The Hong Kong Catholic Marriage Advisory Council (www.cmac.org.hk) is a non-governmental organization officially incorporated in 1967. The aim of HKCMAC is to provide professional services for the promotion of happy marriages and responsible parenthood. The HKCMAC has been providing counseling service for individuals, couples and families for nearly 50 years. We are committed to promoting the well being of individuals, joyful and life-long marriages, happy families and responsible parenthood with professionalism. In recent decades HKCMAC has dedicated to providing high quality professional training to social workers and other practitioners to advance their counselling practice to serve clients with efficacy and effectiveness.

 

Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) is an empirically-supported, humanistic treatment that views emotions as centrally important in human functioning and therapeutic change. EFT views emotion as the fundamental datum of human experience. Emotion is fundamentally an innate and adaptive system that has evolved to help us survive and thrive. Emotions tell us what is important to us in a situation and thus act as a guide to what we need or want. This, in turn, helps us to figure out what actions are appropriate. EFT views emotion and cognition as inextricably intertwined and recognizes the significance of meaning making.

With the empathically attuned therapeutic relationship and the use of experiential methods, EFT focuses on helping people become aware of and express their emotions, learn to tolerate and regulate them, reflect on them to make sense of them and transform them. EFT systematically but flexibly helps clients become aware of and make productive use of their emotions. EFT is now recognized as evidence based treatments for depression, complex trauma, and for healing emotional injuries in couples. There is also growing empirical support for its effectiveness for treating anxiety, personality disorders, and eating disorders.

 

Goals

The main goal of the EFT Training at HKCMAC is to enhance clinical competence and professional development of social workers and clinical practitioners dedicated in working with individuals, couples, and families in Hong Kong. Through a series of EFT training the practitioners are facilitated to equip themselves with a solid grounding in theory and skills competence within the framework of EFT. The practitioners are helped to keep abreast of the latest development in EFT research, theory, and applications, so as to advance their efficacy and effectiveness in clinical practice. In addition HKCMAC continuously support the development of EFT practice in local context.

 

From the first EFT workshop with Dr. Leslie S. Greenberg

Dr. Leslie S. Greenberg is Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Psychology at York University in Toronto, Canada. Dr. Greenberg is the past Director of the York University Psychotherapy Research Clinic, and is the Director of Emotion-Focused Therapy Clinic. Dr. Greenberg is the major developer of an emotion-focused approach to therapy, and is a leading figure contributing to the development of EFT in Hong Kong.

The Emotion-Focused Therapy Training at HKCMAC started with the first 4-day EFT workshop as an in-service staff training conducted by Dr. Leslie Greenberg in January 2004. Afterwards, HKCMAC has been actively involving in organizing EFT training programs and workshops over a decade. We are grateful to Dr. Leslie Greenberg and a group of internationally renowned EFT trainers including Dr. Serine Warwar, Dr. Wanda Malcom, Dr. Rhonda Goldman, Dr. Alberta Pos, Dr. Robert Elliott, and Dr. Sandra Paivio for their enthusiasm and tremendous contribution to the EFT training in Hong Kong.

 

One-year Training Programs in Emotion-Focused Therapy since 2007

In co-operation with the Emotion-Focused Therapy Clinic of York University, HKCMAC has organized one-year training programs in Emotion- Focused Therapy since 2007. Dr. Leslie Greenberg has been the key trainer in the one-year EFT training programs with the faculty of Dr. Serine Warwar, Dr. Wanda Malcolm, Dr. Rhonda Goldman, and Dr. Alberta Pos over time. It has begun the 12th One-year Training Program in Emotion-Focused Therapy (2018-2019) beginning in April 2018.

 

The Training Program in Emotion-Focused Therapy for Individuals/Couples aims at equipping trainees with a solid grounding in the theory and clinical competence in working with individuals/couples within the framework of EFT. Throughout the course of the training program, the trainees are expected to :

 

• Build abilities in empathic attunement to client’s emotion processes

• Develop an understanding of the theoretical underpinnings, emotion theory and perspectives in doing emotion assessment and in facilitating emotional processing and changes in clients

• Develop conceptual and perceptual skills in addressing psychological issues of clients

• Acquire intervention frameworks and skills in the use of emotion-focused psychotherapeutic interventions with clients in local context

The one-year Training Programs in Emotion-Focused Therapy at HKCMAC have had a built-in competency advancement path in the program design. The competency advancement path in the Training Program includes a series of in-depth EFT training and supervision for 1) EFT Practitioner Certification, and 2) EFT Therapist Certification. The EFT Practitioner Certification involves an evaluation of the clinical practitioners using EFT approach to work with their clients and demonstrate moderate levels of competence in EFT theory and interventions. The Certified EFT Practitioners are recommended to receive further EFT training, supervision and practice so as to complete the EFT Therapist Certification in which the EFT therapist demonstrates substantial EFT competence.

 

Officially established in 2012 the Counselling and Training Centre has become the key service unit of HKCMAC in the provision of EFT training. The Counselling and Training Centre has been organizing EFT workshops for practitioners to keep abreast of EFT development and to enhance effectiveness of their clinical practice. It also provides EFT courses for different social service agencies in Hong Kong for staff training purposes.

 

2014 Conference on Emotional-Focused Therapy—Ten years in Hong Kong

The HKCMAC organized the 2014 Conference on Emotional-Focused Therapy: Ten years in Hong Kong held on 25-26 April 2014. The conference keynote speakers including Dr. Leslie Greenberg, Dr. Rhonda Goldman, Dr. Alberta Pos, Dr. Robert Elliott, Dr. Sandra Paivio. The 2014 EFT Conference provided a valuable platform for practitioners to keep abreast of the application of Emotion-Focused Therapy and to advance their clinical experience and expertise in working with different clienteles.

 

HKCMAC Counselling and Training Centre accredited as an Emotion-Focused Therapy Institute by the International Society for Emotion-Focused Therapy

Joining the International Society for Emotion Focused Therapy (http://www.iseft.org) in 2016 as an Institute Member, the HKCMAC Counselling and Training Centre provides EFT training with a variety of clinical focuses and at different levels of training in accordance with the “Minimum Training Standards for Individual Therapy Training Programs (2015)” and “Minimum Training Standards for Couples Therapy Training Programs (2017)”of ISEFT.

 

• Workshop on Introduction to Emotion-Focused Therapy (Individual Therapy)

• Workshop on Fundamentals of Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy (Couples Therapy)

• Advanced Workshops on Emotion-Focused Therapy for anxiety, depression, complex trauma, personality disorders, healing emotional injuries in couples, forgiveness, and EFT case formulation

• One-year Training Program in Emotion-Focused Therapy (ISEFT Level A: Basic EFT Training)

• Emotion-Focused Therapy Supervision (ISEFT Level B: Supervised Practice)

• Emotion-Focused Therapy Practitioner Certification

• Emotion-Focused Therapy Therapist Certification (ISEFT Level C: Certified EFT Therapist)

The Hong Kong Catholic Marriage Advisory Council Counselling and Training Centre
Address: Room 101, 1/F., Grand Millennium Plaza, Low Block, 181 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong
Phone: 2810 1104
Fax: 2523 3121
Email: [email protected]