If you have already registered and have NOT YET received the welcome letter, please let workshops@mettarel.com know right away!
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WAEFT is excited to co-sponsor, together with SeattleEFT, this training presented by ICEEFT Certified Trainer Michael Barnett.
Psychotherapy with couples is both multi-layered and complex, often challenging the most skilled of therapists. In this fast-paced, technology-driven era that we live in, where true connection is often at a premium, substance use has
escalated to epidemic proportions. It is not uncommon for couple’s therapists to be confronted with the additional challenge of contending with a pernicious “third-party” that lurks within the shadows of distressed relationships: Addiction.
Although we have the superb modality, EFT, to help couples find their way to genuine, loving communion with one another, addictions present very significant obstacles to effectively working with couples that seek our services. In this two-
day experiential training, we will explore specific, and necessary ways to tailor EFT skills and interventions in order to better address the impact that addiction has on the couple therapy process.
This interactive workshop e will create a safe environment together to use role-plays, video clip demonstrations, and didactic material for clinical discussion and personal exploration.
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Learning Objectives:
Objectives will be to:
1. Describe the relational, and emotional function of addictive processes
2. Describe and identify addiction through the lens of attachment theory
3. Describe how addiction organizes relational systems the system
4. Describe how to integrate addictive behaviors into the negative interactional cycle
5. Identify the impact of addiction on emotional processing
6. Describe working within the window of tolerance to safely process emotion
7. Utilize EFT to break through addictive denial without shaming and confrontation
8. Utilize an attachment-based understanding of the impact of addiction on the brain and relationships.
9. Describe how to clinically alter the basic EFT assessment process to better work with addictive processes
10. Determine how to assess for contraindication when addiction is present in the couple process.
11. Determine personal biases that alter presence and presence when working with clients on the addictive continuum
12. Apply EFT specific prescriptive interventions to stabilize addictive processes in the couple therapy addiction
Bio
Michael Barnett, MA, Ed.S, LPC, LPCC is a licensed psychotherapist in both California and Georgia with over 30 years of clinical experience. Michael is an ICEEFT(International Center of Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy) certified supervisor and trainer in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT), and is the founder and director of the Atlanta Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy. Prior to his recent move to Southern California, he was a full partner at Pine River Psychotherapy Associates, a highly respected and visionary private practice in Atlanta since its inception in the 1970s. Michael is an active member of the National Association for Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, American Counseling Association, the California Professional Counselor’s Association, and the Licensed Professional Counselor's Association of Georgia, where he served on their board of directors for several years.
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The central focus and passion of Michael's work is both couple’s therapy, and training professionals who work with couples. His interest in couple's therapy began early in his career. Michael specifically noticed that effective and successful couple’s therapy healed not only the relationship, but in the process of therapy, the individuals within the relationship consistently evolved into the best and most authentic versions of themselves, healing emotional pain and historical wounds in the process. He concluded that effective couple therapy could facilitate the deepest levels of change for the individual as well as for the couple. Michael has taught EFT throughout the United States, and facilitates all of the modules for certification as an EFT therapist and supervisor. In addition to his clinical work, supervision and training, Michael conducted a research project that incorporated EFT into inpatient addiction treatment protocols at a leading alcohol and drug treatment center in Atlanta. Michael has been interviewed on multiple radio programs, he has been invited to address therapy associations and group practices as a consultant, and has led dozens of corporate leadership development programs throughout his career. Michael uses life experience, humor, clinical competence and compassion to present the EFT model to his audiences. He has been described by others as warm, knowledgeable and approachable person and therapist.
In his free time he enjoys meditation, exercise, spending time with his family and friends, playing guitar, and losing himself in the wonders of nature.
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*This course is eligible for 13 hours of CEUs for Masters Level Therapists. CEUs provided by SEATTLEEFT