Emotionally Focused Therapy for Individuals (EFIT): Leveraging Attachment Theory

This is a 6-hour On-Demand Webinar led by Dr. Leanne Campbell that was originally broadcast live on Tuesday, November 2, and Tuesday, November 9, 2021. All registrants receive unlimited access to the recording for 365 days.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) has evolved over the last two decades. It has revolutionized couples therapy with practical protocols for assessment, intervention, and treatment based on attachment theory. Now, EFT expert Dr. Leanne Campbell introduces the transformative power of working with attachment patterns while counselling individuals.

Emotionally Focused Therapy for Individuals (EFIT) integrates experiential and systemic interventions. It creates corrective emotional experiences to expand your clients’ sense of self and interpersonal repertoire. Sequences such as the EFT Tango will help transform models of self, affect regulation, and ways of engaging with the world.

In EFIT, clients gradually move into the willingness to be vulnerable, responsive, and fully engaged with life. In other words, they start to embrace the characteristics of secure attachment. Through emotionally transformative dialogues, EFIT restructures your client’s interaction with you (the therapist) with representations of attachment figures or aspects of self. It is a science-based approach that is helpful in dealing with disorders such as depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

This webinar outlines the theory and practice of Emotionally Focused Therapy for Individuals using Sue’s book Attachment Theory in Practice for structure. You’ll learn about core models of health and dysfunction from an attachment perspective, including how growth and adaptation can be blocked. By focusing on emotion and creating a safe haven and secure base alliance, you’ll also learn to stay with present processes to shape key change events. Lecture and discussion in this webinar will be accompanied by the viewing of EFIT sessions and experiential exercises.

Note: This training was originally co-presented with Sue Johnson and has been modified to include only Leanne Campbell. This training does contain recorded sessions with Sue Johnson.

  • Explain the laws of attachment that structure the development of personality and their significance for clinical intervention
  • Identify, assess and use internal cycles of affect regulation and habitual ways of dancing with others that relate to presenting problems and emotional disorders.
  • Discuss and apply the stages of EFIT
  • Identify change events and reshape defining internal dramas 
  • Implement the basics of the EFT Tango and other interventions
  • Discuss and explain who is EFT best suited for.

Leanne CampbellDr. Campbell received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Ottawa in 1996. Her doctoral dissertation, which was aimed at understanding gender differences in the association between stress, anxiety, and depression among adolescents, was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award.

Dr. Campbell has worked in private practice in the Nanaimo area since 1996. She utilizes evidence-based cognitive-behavioural, educational, emotionally-focused, and experiential therapeutic interventions to assist clients in overcoming difficulties in areas such as depression, anxiety, trauma, grief, and marital/family distress. In the area of anxiety, she is particularly interested in assessing and treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and has received extensive training in this area. She also trains and supervises other mental health professionals in clinical psychology generally and in EFT (i.e., Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples and families) in particular. She is a certified EFT trainer and supervisor. In terms of forensic work, she has experience in providing assessments and treatment of injured workers and in cases of personal injury. She also has extensive experience and interest in working with law enforcement agencies, as well as Canadian Forces members and veterans.

Dr. Campbell has 10 years experience teaching university courses in the areas of adult and developmental clinical psychology and psychological distress. She has served as a reviewer for various scholarly journals in the area of psychology and publishing companies have sought her consultation and review of primary research articles and textbooks in the area of abnormal/clinical psychology. During the course of her studies and tenure as a Professor of Psychology she has been involved in numerous studies aimed at understanding depression, stress, and anxiety across the life span. She has numerous scholarly publications in these areas and has presented her work at professional conferences and in the community.

Day 1

TimeTopic Covered
1:00 pm –  2:20 pm
  • The attachment perspective on personality – health and dysfunction.  
  • Outlining the EFIT model – Stages, Goals, Fit with Attachment Science
2:20 pm – 2:30 pm 
  • Break
2:30 pm – 3:45 pm 
  • The Tango in EFIT sessions: Demonstration of EFIT, viewing and discussion of video clip of EFIT in session
3:45 pm – 4:15 pm 
  • Discussion, Q & A period

Day 2

TimeTopic Covered
1:00 pm –  2:20 pm

The Stages of EFIT

  • Stage 1: Assessment, Emotional Disorders
    • Clinical Exercise – Video Viewing
2:20 pm – 2:30 pm 
  • Break
2:30 pm – 3:45 pm 
  • Stage 2: Change Events: Deepening Emotion, Reshaping defining inner dramas
    • EFIT demonstration, presentation of video clip, Exercise  – discussion
3:45 pm – 4:15 pm 
  • Q & A

This training offers 6 hours of direct contact (not counting breaks or lunch). It is the participant’s responsibility to check with their individual state boards/regulatory body to verify CE requirements for their license to practice.

For Attendees of the On-Demand Recorded Version

You will need to complete a Post-Webinar Quiz with a pass of at least 80% in order to verify your attendance.


For US Participants

Instructions on how to obtain your Certificate of Attendance will be distributed after you pass the Post-Webinar Quiz following the On-Demand recorded version of the webinar.

Get details about CE credits for US participants


For Canadian and Non-US International Participants

Upon fulfillment of the above requirements, Canadian and non-US international participants will be issued a Certificate of Participation that includes:

  • Name of participant
  • Title of training
  • Name of presenter plus their credentials
  • Number of hours of training
  • Date of training
  • Confirmation that you have passed a quiz with at least an 80% grade to verify your attendance

Please check carefully with your regulatory body/organization that this certificate is sufficient proof for you to claim CE credits.

Get details about CE credits for Canadian and non-US international participants

Who Should Attend

  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Clinical and Counselling Psychologists
  • Psychiatric Social Workers
  • Pastoral Counsellors
  • Psychotherapists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Physicians
  • Nurse Practitioners
  • Occupational Therapists
  • Counsellors
  • Graduate Students in accredited programs in the above fields
  • Case Managers
  • Licensed Professional Counsellors
  • All other professionals who would like to develop, update or expand their skills and knowledge in mental health practices