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:

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:

• 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
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