Professional Development / Training Guidelines

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This section is for Peer Supporters and Clinicians (non-therapists). Please find below suggestions for professional development to strengthen your practice and delivery of EFFT theory and interventions followed by the Framework for EFFT Practice.

1. Didactic/experiential training (recommended six days) by certified EFFT trainers   

*Training options can include:  

    · attending a core or advanced EFFT training (repeat attendance can deepen the learning)   

    · observing a two-day EFFT caregiver workshop

    · attending other online trainings lead by an EFFT trainer - live or on-demand  

    · completing individual EFFT supervision

    · attending free "In My Experience" webinars on Mental Health Foundations 

    · viewing free recorded clinician videos on Mental Health Foundations

2. Completion of the following paper/pencil tasks:   

    a. Validation and Support Script-builder 

    b. Caregiver Validation and Support Fluency-Builder  

    c. Clinician Validation and Support Fluency-Builder  

    d. Clinician Traps Scale    

3. Facilitation of EFFT interventions from the list below. We encourage you to try as many as possible, with as many different parents/caregivers/families as possible, to acquire the skill, develop fluency and flexibility, and eventual discernment regarding application.

    a. Providing the conditions for caregivers to learn the Validation and Support framework using Didactic and Experiential Techniques (supported via the Script- Builder, the Script-Builder Record Form, the Caregiver Fluency Builder and the Skill Acquisition and Fluency Clinician Guide)

    b. Various Caregiver Block Intervention options:

1. Regulation of the Nervous System (with breath, movement, music, etc.) 
2. Practice to override default modes
3. Caregiver Traps Scale
4. Tree Metaphor
5. Animal Models 
6. Relationship Dimensions Tool 
7. Validation and Support 

*Please note that Caregiver Block Chair Work is restricted to the practice of psychotherapy

4. Engagement with the EFFT interventions from the list below. We encourage you to try as many as possible, on your own, with colleagues, and in supervision to increase awareness of the expression of clinician blocks, inhibit defensiveness, engage with the internal experience, and re-orient with compassion, care, structure, warmth, etc. We also encourage you to practice asking for help from colleagues with whom you feel psychologically safe.

a.  Various Clinician Block intervention options:

1. Regulation of the Nervous System (with breath, movement, music, etc.) 
2. Practice to override default modes
3. Clinician Traps Scale
4. Tree Metaphor
5. Animal Models 
6. Relationship Dimensions Tool 
7. Validation and Support 
8. Practices of Self-Inquiry (Clinician Domino Effect Intervention; Clinician Block Self-Directed Workbook ; Process of Emotional Self-Exploration)
9. Clinician Block Chair-work 

*Please note that Clinician Block Chair-Work is NOT restricted to the practice of psychotherapy

5. Directed supervision (recommended 10 hours or more) in individual or group format with a focus on core components of the model and facilitated by a certified EFFT supervisor    

6. Be guided by the following principles in the work you do with families and the EFFT Framework for Practice below:

• No-blame framework - toward clients, caregivers, and clinicians alike
• Anti-oppressive and relational lens - attending to power, context, and systemic factors as much as psychological
• Trans-diagnostic orientation - across presentations and diagnostic categories
• Family focus - of origin or chosen
• Caregivers as essential partners - active participants in the therapeutic process
• Community-embedded support - caregiver and community empowerment as clinical goals
• Transparency, collaboration, flexibility and meaning-making - shared understanding and responsivity as therapeutic tools
• Multi-modal theoretical grounding - emotional, behavioral, cognitive, relational, and somatic, including nervous system regulation
• Scaffolded skills training - structure, repetition, and playfulness as vehicles for change
• Not-if-but-how stance - obstacles to implementation shape how we proceed, not whether we do
• It can't be done vs I/we can't do it - resist determination of who can be helped or not, focus on our limitations (individual, organizational, systemic)
• Clinicians as equals and as humans - presence and genuine encounter in the therapeutic relationship; not knowing and making mistakes

Framework for EFFT Practice

1. Core Competencies

Core question: What must someone be able to do - internally and externally - to practice EFFT?

Definition: Core Competencies are the foundational skills, capacities, and ways of being required to practice EFFT with integrity, effectiveness, and safety. They describe what a practitioner must be able to do and embody, regardless of setting or role. In EFFT, this means supporting caregivers to develop skills across the behavioural, emotional, and relational domains - creating the conditions for skill acquisition, building fluency, and cultivating the discernment needed for thoughtful implementation - while also assessing and tending to psychological and systemic blocks as they arise. The underlying purpose is to help caregivers reclaim access to instincts that were disrupted by historical, intergenerational, institutional, persistent, and personal experiences, and to do the same for oneself as a clinician.

Key features

• Develop over time through training, reflection, supervision, and practice
• Apply across roles (peer support, clinician, therapist, supervisor, trainer)

Examples

• Capacity to support caregivers without blame, including when their patterns of caregiving have become unhelpful or entrenched
• Ability to foster safety, regulation, and alliance with caregivers, including those who present as resistant, disengaged, or impaired
• Ability to create the conditions for skill acquisition with respect to the intervention modules:
• Behavioral support - assisting loved ones in the interruption of symptoms and maladaptive behaviors and the increased engagement in health-promoting ones
• Emotional support - supporting loved ones to approach, process, and manage distress, making symptoms less necessary to cope
• Therapeutic apologies - facilitating healing and/or strengthening of the relationship in ways that reduce the weight of old pain, self-blame, and self-stigma
• Understanding of caregiver blocks - including love-based fears, self-blame, resentment, and helplessness - as adaptive responses to overwhelming circumstances and/or in terms of the systemic conceptualization of the expression of caregiver blocks
• Skill in identifying and addressing blocks - caregiver, clinician, and systemic - using EFFT-specific tools and techniques, including chair work if relevant
• Capacity for self-reflection, humility, and repair, with particular attention to clinician/organizational/systemic blocks and their potential impact on care 

2. Standards of Practice

Core question: What does responsible, ethical EFFT practice look like in action?

Definition: Standards of Practice articulate the minimum expectations and ethical commitments for applying EFFT in real-world contexts. They define how EFFT should be practiced to ensure consistency, safety, and alignment with its principles. EFFT is a lifespan approach that can be delivered across formats - with individuals, caregivers only, or whole families - and the standards below apply across these contexts. Importantly, caregiver participation does not require the loved one's involvement or consent, which creates unique responsibilities around transparency and care.

Key features

• Practice-oriented and observable
• Context-sensitive (individual, family, group, systems; intensive workshop or ongoing therapy)
• Grounded in ethics, anti-oppression, and no-blame values
• Supports clients, caregivers, and practitioners

Examples

• Informed consent as an ongoing process, in particular if engaging caregivers with content from childhood / family of origin (which is not required to practice EFFT)
• Clarity about delivery format and role - whether working with caregivers only, the whole family, or across separate clinicians - and transparency with all those involved
• Inclusion of caregivers in a manner that supports all those involved (in the same session, separate session, or with a separate practitioner)
• Attending to caregiver blocks as a standard and expected part of the work
• Attention to systemic and institutional factors, being careful not to frame caregivers as the source of the problem
• Use of supervision when working with high-risk dynamics, and access to support for clinician blocks - recognizing that clinicians are equally subject to fear, self-blame, and the pull toward unhelpful patterns

3. Fidelity to Principles

Core question: Is this work being done in the spirit and values of EFFT - even when it looks different?

Definition: Fidelity to Principles refers to practicing in alignment with the core values and theoretical foundations of EFFT, where tools, scripts, and techniques are always in service of the principles. EFFT has evolved significantly over time - including in direct response to psychology, psychiatry, and social work's history of parent-blaming - and its principles reflect a deep and unwavering belief in the healing power of families and systems. Fidelity means honouring that spirit: treating caregivers and clinicians as whole humans, locating difficulty in context and circumstance, and leveraging the latest in neuroscience and various theoretical frameworks (behavioural, emotional, somatic, relational, spiritual, etc.) to support lasting change.

Key features

• Values-driven, attending to the spirit of the work
• Allows flexibility, creativity, and cultural responsiveness
• Guards against mechanistic use of EFFT tools
• Centres humanity, emotion, and context