Transforming Addiction Through Attachment and EFCT with Michael Barnett

Join QCEFT as they host inspirational EFT trainer Michael Barnett (USA), a world-leading authority on working with addiction & EFT, for an in-depth online masterclass. This experiential training is designed to give EFT therapists the confidence and skills to work more effectively with couples impacted by addiction.

In this 12-hour experiential training, we will explore specific and necessary ways to tailor EFT skills and interventions in order to better address the impact that addiction has on the couple therapy process. Video clips of therapy sessions will be used to demonstrate concepts and interventions.

Psychotherapy with couples is both multi-layered and complex, often challenging the most skilled of therapists. In this uncertain, conflict-ridden era in which we live, where true connection is often at a premium, substance use and “process addictions” (e.g. to gambling, porn, or food) have escalated to epidemic proportions. It is not uncommon for couple’s therapists to be confronted with the additional challenge of contending with a pernicious “third-party” that lurks within the shadows of distressed relationships: addiction. Although EFCT is the gold standard for helping couples find their way to genuine, loving communion with one another, addictions present very significant obstacles to effectively working with couples that seek our services.

Learning Objectives:

• Determine personal biases that may interfere with the therapist’s presence when working with clients on the addictive continuum.
• Describe how to tailor the introductory assessment when addiction is present in the couple process.
• Describe and identify addiction through the lens of attachment theory.
• Describe addiction as an adaptive response to loss, and disconnection.
• Describe how addiction organises the relational system.
• Describe how to integrate addictive behaviors into the negative interactional cycle.
• Describe how to work with shame in stage 2 of EFT with addiction.
• Describe how to work with and process emotion in the absence of emotional fluency.
• Utilise EFT to break through addictive denial without shaming and confrontation.
• Utilise an attachment-based understanding of the impact of addiction on emotional processing and relationships.
• Describe how to attend to unprocessed partner anger.
• Apply prescriptive interventions to stabilise addictive processes in the couple therapy.

Assumed Prior Knowledge: EFT externship or equivalent

Event Details:

• Date: Friday 12, Saturday 13 & Sunday 14 September 2025
• Time: 9AM – 1PM Australian Eastern Standard Time
• Duration: 12hrs (4hrs x3 consecutive days)
• Location: Online
• Cost: AUD$450-670 (earlybird ends 31st July)

Registration:

Click HERE to secure your tickets for this event.