Emotion Focused Skills Training for Parents (EFST) - Level A – 4 day workshop for clinicians

Online ,

The training of EFST clinicians is practically oriented and experience-based, which means that participants learn specific skills in how to counsel parents and give parent workshops.

Booking

Who is this EFST training for?

Any health care workers who works clinically with children or who counsels parents with children who are struggling.

What is a training in Emotion Focused Skills Training for Parents?

In a two day work shop, parents get the tools they need to help their children in their recovery from mental health problems. EFST is delivered also as individual parent counselling and in a group therapy format.

This training gives a complete overview of the theory, practice, and research of an emotion-centered, humanistic approach to supporting the parents of individuals who struggle with any mental health challenge. Emotion Focused Skills Training for Parents (EFST) conveys an unyielding belief in parents’ motivation and ability to heal the parent-child relationship and help their child (young, adolescent, or adult child) through their struggles. Drawing on the most current understanding of emotions and human development, the model clearly outlines a central role for parents in treating and preventing mental health difficulties in their families. It is a cost-efficient approach with up to 40 parents in one workshop and it's also evidence based.

The training of EFST clinicians is practically oriented and experience-based, which means that participants learn specific skills in how to counsel parents and give parent workshops. You are invited to do exercises where you work on your personal emotional and relational experiences.

What do I learn?

1. You will learn how to give a 2-day parent workshop in EFST (in person or online)

The first two days of this 4-day training is conducted as a standard parent workshop, where we encourage participants to work on their relationship with their own children. You don’t have to be a parent to attend this training. If you don't have children, you work with other important close relationships, such as a partner, sibling, close friend or colleague. The first part of the training is conducted as a standard parenting course, for the participants to gain experience of what it is like to work with their own close relationships, as we require of parents when we as therapists and clinicians do workshops and supervise in this method. In the first two days the participants learn about competitive motivation and feeling traps, what emotions are and how they work, as well as the three skills: validation, boundaries and relationship repair (apology).

Bring your partner or co-parent to the first 2 days of training!

Because the first two days of training is basically a parent work shop, we invite you to bring your partner or co-parent to the first two days of training. In this way your family can benefit even more from EFST. You also get the opportunity to know what it’s like to join with your partner. If possible, we recommend the two of you are located in the same room – for best practice in the dyads. If you are not able to sit together, the dyads will be online.

2. You will learn how to do EFST parent counseling with one or both parents in the room.

On the last two days of the training participants learn the specific tasks of EFST chair-work. In this intervention the parent has a conversation with their imaginary child in an empty chair or a part of themselves. This fuels the emotion, increases the level of experience and gives words and meaning to difficult feelings in challenging situations. EFST has five different chair works. Three where the parent practices different skills: validation, boundaries and apology. Two additional on different self-self-processes: Feeling traps in parents and in the clinicians.

Participants practice being both the caregiver and the councellor in order to learn how to work with emotions in families, and to learn the chair work interventions. The participants also work with their own therapist material. It is painful to go into our own difficult emotions, especially around our parenting and our children. As parents we feel guilt, we are worried sick, or we just don’t know what to do – sometimes. All the same and actually because of it, this is essential in learning EFST. We can’t practice working with emotions without emotions present in the room. The exercises and experiential work are the uniqueness of EFST training. And the good thing is, if you have children or loved ones who struggle with mental health issues or is going through a difficult time – taking this training will have a fair chance of helping them and helping you. The research on EFST suggest that these interventions not only reduce children’s symptoms of mental health difficulties - it also happens in the parent. The trainer will facilitate an empathetic and caring group environment.

You will get all the material you need to do parent work shops and individual counseling with instructions.

Information:

Dates:

1st session: 3rd March 2026 - 4th March 2026
2nd session: 21st April 2026 - 22nd April 2026

Time:

1st session: 09.00 - 17.00 Norwegian time (09.00AM – 05.00PM CEST)
2nd session: 09.00 - 16.00 Norwegian time (09.00AM – 04.00PM CEST)

Price: 10.000 NOK

Place: Online (Zoom)

Registration Level A: Emotion Focused Skills Training for Parents (EFST) - Level A – 4 day workshop for clinicians

For participants who want to attend the first session only (parent workshop): First session only (parent workshop)

Who’s training me?

For the first two days Bente and Hanna are your trainers

Bente Austbø is a fabulous child psychologist trained in EFST and EFT, mother of one teenager and works at the Institute of Psychological Counseling/The Norwegian Institute of Emotion-Focused Therapy . She is also the co-author of the EFST textbook. And she is really funny, and empathic and she is the head of the EFST department at The Norwegian Institute of Emotion Focused Skills Training. A skilled and experienced trainer and supervisor.

Hanna Aardal is a psychologist, specialist in clinical psychology with a focus on children and adolescents, and recently completed her PhD on treatment of depression using emotion focused and cognitive therapy. She is also a mother of an adult child. She has advanced training in emotion focused individual, family, and couple therapy, and extensive experience working with children, adolescents, and parents. Hanna is an approved EFT supervisor, EFST trainer and supervisor, and author. She is warm, dedicated, and brings both knowledge and humor into her teaching. You will feel well taken care of when she is your trainer and supervisor.

For the last two days Anne Hilde and Vanja are your trainers

Anne Hilde Vassbø Hagen is a psychologist, author, mother of three, and filmmaker who produced the popular educational film series Alfred & Shadow. She is head of the Institute of Psychological Counseling, Inc., in Norway, and the director of The Norwegian Institute of Emotion-Focused Therapy. She has written several books in Norwegian about emotions. She is co-author of two English books; Emotion-Focused Skills Training for Parents: A Guide for Clinicians and Angry kids, Angry Parents – Understanding and Working with Anger in Your Family. She is an experienced trainer, speaker, and therapist in emotion focused therapy and emotion focused skills training for parents and is also trained in emotion focused couple’s therapy. She’s funny, warm and knows the model to the fingertips. She will take good care of you – AND she’s awesome at making sure you get enough brakes through the day. Both an EFST and EFT trainer.

Vanja Hjelmseth is a psychologist, author, and mother of two teens. She is a fabulous person, an EFST and EFT trainer. She is also one of the co-authors of the EFST textbook. She is an experienced speaker, and therapist in emotion focused therapy and emotion focused skills training for parents and is also trained in emotion focused couple’s therapy. Vanja is a great mix of nerd and a social master, who can connect to anyone in a split second and who never gets tired of speaking to you. She will make you feel like you are the center of attention and will applaud any ideas you might have for implementing EFST in your country.

When you read this text about the EFST workshop it’s obvious that English is not the mother tongue of either our trainers or staff. All trainers are from Norway and speak norwenglish. Fortunately, they know the model like the back of their hands and together with you they will hopefully be able to figure out what is lost in translation.

What’s the structure of the workshop?

First part (two days)

Day 1 & 2: The first two days are conducted as a standard parent workshop, where participants learn about competitive motivation, what emotions are and how they work, as well as receive training in the three skills of validation, boundaries, and apology. The days include exercises in dyads and individual exercises. The exception is that the first hour of day 1 is dedicated to an overview of EFST, and the last hour of day 2 is dedicated to Q&A around the practical considerations of starting to use EFST and even do a parent work shop.

You will get a ready-to-go Power Point presentation for the parent 2-day work shop in English, with tips of what to say on each slide – you can translate this to your own language.

Second part (two days)

Day 3 & 4: Participants learn the five chair works for enhance compassion, validation, feeling traps, boundaries, and relationship repair (apology), and how to apply these as interventions in parental counseling. Therapy films of parental counseling are shown illustrating the interventions. We practice the chair work, and the course participants work on their own personal material, as well as their own therapist material. Everyone is encouraged to try out both the client chair, the therapist's chair, and the role as co-therapist and observer. Working on your personal material is essential for learning EFST, and the exercises are the unique ingredients of the EFST education. An empathetic and caring group environment will be facilitated.

NB! To become a licenced EFST therapist at isEFT you also need level B (2 days training) and 15 hours supervision.

Is it a good workshop? Well, let’s hear what other participants say!

"I finally experienced contact with my own vulnerability, which I have struggled to achieve, and then I get this kind of contact in front of 36 unknown people - it was groundbreaking for me as both a father, partner and psychologist. Thank you for the wonderful opportunity you gave me".

"A super intense theoretical and practice-oriented course, where you as a clinician is both trained in the concrete skills to use for doing the parent counseling and workshops, while at the same time working on your own personal stance in the parental role and training as a therapist. A very meaningful and exchangeable course with the most empathetic, academically exuberant and rewarding teachers/fellow human beings. From the grasp of my heart I will soon return".

"I think course instructors communicate in a way that testifies to a very high level of professionalism and understanding of what is being communicated. Commitment and humility".

"Very happy with the course! So clinically relevant. Brilliant trainers sharing from their own lives. Can't give it good enough feedback".

"I would love to attend this course many times, because there is so much good to be gained from it - professionally and personally.”

"EFST is the best course I have ever attended!"

"Learning about emotions needs to be given more focus in today's society."

"Incredibly important course for my self-development as a human being and as a therapist."

Should I prepare for the workshop?

We highly recommend your read the textbook Emotion Focused Skills Training for Parents before the work shop.
It’s written by Joanne Dolhanty, Anne Hilde Vassbø Hagen, Bente Austbø and Vanja Hjelmseth.
You can buy it here: Empty Chair Publisher

If your busy and it just feels like it’s too much that’s okey also. Just show up as you are!

Where can I read up on the research behind the method?

Here’s the research on EFST

Ansar, N., Hjeltnes, A., Stige, S.H., Binder, P-E., & Stiegler, J.R. (2021). Parenthood – lost and found: Exploring parents’ experiences of receiving a program in emotion focused skills training. Frontiers in Psychology. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.559188/full

Ansar, N., Nissen Lie, H., Zahl-Olsen, R., Bertelsen, B. T., Elliott, R., & Stiegler, J.R. (2022). Effectiveness of parental emotion-focused skills training for internalizing and externalizing symptoms in children: A randomized clinical dismantling study. Journal of Clinical and Child & Adolescent Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2022.2079130

Ansar, N.; Nissen Lie, H.; Stiegler, J.R. (2023). The effects of Emotion Focused Skills Training on parental mental health, emotion regulation and self-efficacy: Mediating processes between parents and children. Psychotherapy research. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2023.2218539

Ansar, N., Stige, S.H, Engseth, S. M. P., Nilsen, B., Shanche, E. & Hjeltnes, A. (2025). Reinventing fatherhood -exploring men' experiences of participating in emotion-focused skills training: Psychotherapy Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2025.2494747

Lehmann, V. O., Ansar, N., Kårstad, S. B., Markova, V. & Ness, O. (2025). Facilitating Emotion Focused Skills Training for parents online (EFST-O): Insights about self-disclosure, group dynamics and culture. European Journal for Qualitative Research in Psychotherapy. https://doi.org/10.24377/EJQRP.article3111

Severinsen, L., Stiegler, J. R., Nissen-Lie, H. A., Sahar, B. & Zahl-Olsen, R. Effectiveness of emotion focused skills training for parents: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial in specialist mental health care. BMC Psychiatry. https://bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-022-04084-x

Severinsen, L., Stiegler, J. R., Nissen-Lie, H. A., Shahar, B., Bertelsen, T. B. & Zahl-Olsen, R. (2025) Effectiveness of emotion-focused skills training (EFST) for parents: A randomized controlled trial investigating remission of mental health diagnosis and symptom reduction in children. Psychotherapy Research. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2025.2491477

Here’s some more research on emotions-focused approaches for parents and families.

Foroughe, M. (Ed.). (2018). Emotion focused family therapy with children and caregivers: A trauma-informed approach. Routledge.

Foroughe, M., Stillar, A., Goldstein, L., Dolhanty, J., Goodcase, E.T. & Lafrance, A. (2018). Brief emotion focused family therapy: An intervention for parents of children and adolescents with mental health issues. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. DOI:10.1111/jmft.12351

Lafrance Robinson, A., Dolhanty, J., Stillar, A., Henderson, K. & Mayman, S. (2014). Emotion‐focused family therapy for eating disorders across the lifespan: A pilot study of a 2‐day transdiagnostic intervention for parents. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 23(1), 14-23.

Lafrance Robinson, A., Strahan, E., Girz, L., Wilson, A. & Boachie, A. (2013). “I know I can help you”: Parental self-efficacy predicts adolescent outcomes in family-based therapy for eating disorders. European Eating Disorders Review, 21(2), 108-114. DOI: 10.1002/erv.2180

Stillar, A., Strahan, E., Nash, P., Files, N., Scarborough, J., Mayman, S., Henderson, K., Gusella, J., Connors, L., Orr, E.S., Marchand, P., Dolhanty, J. & Lafrance Robinson, A. (2016) The influence of carer fear and self-blame when supporting a loved one with an eating disorder. Eating Disorders: The Journal of Treatment and Prevention. DOI: 10.1080/10 640 266.2015.1133210

Strahan, E., Stillar, A., Files, N., Nash, P., Scarborough, J., Connors, L., Gusella, J., Henderson, K.,

Mayman, S., Marchand, P., Orr, E.S., Dolhanty, J. & Lafrance, A. (2017). Increasing parental self-efficacy with emotion-focused family therapy for eating disorders: A process model. Person-centered and Experiential Psychotherapies, 16, 3.

What are the training standards?

Level A: Completion of Basic EFT-F Training

Basic didactic/experiential workshop training: Minimum 4 days

Level B: Certified EFT-F Clinician

Completion of Basic EFT-F Training: Minimum 2 days

Direct Personal Supervision of clinical EFT-F practice (review of video recordings of sessions) for a minimum of 15 hrs (45 min), minimum of two clients; practice may be in group or individual format.

At NIEFT we offer supervision in groups. With minimum 3 people in the group the price is NOK 775,-/65 EURO pr person pr hrs (45 min). NOK 1850 (155 EURO) for individual supervision. These are the prices for 2025 and there will be a small increase in fee every year. You are free to do your supervision with any approved EFST supervisor.

Certified EFT-F Supervisor

To be approved as an EFT-F supervisor, you must take a video exam after the following have been attained:

Recommendation by EFT-F Supervisor

Certified EFT-F clinician with an active practice for at least 2 years

Completion of at least two emotion focused 2-day parent workshops

Completion of at least 30 hours of supervision with an approved EFT-F supervisor (you can count the supervision hours from when you were first certified as an EFT-F clinician). At least two of these supervision sessions should be supervision of supervision.

Completion of EFT-I Level 1 training

Completed a workshop on becoming a competent supervisor (minimum 3 hours). Not needed if you are already an EFT or EFT-C supervisor.

EFT-F Trainer

The following are the criteria for becoming a trainer:

Certified EFT-F supervisor

Recommendation by an approved EFT-F Trainer per their judgement on the basis of supervision (planning, review and/or observation) of at least one parent workshop or two different individual parent supervisions.

Attend at least four days of discussion-based supervisor/trainer training workshop; or equivalent supervision or consultation on training. Either the trainer in training can shadow an experienced EFST trainer somewhere else or at a training in their own region, but we recommend it being a training in their own region.

Approval from an international-based trainer at an EFT/EFT-F institute.

Cancellation:

Registration is binding.

Note! We offer a 24-hour cancellation period for all our courses. Cancellation rules beyond this are:

Cancellation 6-12 months before the course start:Course fee will be refunded
Cancellation 3-6 months before the course start: Half of the course fee will be credited
Cancellation 0-3 months before the course start: Course fee will not be credited.

We reserve the right to make changes regarding the date and course instructor due to unforeseen circumstances. The course will be conducted subject to a sufficient number of registrations.

Absence limit
The absence limit on this course is 20%. If you are absent more than a total of 20% you will not get the course approved.
Questions about absence should be raised in writing with the course department via e-mail: kurs@ipr.no

Do you have questions regarding courses?

Send an email to: kurs@ipr.no

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