This is an official EFT Externship, endorsed by the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT). Attending this externship is the first step to becoming an EFT therapist, and being listed on the EFT website, where couples find trained couple therapists. For further details about the certification process please refer to the International Centre for Excellence in EFT (ICEEFT). 

In this Externship, you will learn to:

• see individual and relationship distress from an attachment perspective
• help partners and individuals reprocess the emotional responses that maintain relationship distress
• shape key new interaction and bonding events and,
• overcome therapeutic impasses.

You will  see a skilled trainer apply EFT with real couples, a profound learning experience. You will learn EFT’s theoretical framework, the EFT Tango, and EFT clinical techniques. You will observe videotaped sessions, practice skill training exercises, and receive assistance in specific areas from the trainers and advanced EFT therapists.

Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is designed for all mental health professionals and graduate students, pastoral counselors, and coaches. EFT is a structured approach developed by Dr. Susan M. Johnson, founder of the International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT). It reflects the most recent research on the nature of individual and relationship distress, adult love, and emotion. Emotionally Focused Therapy is a ground-breaking approach to individual, couple, and family therapy. It is one of the most empirically supported models of couple therapy, is being taught all over the world, and is a must-know model whether you are working with couples, individuals, or families. 

Ryan Rana, PhD

Dr. Rana, a former counseling/marriage and family university faculty member, did much of his psychotherapy training in Emotionally Focused Therapy with Dr. Sue Johnson and George Faller. After years of experience practicing in community mental health and private practice, Ryan restarted his clinical orientation with EFT training in the early 2000’s – later designated as a Trainer by Sue Johnson and ICEEFT. Ryan is currently the president, after founding, the Arkansas EFT community in 2012-13.  Additionally, Ryan and his wife Anne cofounded The Joshua Center in Arkansas, in which he practices and is the Executive Director.  He maintains a clinical practice specializing in work with: couples, trauma, sexuality, anxiety, depression, family problems and executive leadership – as well as other similar areas.  He also does intensives with couples in addition to his passion to advance EFT via education and trainings in areas around the world.  Before being a therapist, Ryan was a collegiate athlete and pitching coach in baseball. Ryan also spends significant time studying military training and practice and how it relates to the process of strategies of change and healing in therapy – as well as commonly working with military and first responder members/couples. Ryan also is a cofounder and host of two training platforms.  The Leading Edge in Emotionally Focused Therapy podcast, The Leading Edge: Transforming your Leadership Through Attachment Science, and a large internet based training site called www.successinvulnerability.com.  

Mental Health Professionals and Life Coaches

$1095

Ministry, Pastoral Counselors, Previous Externship Participants, and Full-time Students

$799

Training cost includes materials, snacks, and beverages. On completion, 28 CEU’s are awarded to mental health professionals. Your registration will be confirmed when payment is received. Pay by credit card or PayPal below, or mail a check to Lori Marchak, 1902 W Dickerson St., #208, Bozeman, MT 59718.

We will meet in person in Missoula, MT.
Church at the Gates 
3821 Stephens Ave S.
Missoula, MT 59801

Reserve your hotel room early as this is also homecoming weekend for the University of Montana Grizzlies.
There are many options in Missoula for lodging, including numerous vacation rentals. We do not have a group reservation available at this time, but email if you’d like to connect with other participants to share lodging.

“The most original contributor to couples therapy to come along in the last 30 years…” William Doherty, Ph.D. 

Sue Johnson is Director of the International Center for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy and Distinguished Research Professor at Alliant University in San Diego, California as well as Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Ottawa, Canada.

She has received numerous honors for her work, including the Outstanding Contribution to the Field of Couple and Family Therapy Award from the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the Research in Family Therapy Award from the American Family Therapy Academy. She is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Johnson is the author of numerous books and articles. Her best known professional books include The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: Creating Connection (2004), Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy with Trauma Survivors (2002), and Becoming an Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist: The Workbook (2005). She is also the author of the popular press book, Hold Me Tight: Seven Conversations for a Lifetime of Love, published in 2008, and Love Sense, published in 2014.

Before the training, you may optionally read Sue’s 2004 textbook, and work through the accompanying workbook. 

• The Practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy: Creating Connection Susan M. Johnson, 2nd Edition, 2004
• Becoming an Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist: The Workbook Susan M. Johnson, et al, 2005

With your enrollment in this training, you will receive a copy of Sue Johnson’s lastest textbook, Attachment Theory in Practice: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with Individuals, Couples and Families, 2019.