Pricing

CEU Available Here

35% discount off the Regular Rate for active military or veterans. The discount is also given to therapists who work with under-resourced populations in a community mental health organization or similar not-for-profit organization and work in Arizona. Send an email to rachel@therapywithheart.com from your work or school email address and tell us how you qualify for this discount. A limited number of discounted registrations are available, and they will be offered in the order in which the emails are received. AzEFT offers additional student and diversity scholarships for Externship: https://www.azeft.com/scholarships.html

Dates & Event Address

9:00am - 6pm Arizona Time, lunch is 12:30 - 1:30pm

Fransiscan Renewal Center
5802 E Lincoln Dr, Scottsdale, AZ 85253

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    Arizona Externship 2025

    • September 10, 2025

    • September 11, 2025

    • September 12, 2025

In-Person Event

Fransiscan Renewal Center
5802 E Lincoln Dr, Scottsdale, AZ 85253

This is an official Externship, endorsed by the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) and brought to you by TRI EFT Alliant and Alliant International University.

Attending this Externship is the first step to being listed at the EFT website, where couples are going to find trained couple therapists. Attending this externship is also a step towards becoming a certified EFT therapist. For further details about the certification process please refer to Susan Johnson’s International Centre for Excellence in EFT (ICEEFT). In this Externship, you will learn to:

  • See couples distress from an attachment perspective.
  • Help partners reprocess the emotional responses that maintain couple distress.
  • Shape key new interactional and bonding events.
  • Overcome therapeutic impasses.


You will see a live demonstration session, a profound learning experience.


Trainer(s)

Rachel Thomas
Robin Williams Blake (Joining day 3)

LMFT

Rachel Thomas

Rachel Thomas, LMFT, has nearly 30 years of experience as a therapist and is the founder of Therapy With Heart, a thriving group practice in Scottsdale, Arizona. Specializing in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples, individuals, and families, Rachel is an EFT Certified Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer. Her passion lies in mentoring and supervising therapists both within her practice and throughout the Arizona EFT Community. Rachel has recently focused on delivering impactful training and presentations on topics such as EFT and Affairs, EFT Across Systems, Attachment-Based Suicide Prevention, EFT Supervision Reboot, and introductory EFT workshops. She provides ongoing mentorship and supervision to her team and EFT practitioners worldwide while continuing to offer therapy for couples, individuals, and adult families. She brings a passion and authenticity to her trainings that foster a fun and safe learning experience for clinicians at all developmental stages in their career. In addition to her clinical and training work, Rachel facilitates Hold Me Tight Couples Workshops and provides two-day Couples Intensives, creating opportunities for deep connection and transformation.

Joins Us Day 3

Registered Psychotherapist

Robin Williams Blake

Robin is a certified Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) trainer, supervisor, and therapist. Presently, Robin is a adjunct faculty member in the graduate program for Martin Luther University College (WLU) where is teaches the EFT Externship and Core Skills in the Spiritual Care and Psychotherapy program. He designed and taught the first EFT Core Skills equivalency course to be offered at a Canadian University with his colleague, ICEEFT supervisor Debbie Wang at WLU in 2023. In the past few years, Robin has taught EFT at York University in their social work program and was invited by Mount Sinai Hospital to speak at their level two trauma clinic. . Robin trains EFT for local centres and communities in Fredericton, Cambridge, Toronto, York Region, Edmonton and Saint John, NB and he co-trained at the Toronto Externship with Sue Johnson in October 2020-2021. As an international EFT trainer, Robin has taught in the US and UK as well as for Iran and Ukraine and he became a presenter for PESI in 2024 teaching EFCT. For the past 3 years, he has been a regular consultant for Hold Me Tight retreats organized by Canada Beyond the Blue a not-for-profit organization providing therapeutic services for police officers and their families. As a member of the ICEEFT certification team Robin has been certifying clinicians at both the certified therapist and supervisor levels for the past 4 years. Robin is a Founder and Director of the Toronto Centre for Emotionally Focused Therapy and has been a director for the Centre since 2005. Robin is a registered psychotherapist and has been in private practice in Toronto for 24 years where he sees individuals, couples and families and provides supervision for therapist working towards certification in EFT.

This is an in person event

We will at times break into smaller groups for discussion or role play led by experienced EFT therapists. 

Also, we will be showing video of actual client sessions.

General Objectives of the EFT Externship

  • To gain a clear understanding of the systemic concepts and basic experiential moves of an “Emotionally Focused Therapy” approach.
  • To hold an attachment view clients coping with their interpersonal dilemmas so you can conceptualize relationship distress and repair based on theories of attachment and emotion.
  • The focus of this training is on the general model of EFT as presented in the 2019 book, Attachment Theory In Practice, and how you can implement the model in couple and individual therapy sessions.
  • To provide the opportunity to develop skills in sharing, maintaining and engaging in an open and collaborative alliance with your clients.
  • To develop skillful use of the 5 moves of the basic macro-intervention “the EFT tango” in order to improve clients’ affect regulation, models of self and other, strategies for engaging with others and changing interactional patterns.
  • To develop ability to utilize systemic and experiential models of interventions applied as EFT micro interventions.
  • To participate in skills development to overcome common blocks and impasses across EFT therapy modalities so you can shape core corrective emotional experience that leads to constructive dependency and what we conceptualize as ‘secure attachment’. 
  • This training includes an overview of the entire model of Emotionally Focused Therapy including steps and stages, interventions, adult attachment theory, and application of EFT with couples and individuals. The externship is recommended for all types of mental health clinicians to counsel or want to cancel couples.

    This training is the prerequisite for all other EFT trainings.

Reference Materials for Study

  • Attachment Theory in Practice: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with Individuals, Couples, and Families
  • The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: Creating Connection” by Susan M. Johnson, 3nd Edition, 2019.
  • Becoming an Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist: The Workbook” by Susan M. Johnson, et al, 2005.


Daily Schedule

9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Arizona Time

60 minute lunch breaks each day. The training is Limited to 70 participants. Support from EFT practitioners to help you practice and learn in small groups.

Participation Requirements

Participants must be familiar with and abide by professional and legal confidentiality requirements regarding all client information shared in the training. Certification in EFT is offered by ICEEFT based on completion of all requirements and demonstrated competence in the model. Completion of training does not guarantee competence or certification. Enrollment in this training constitutes an agreement to hold harmless The San Diego Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy, the Training and Research Institute for Emotionally Focused Therapy (TRI-EFT), and all presenters and trainers from any and all claims, actions, and judgements, including all costs of defense and attorney’s fees incurred in defending against the same. I have read and agree to follow the terms for participation.

Confidentiality Agreement

I agree to keep confidential the personal identifying information of case material shared in the training. I agree to not record any part of this training in any format 

Cancellation Policy

You may cancel your registration anytime before August 1, 2025, a nonrefundable fee of $75 will be withheld from your refund for processing and administrative fees. Any cancellations after August 1, 2025 will incur a $150 non refundable fee. Email rachel@therapywithheart.com to cancel and request a refund.

Endorsed by Therapy Originator

Dr. Sue Johnson

Author, Clinical Psychologist, Researcher, Professor

Sue Johnson

Dr. Sue Johnson is an author, clinical psychologist, researcher, professor, popular presenter and speaker and a leading innovator in the field of couple therapy and adult attachment. Sue is the primary developer of Emotionally Focused Couples and Family Therapy (EFT), which has demonstrated its effectiveness in over 30 years of peer-reviewed clinical research.

Sue Johnson is founding Director of the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy and Distinguished Research Professor at Alliant University in San Diego, California, as well as Professor Emeritus, Clinical Psychology, at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

Dr. Johnson has received a variety of awards acknowledging her development of EFT and her significant contribution to the field of couple and family therapy and adult attachment. Sue has been appointed as a Member of the Order of Canada, the country’s highest civilian honor recognizing outstanding achievement, dedication to the community and service to Canada. In 2016, she was named Psychologist of the Year by APA, and has been honored by AAMFT for her Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Couple and Family Therapy.