IEFT associated trainers

Marielle Sutter is a federally recognized psychotherapist FSP and has co-directed IEFT Switzerland with Leslie Greenberg since 2014. She studied psychology and sociology at the University of Bern and received her PhD in 2006 under Prof. Klaus Grawe and Prof. Franz Caspar. Since 2008 she has been trained and supervised in EFT and EFT-C. With Leslie Greenberg she co-authored the book "Praxis der Emotionsfokussierten Therapie" in 2021 and has then translated it into French ("Pratiquer la thérapie centrée sur les émotions", 2004).
Marielle Sutter is a trainer and supervisor in EFT and EFT-C at IEFT Switzerland as well as at various institutes and universities in the German and French speaking regions. In her group practice in Bern, she appreciates working in individuals and with couples. She is a founding member and president of the Swiss Society for EFT. Marielle Sutter is an isEFT-approved supervisor for EFT and EFT-C as well as an international trainer.

Emma Schmied-Smith studied psychology at the University of Bern and received her doctorate under Prof. Klaus Grawe. After a postdoctoral year at King's College London, she completed integrative cognitive-behavioral therapy training at the University of Bern and has completed several advanced trainings in Emotion-Focused Therapy and Inner Relationship Focusing since 2009. She works as a psychotherapist in private practice in Bern and is a lecturer and supervisor in postgraduate psychotherapy continuing education at the University of Bern and at the Swiss Institute for Emotion-Focused Therapy. She isEFT certified international EFT trainer. Emma Schmied-Smith is also on the board of IEFT Switzerland.

Yvonne Egenolf studied psychology at the University of Frankfurt and received her doctorate from the University of Bern. After an integrative cognitive-behavioral therapy training, she first completed the EFT basic training and then attended various advanced trainings in EFT as well as a one-year intensive training in Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy, SIA Berlin. She is a senior psychologist at the Psychotherapeutic Practice Center of the University of Bern and works as a certified Emotion-Focused Therapist and Supervisor in her own practice. She also complements the IEFT Switzerland team as an internal EFT trainer and is involved in its board of directors.

Catalina Woldarsky-Meneses received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Dr. Leslie Greenberg at York University in Toronto, Canada. She specializes in Emotion-Focused Therapy for individuals and couples. She isEFT-certified supervisor and trainer and has been an associate trainer of IEFT Switzerland since 2017. She is also involved in its board. She teaches counseling at Webster University in Geneva. Dr. Woldarsky Meneses believes in holistic healing and is a certified yoga teacher.

Juliette is a clinical psychologist/psychotherapist and one of the founders of Apanta, a mental health center in the Netherlands. She founded the training institute "Apanta Academy" 15 years ago because she felt that there should be a place in the Netherlands where client-centered and process-oriented psychotherapy - especially EFT - is taught in a warm and safe environment. In 2019, she founded EFTiN, the EFT Institute Netherlands, to devote herself entirely to the education and practice of EFT and to contribute to the spread of EFT.
From the moment she learned about EFT, she was intrigued. She invited Robert Elliott and Jeanne Watson to the Netherlands to teach EFT and traveled to Glasgow and Canada to learn more from the co-founders of Emotion-Focused Therapy.
The International Society for Emotion-Focused Therapy (isEFT) has officially recognized EFTiN as an EFT training center and Juliette Becking as an international EFT trainer. She has been on the board of isEFT since 2017.

Robert Elliott, Ph.D., is one of the main founders of Emotion-Focused Therapy. They are now professor emeritus of counselling at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland). They received a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles, and are also professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Toledo (Ohio). Robert’s main research interests are in change processes in humanistic-experiential psychotherapies and psychotherapy research methodology. They co-authored Facilitating emotional change (1993), Learning emotion-focused psychotherapy (2004), Research methods in clinical psychology (2015), Essentials of Descriptive-Interpretive Qualitative Research (2021), and Emotion-Focused Counselling in Action (2021), as well as almost 200 journal articles and book chapters. Robert is past president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, and previously co-edited the journals Psychotherapy Research, and Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies. They are a fellow in the divisions of Clinical Psychology, Psychotherapy, and Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association, and received the Distinguished Research Career Award of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, and the Carl Rogers Award from the Division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association. They now live in Northern California, enjoying walking, running, science fiction, poetry, and all kinds of music.

Rhonda Goldman is a principal developer of Emotion-Focused Therapy for individuals and couples. She is a full professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology at the Chicago School of Professional Psychology. She received her doctorate from York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1997. She taught at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology for 22 years. Dr. Goldman directs the Emotion-Focused Therapy Institute (EFTI) in Chicago and is involved in her private practice treating both couples and individuals. She is a founding board member of the International Society of Emotion-focused Therapy (isEFT).
Dr. Goldman is the author of six books on Emotion-focused Therapy. Most recently, she published "Deliberate Practice in Emotion-Focused Therapy" in 2021. In 2019, she co-edited "Clinical Handbook of Emotion-Focused Therapy" (2019) with Leslie Greenberg. In 2015, Dr Goldman published "Case Formulation in Emotion-focused therapy: Co-constructing Clinical Maps for Change" (2015). Other books include "Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy: The Dynamics of Emotion, Love, and Power", "Case Studies in Emotion-Focused Treatment of Depression" and" Learning Emotion-focused Therapy". Dr Goldman has also published two professional videos on Emotion-Focused Therapy published by the American Psychological Association. One focuses on case formulation, the other on EFT with couples.
Dr. Goldman does research on EFT for couples, emotional processes, empathy, vulnerability, depression, case formulation and self-soothing. She teaches graduate courses in humanistic and experiential psychotherapy, psychotherapy seminars and emotion-focused therapy.
Dr Goldman travels internationally to conduct training workshops for professionals in Emotion-Focused Therapy for couples and individuals. Her travels have taken her to several continents including Europe, Asia and North America.

Leslie Samuel Greenberg, (born 1945 in South Africa) is a distinguished research professor emeritus of psychology at York University in Toronto, Canada and director emeritus of the Emotion-Focused Therapy Clinic in Toronto. He is the founder and principal developer of Emotion-Focused Therapy for individuals and for couples. His research addresses issues of empathy, psychotherapeutic processes, the therapeutic alliance, and emotions in human life.
Leslie Greenberg has published over 100 articles and is co-author of major books on emotion-focused approaches to psychotherapy, such as Emotion in Psychotherapy (1986) and Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (1988). His more recent books include "Emotion-Focused Couples Therapy: The Dynamics of Emotion, Love, and Power" (2008), "Therapeutic Presence: A Mindful Approach to Effective Therapy" (2012), "Emotion-Focused Therapy: Theory and Practice" (2015), "Case Formulation in Emotion-Focused Therapy" (2015), "Emotion-Focused Therapy of Generalized Anxiety" (2017), "Emotion-Focused Therapy of Forgiveness" (2019), and "Changing Emotion With Emotion" (2021).
He is a founding member of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and past president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR), from which he received the Distinguished Research Career Award in 2004. The Canadian Psychological Association honored him with the Professional Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychology as a Profession, and the American Psychological Association presented him with the "APA Award for Distinguished Professional Contributions to Applied Research" and the "Carl Rogers Award". He has served on the editorial boards of numerous psychotherapy journals, including the "Journal of Clinical Psychology," the "Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology," the "Journal of Family Psychology," the "Journal of Marital & Family Therapy," the "Journal of Psychotherapy Integration, and Psychotherapy Research."
Currently, Les trains people in emotion-focused approaches in countries around the world.

Dr. Stiegler is a clinical psychologist and researcher, working at the Institute for Psychological Counselling in Bergen, Norway. His main professional focus is on Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT). He has been trained and supervised by Dr. Leslie Greenberg and colleagues since 2009, and in 2018 he completed his dissertation with the title: Processing emotions in emotion-focused therapy – Exploring the impact of the two-chair dialogue intervention. He is currently head of profession at the Norwegian Institute for Emotion-Focused Therapy. He has written three books about EFT and has published several research articles on the topic of EFT. In addition to his clinical work he is involved in training and supervision of clinical psychologists, does research on psychotherapy and teaches EFT at universities in Norway.

Serine Warwar is the founder and director of the "Greenberg Institute of Emotion-Focused Therapy" in Toronta, Canada, and of the "Center for Psychology and Emotional Health", a training center for individual, couples, family and group therapy and a satellite of the "Emotion-Focused Therapy Clinic" at York University. She is also the Director of the "Emotion-Focused Therapy Clinic" at York University and a board member of the International Society for Emotion-Focused Therapy (isEFT). She is passionate about training, research and development of EFT. She has co-developed an empirically validated EFT program that helps couples and individuals overcome emotional hurt and facilitate forgiveness. In addition, her research focuses on improving the understanding of emotional change in therapy. She supervises, trains, and consults with students and therapist:s and conducts international trainings and workshops on EFT for individuals and couples.

Dr. Watson is Professor at OISE, the University of Toronto, Canada. A major exponent of humanistic-experiential psychotherapy, she has contributed to the development of Emotion-Focused psychotherapy, the process experiential approach. Dr. Watson teaches in the Counselling and Clinical Psychology Program and is an active researcher investigating the process and outcome of psychotherapy. She has conducted and collaborated on clinical trials comparing Emotion-Focused psychotherapy with client centered psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral psychotherapy in the treatment of depression. Her research into identifying processes of change has yielded a number of observer measures to rate therapists’ expressed empathy as well as clients’ affect regulation in session. She has co-authored and co-edited a total of 7 books and has written over 60 articles and chapters, and delivered over 100 presentations including workshops and invited addresses on the theory and practice of Emotion-Focused Therapy with an emphasis on empathy, the working alliance, emotional expression, and Emotion-Focused therapy in the treatment of depression. Dr. Watson received the “Outstanding Early Career Award” from the International Society for Psychotherapy Research in 2002 and is currently General Vice-President of the Society. In 2013 she was appointed a Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Division 29 in recognition of her contributions to the discipline of psychology. She has a part-time practice in Toronto.
Dr. Watson has conducted EFT workshops in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North America and has been nominated for supervision and teaching awards by her students. Her workshops are consistently highly praised, especially for her warm and engaging teaching style.