Client Populations / EFT for Groups (EFT-G)

EFT for Groups (EFT-G)

Emotion-Focused Group Therapy is an emerging area of practice within the isEFT community with various international communities actively exploring and experimenting with how to adapt EFT to group therapy settings. There is not one model, but many, often evolving organically and creatively by experienced EFT therapists seeking to test the utility of EFT in undoing aloneness, creating connection, and anchoring transformation.

An origin story

The model that has perhaps been most disseminated across the community is the one based on the group model for treatment of bulimia nervosa, developed by Wnuk, Greenberg, and Dolhanty (2015) in Toronto, and later adapted for outpatient depression and anxiety (Lafrance Robinson, McCague, & Whissell, 2014), and university-based transdiagnostic groups beginning in 2014 (Thompson & Girz, 2019). This is the model that we reference here.

EFT-G brings the principles of Emotion-Focused Therapy into a small and structured group setting. The group becomes a safe relational space where emotional patterns shaped in earlier experiences can emerge and be explored with support, generating powerful opportunities for change through individual, dyad, and group level experience. Opportunities for corrective emotional experience are strong and poignant with a greater focus on what James McElvaney and Dylan Moore (Ireland) term “repeering” (as opposed to reparenting). The standard format is a closed group of eight participants. The group runs over ten sessions, each lasting two hours. This structure allows trust and safety to develop over time while creating continuity and depth in the work.

Individual (Intrapersonal) Change Processes

Working in real time with emotion experience and expression is an important part of the group process. At times, one participant works directly with the therapist using tasks drawn from EFT’s model for individual therapy while the rest of the group witnesses respectfully. This may involve working with different parts of oneself or processing unresolved emotional experiences. Even when one person is actively working, others often recognize similar emotional patterns in themselves, experiencing their own emotional responses as they witness. This part of group process may include individual work related to self-criticism, unresolved and difficult feelings towards primary attachment figures, reducing self-silencing, or increasing self-soothing. Themes of shame, aloneness, and fear of rejection are common areas of focus.

Dyad (Interpersonal) Change Processes

As group members share how they have been impacted as they have observed another participant’s chair work, poignant opportunities emerge for seeing and being seen in one’s vulnerability. Individuals in the group identify with particular experiences shared by others, and begin to develop real relationships in the group. The emergence of real relationships creates opportunities to uncover, challenge, and transform communication patterns that may deepen or inhibit interpersonal closeness. Group therapists assist in fostering direct communication of authentic, regulated, respectful feelings and reactions between individual group members.

Group Change Processes

One of the most powerful aspects of group therapy is the experience of vulnerability being met with empathy and warmth rather than rejection and coldness. Through repeated emotional experiences of being seen and understood, participants develop stronger emotion regulation, greater self-compassion, increased relational confidence, and a greater sense of belonging based on one’s true self rather than a carefully curated presentation of self. The group becomes a place to both experience and practice expressing needs, setting boundaries, tolerating closeness, and remaining authentic in connection with others.

The Aim of Emotion-Focused Group Therapy

The aim of EFT-G is to undo aloneness and bring corrective emotional experience into places of shame, aloneness, and fear of negative judgment. Through revealing one’s self during individual pieces of therapeutic work, individuals experience two-fold opportunities for emotional transformation – through the individually focused therapy component itself, and again as they receive genuine feedback from those witnessing their vulnerable and often silenced emotional experience.

How to Find an EFT-G Therapist

We do not yet have a listing of EFT-G trained therapists as this stream does not have a certification pathway at the present time. However, if you are interested in searching for an EFT-G group, we suggest you contact your local EFT Institute to ask if there are therapists in your area who are running these groups.

For Therapists: Training Resources for EFT-G

If you are a therapist interested in learning more about EFT-G, you may visit the isEFT Training Calendar or Transforming Emotions to look for upcoming EFT-G Institutes.

To join the isEFT International EFT-G community on WhatsApp as a therapist, with monthly virtual peer meetings that include a blend of information, consultation, and peer presentations of group initiatives, please send your name, phone number, and country of residence to Laura Girz or Sarah Thompson.

Laura Girz: laurapgirz@gmail.com

Sarah Thompson: sarah@transformingemotions.ca

You may also access a preliminary EFT-G manual here.

A number of articles have been published including:

  • Amini, M., Lotfi, M., Fatimitabar, R., & Bahrampouri, L. (2020). The effectiveness of emotion-focused group therapy on the reduction of negative emotions and internet addiction symptoms. Practice in clinical psychology, 8(1), 1-8.
  • Brennan, M., Emmerling, M., & Whelton, W. (2015). Emotion-focused group therapy: Addressing self-criticism in the treatment of eating disorders. Counselling and Psychotherapy Research, 15(1), 67-75.
  • Ivanova, I. (2013). The “how” of change in emotion-focused group therapy for eating disorders (Doctoral dissertation). Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, ON.
  • Lafrance Robinson A., McCague E. A., & Whissell, C. (2014). “That chair work thing was great”: A pilot study of group-based emotion-focused therapy for anxiety and depression. Person-centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 13(4), 263-277.
  • Pascual-Leone, A., Bierman, R., Arnold, R., & Stasiak, E. (2011). Emotion-focused therapy for incarcerated offenders of intimate partner violence: A 3-year outcome using a new whole-sample matching method. Psychotherapy Research, 21(3), 331-347.
  • Robinson, A. (2019). Enhancing empathy in emotion-focused group therapy for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A case conceptualization model for interpersonal rupture and repair. Journal of contemporary psychotherapy, 50, 133-142.
  • Robinson, A., & Elliot, R. (2017). Emotion-focused therapy for clients with autistic process. Person-centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 16(3), 215-235.
  • Sharbanee, J. M., Rauchelle, K., Nelson, M., & Gringart, E. (2024). Experiences of the change process during Emotion-focused Group Therapy. Person-Centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 23(3), 327–343.
  • Shareh, H., Ghodsi, M., & Keramati, S. (2022). Emotion-focused group therapy among women with premenstrual dysphoric disorder: A randomized clinical trial. Psychotherapy Research, 32(4), 440-455. https://doi.org/10.1080/10503307.2021.1980239
  • Thompson, S., & Girz, L. (2019). Overcoming shame and aloneness: Emotion-focused group therapy for self-criticism. Person-centered & Experiential Psychotherapies, 19(1), 1-11.
  • Tweed, S. (2013). Group-based emotion focused therapy (EFT) for women with binge spectrum eating disorders in an outpatient setting: A preliminary comparison (Doctoral dissertation). York University, Toronto, ON.
  • Wnuk, S. M., Greenberg, L., & Dolhanty, J. (2015). Emotion-focused group therapy for women with symptoms of Bulimia Nervosa. Eating disorders, 23, 253-261.
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