Emotionally Focused Therapy

New Directions in Couple Therapy: focusing on the “heart of the matter”

An open lecture by:
Kyriaki Polychroni, MA, CGP, ECP, MFT
Certified EFT Therapist/Supervisor and Trainer (ICEEFT)

When: Friday, 28 May, 17:30-20:30

Where: Online via Zoom

Organized by: The Graduate Master Class Series, School of Graduate and Professional Education


Lecture Description

In recent years, fascinating advances in brain science and adult attachment have verified that relationships are at the core of human experience – “we are wired to connect”. Partners neurobiologically interconnect with a speed and intricacy far beyond what psychotherapists once imagined: one partner’s stance easily triggers the other’s amygdala and instantaneously effects their ability to grasp each other’s inner world. When couples come to therapy, their yearnings for connection are often buried under resentments, disappointments and power struggles.

The task of the couple therapist is to help partners get beneath their defensiveness and recreate emotional safety and satisfaction in their relationship by focusing on the ‘heart of the matter’: on emotions and their interpersonal impact.

This presentation will briefly outline Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), a model that operationalizes the principles of attachment science using non-pathologizing experiential techniques and relational systems interventions to restructure couples’ repetitive dysfunctional interactional cycles and to recreate a secure bond. EFT is today the gold standard for empirically validated intervention in the field of couple therapy world-wide.

After a brief outline of the model, a live simulation of therapy will be conducted by the speaker with volunteers from the participants.

 

Kyriaki Polychroni

Kyriaki Protopsalti-Polychroni

Kyriaki Protopsalti–Polychroni, MA, CGP, EAP, MFT, is a Psychologist, Marriage and Family Psychotherapist and Trainer. She is specialized in Attachment and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and is Internationally Certified as a Couple Therapist, Supervisor and Trainer (ICEEFT).

She is the Founder and Director of the EFT Greek Network and holds a long-standing position on the Scientific Council and Faculty at the Athenian Institute of Anthropos –the first center to practice family therapy in Europe. For several years now, she trainsand supervises professionals in Couple and Family Therapy throughout Greece, Europe and in Iran.

Kyriaki is Past President of the European Family Therapy Association – EFTA (2010- 2013) and a member of the Association since its early founding. She has played a major role in the networking and mutual learning of Family Therapy Trainers in Europe, and in 2016 was given an Award for her Outstanding Contribution to Family Therapists in Europe and was appointed Honorary President of the EFTA Chamber of Training Institutes (EFTA-TIC). She was recently selected as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Center for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT).

Kyriaki is a Member of the American Family Therapy Academy (AFTA). Former Vice-President of the national branch of the European Association of Psychotherapists (E.A.P.). Founding Member of the Hellenic Association of Systemic Therapy (ELESYTH). Founding Member of the American National Registry of Certified Group Psychotherapists (C.G.P.) and a Clinical Member of the American Group Psychotherapy Association (A.G.P.A.).