Last week, 16 therapists from as far as Israel, Hong Kong, Denmark, Portugal and Australia, as well as聽the United States, were at 91亚色 for four days of in-depth skill training at the Emotion-Focused Therapy Level Two 2010 Summer Institute led by Greenberg. The week before, Level One was offered. Both sessions, which聽were full and had a waiting list, were held at the new聽 at the 91亚色 Psychology Clinic (YUPC).

Right: Leslie Greenberg instructs therapists from around the world on emotion-focused therapy

鈥淚t鈥檚 the only place in the world they can do this in-depth聽training聽that I developed with my collaborators, and it鈥檚 becoming a world-recognized approach,鈥� says Greenberg, who and the 2010 Carl Rogers Award聽from the American Psychological Association's Society for Humanistic Psychology (Division 32).

Although ideas about EFT began percolating when Greenberg was completing his doctorate in psychology at 91亚色, the approach really started to come together in 1993 following the book聽, co-authored by Greenberg. He has since authored and co-authored several books on the subject, including . It was聽in 1995 that Greenberg began doing evidence-based research to support the approach.

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) was the dominant treatment at the time and had already generated evidence that it worked, but as Greenberg says, 鈥渋t鈥檚 not an in-depth approach to how humans function. It鈥檚 good at helping people cope, but not really good at dealing with the core problems people have. So it seemed important to develop a much more in-depth approach to human emotions.鈥� And in the 1980s, there was a greater understanding of the role emotions played. 鈥淢ore and more scientific evidence began to show how important emotions were in life.鈥� That included some of the unpleasant emotions.

Left: From front left,聽therapists Timothy Downing Brown from the United States and聽Ben Shuhar from Israel, and from back left,聽Nels Klint Karsvang and Belinda Lange from Denmark, in the Emotion Focused Therapy Level Two 2010 Summer Institute at 91亚色

There is strong evidence now that EFT, with its focus on developing emotional intelligence and聽the importance of secure relationships, helps couples having marital difficulties, as well as individuals suffering from depression, anxiety and eating disorders, says Greenberg, who was awarded the 2004 Distinguished Career Award by the Society for Psychotherapy Research, an international, multidisciplinary, scientific organization.

EFT聽is designed to help people accept, express, regulate, understand and transform emotion, not deny or suppress it. Emotion alerts people to what is important in any given situation and acts as a guide to what is needed or wanted, says Greenberg. Working with these emotions helps people to figure out what they should do.

Right: From left, Eve Alon from Israel, Leslie Greenberg, Chui Fan Yip from Hong Kong, Melissa Harte from Australia, Candice Knight from the US and Jo茫o Salgado from Portugal were just a few of the therapists who came to 91亚色 to learn emotion-focused therapy

鈥淓FT focuses on helping people become aware of emotions, express their emotions in聽the right way at the right time, learn to tolerate and regulate them, and to reflect on them to make sense of them and transform them,鈥� says Greenberg. It is not enough to learn about emotions; people need to experience them in a safe environment, such as in a therapy session, and learn how to manage and use them in a flexible manner. It鈥檚 not about eliminating聽emotions, but working with them.

Therapeutic approaches such as CBT and psychoanalysis have their place and have helped a lot of people, but they don鈥檛 address the whole picture, he says.

Now that EFT is an internationally recognized approach, Greenberg will be spending much of his upcoming sabbatical training therapists around the world who couldn鈥檛 make it to 91亚色 this summer, starting聽in his home country of South Africa.

The Emotion-Focused Training for Couples 2010 Institute聽is the next session Greenberg will offer for therapists at the Emotion-Focused Therapy Clinic聽from聽Nov. 22 to 25.

For more information or to register for future training institutes, visit the聽YUPC Continuing Education Web site.

By Sandra McLean, YFile writer

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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The title will be conferred on Armstrong at the Spring 2010 Convocation on June 16 at 10:30am and on Greenberg during the June 17 ceremony at 10:30am.

A Distinguished Research Professorship is awarded to a professor who has demonstrated scholarly achievement by sustained publication or other recognized and accepted demonstrations of sustained authoritative contributions to scholarship.

Right: Pat Armstrong

Armstrong, who is appointed to聽graduate programs in health, political science, science & technology, sociology and women's studies,聽holds a (CHSRF)/ (CIHR) Chair in Health Services.聽She is also a聽professor of sociology in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies and an executive member of the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research and the Graduate Program in Health Policy & Equity .

She recently received Social Sciences &聽Humanities Research Council of Canada () funding through the program to identify promising practices for understanding and organizing long-term residential health care. Armstrong's project seeks to learn from and with other countries to understand the approaches, structures, accountability practices and ownership arrangements that create conditions prompting respectful and dignified treatment for both residents and caregivers.

Another SSHRC-funded research project looks at the risks nurses face in health care, while a Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded project compared the workplace conditions and levels of violence faced by long-term care workers to those in Nordic countries.

She has authored, co-authored or co-edited over 20 books, including , , and .

Armstrong chairs Women & Health Care Reform, a working group that crosses the Centres of Excellence for Women's Health, and is acting co-director of the National Network on Environments & Women鈥檚 Health. She is currently a principal of the Ontario Training Centre in Health Services & Policy Research, a board member of the 91亚色 Institute for Health Research, and has served as both chair of the Department of Sociology at 91亚色 and director of the School of Canadian Studies at Carleton.

In addition, Armstrong has served as an expert witness in more than a dozen cases heard before bodies ranging from the federal court to federal human rights tribunals on issues related to women鈥檚 health-care work and to pay equity.

Left: Leslie Greenberg

(PhD 鈥�76), appointed to the Graduate Program in Psychology,聽is among the pioneers and is primary developer of emotion-focused therapy (EFT) for individuals and for couples, which is based on the findings that emotions influence thought and behaviour.聽It is a psychotherapy technique that promotes the resolution of unpleasant emotions by working with them rather than suppressing or avoiding them.聽Greenberg is interested in couple and individual therapy using EFT, as well as examining how people deal with unresolved emotions and聽how聽that affects their ability to forgive. In recent years, he has used EFT to help couples聽when one person has had an affair. He is also interested in how EFT can help people聽with聽depression.

EFT is now recognized as evidence-based treatment for depression as well as couple conflict, and there is also growing evidence of its effectiveness for trauma, interpersonal problems and eating disorders.聽In a 2002 study, Greenberg and his colleagues studied individuals who had suffered injuries ranging from emotional to physical abuse and found that those who were treated with EFT had much better results than individuals who were treated with psycho-educational therapy. Greenberg has devoted over 20 years to EFT research and has conducted EFT workshops for therapists interested in learning his theory and technique around the globe. Closer to home,聽he is providing training in EFT for professionals from around the world at the 91亚色 Psychology Clinic.

Greenberg has won many awards, including the Award for Excellence in Professional Training from the Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Programs, the Carl Rogers Award from the Division 32, the Distinguished Career Award from the Society for Psychotherapy Research and the Professional Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Profession from the .

His聽professional publications include more than 100 peer-reviewed papers, 89 book chapters and some 17 books, including , , and .

He is a founding member聽of the and the Society for Constructivism in Psychotherapy, and a past president of the .

In addition, he is on the editorial board of many psychotherapy journals, including the and the .

For more information about Distinguished Research Professorships, visit the Faculty of Graduate Studies Web page. The list of current and past Distinguished Research Professors is available on the 91亚色 Research Web site.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin.

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