples, which may differ from those encountered in heterosexual relationships. Additionally, she will guide each of us in identifying areas of bias, often seen in acts of omission or lack of attunement, when working with le***an couples. It’s important to note that many of the concepts discussed will be applicable to all same-sex couples. There will be ample time for questions and answers to foster a deeper understanding of these critical topics.

Friday, June 5, 2026
Online via Zoom
12-2 PM ET

This is a non-CE event.

Register: https://www.philadelphiacenterforeft.org/event/working-with-le***an-couples-special-issues-related-to-attachment/

03/31/2026

JOIN US!

All the World’s a Stage: How to use EFIT to Unpack the Impact of Current Events in the Here and Now

April 10 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Presented by: Purvi Parikh-Shah, PhD, Certified EFT Therapist and Supervisor-in-Training

Friday, April 10, 2026
12-1 PM (ET)
Zoom

PCEFT Members: FREE
Non-Members/Guests: $35

As EFT therapists, we need a way to explicitly discuss race, war, ICE raids, artificial intelligence or climate crises with our clients. These issues are more than “content” because the microcosm of clients’ attachment distress unfolds within the macrocosm of the world. Hence, the impact of current events cycles into our clients’ present moment experience. In more than one EFIT (Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy) session in the past month, geopolitical events have presented as threats to Dr. Purvi Parikh-Shah’s clients’ relational spheres; you may have noticed a similar thing in your work. In this training, Purvi (Certified EFT & EFIT Therapist & Supervisor-in-Training) will model how she has used EFIT to apply an attachment lens to attune with her clients in their sociocultural distress. If you feel unsure of how to process your clients’ experience of a current event in a way that’s specific to them and true to EFT, please join this critical discussion.

https://www.philadelphiacenterforeft.org/event/all-the-worlds-a-stage-how-to-use-efit-to-unpack-the-impact-of-current-events-in-the-here-and-now/

03/25/2026

EARLY BIRD RATE EXTENDED 'TIL 4/10!
PCEFT Members get an even BIGGER discount!!

Breaking Up but Still Connecting: An EFT Approach to Healthier Breakups
(with Dr. Ting Liu, PhD, Certified EFT Trainer)

Not all couples who come to therapy want to save or fix their relationships. More importantly, breakups do not have to be traumatizing or detrimental; it also does not have to become the biggest failure in life. As couple therapists, we need to be able to help these couples break up with compassion, appreciation, dignity, clarity, and self-worth as they move through this painful and scary process.

This workshop will focus on two challenging issues in couple therapy: (1) how to help couples who are indecisive or with different goals whereas one wants to end and the other wants to save the relationship; (2) how to help couples go through three stages of EFT to end the relationship while maintaining some levels of connection. Methods of presentation will include didactic teaching, experiential exercise, video demonstration and discussion.'

When: April 24-25, 2026
Where: The Retreat at St. Thomas (7020 Camp Hill Rd., Fort Washington, PA, 19034)
Time: 9 AM - 4:30 PM (Eastern)

12 CEs available for successful completion of the training.

Cost:
>>>>> Early Bird (before 3/24/26): $575 > PCEFT Member Rate: $517

03/16/2026

Check out this month's blog post, "All the World's a Stage for EFT: Working with the Impact of Current Events in EFIT," by Purvi Parikh-Shah, PhD, EFCT & EFIT Supervisor-in-Training

We don’t practice EFT in a vacuum. The microcosm of our relationships with our clients unfold within the macrocosm of the world at large. Hence, the impact of geopolitical forces cycle into our clients’ attachment distress. In EFT we don’t explicitly discuss race, war, ICE raids, artificial in...

01/15/2026

Check out the first installment of our new quarterly newsletter, "The Attachment Brief." In this issue, we share a variety of short articles by PCEFT board members, Purvi Parikh-Shah, TJ Walsh, and Jill Knerr. We also introduce you to two of our "in-house" supervisors-in-training. Let us know what you think!

Purvi Parikh-Shah, PhD PCEFT Board Member In this regular blog offering I want to explore EFT questions, concerns, celebrations, and the self of the therapist.  On emerging from the holidays, I felt mixed. While I enjoyed the time away with my family, I felt tired and overwhelmed. Regardless of whe...