Hi Katie,
As the end of the year approaches I’m reviewing my professional goals and getting clearer about my vision for my business (inspired in part by your previous post on this topic – thanks). This review has got me wondering about Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) certification. I’ve done all the core trainings and been practicing EFT for a while, but I’m not really sure about certification…should I do it? If so, why?
- Reflective in Raketan
Dear ‘Reflective’,
How wonderful you’ve found time to deliberately review your professional goals and get clearer on your business vision – what a great way to nourish yourself and accelerate your business. Your question about EFT certification is an excellent one. I can’t tell you what to do (that decision is yours alone), but I can share my experience of certification and perhaps some prompts to help you reflect on your own best way forward.
A colleague preparing a presentation on EFT certification recently asked me some questions about this, actually. Here’s what she asked and how I answered:
How did becoming certified help you?
Not exactly in the way I thought. I thought it would reassure me I was a competent EFT therapist and remove my sense of ‘imposter syndrome’, and there was definitely a small element of that; but a much bigger element was the learning process itself: I gained so much from leaning into learning EFT in the deliberate and reflective way that EFT certification requires – in some way this gave me a deeper confidence that not knowing is ok, that I can stay in the emotional process with myself and my clients and trust this and it will lead us to good places. It probably changed the “how” much more than the “what”, for me.
Does the process you went through or the credential itself still help you in any way?
Absolutely – I went on from therapist certification to become an EFT supervisor and supervision is now a significant portion of my private practice work (I LOVE it!).
I am aware that some clients and supervisees seek me (and other certified therapists) out because of what EFT certification represents to them: they want to be confident that the person they are working with has had their therapeutic skills observed and validated by the organisation that sets the international standard for Emotionally Focused Therapy.
In a more personal sense, EFT certification helps me feel a sense of belonging in the Emotionally Focused Therapy world and identification with the core attachment and experiential tenets of this model: I have committed to this way of being and doing therapy, and certification is an affirmation of that commitment.
Do you have any advice for anyone thinking of becoming certified?
Hooray! Go for it! Find a responsive, supportive supervisor with whom you can have an A.R.E. relationship, tell that person you want to work towards EFT certification, then lean in to the process of learning – if your certification can arise naturally out of your enthusiastic learning of the model, this seems to be the most satisfying and authentic path, for most of my supervisees.
Perhaps some helpful questions you could ask yourself, dear ‘Reflective’, might be:
What do I stand to gain from EFT certification? How might it benefit me? How does it align with my vision for my life and practice?
What are my worries or fears about certifying?
What questions do I have?
If you have a supportive EFT supervisor you could take these questions and discuss them in supervision. Your supervisor may be able to help you gain further clarity.
If you need information about the actual process of certification, check out this dedicated page on the ICEEFT website.
Hope this helps!
