Dr Christina Michael
This experiential workshop offers a rare opportunity to learn directly from a leading scholar whose research has shaped the field’s understanding of empathy and therapeutic responsiveness.
4-half days Intensive Advanced Skills Training
| Trainer:Professor Jeanne Watson
| Facilitator: Dr Christina Michael
Empathy is one of the most powerful predictors of therapeutic change — across modalities, populations, and clinical presentations. In this advanced training, internationally renowned EFT researcher and professor Dr. Jeanne Watson will guide therapists in developing deeper, sharper, and more effective empathic attunement in their clinical work.
This experiential workshop offers a rare opportunity to learn directly from a leading scholar whose research has shaped the field’s understanding of empathy and therapeutic responsiveness.
More about the training
This training is formally recognized by the International Society for EFT (www.iseft.org).
Certification will be provided at the end of the course, signed by Prof. Jeanne Wason.
The training: Advanced Empathic Attunement skills
This training will provide participants with an in-depth intensive skills training on advanced empathy with emphasis on helping therapists learn different types of empathic responses as well as when and how to use each based on the intention and timing of the intervention. Participants will learn how different types of empathy are used and learn hands on skills to help clients relieve suffering and tackle their problems.
Prof Les Greenberg
Jeanne’s pioneering research on empathy and therapeutic change has influenced clinicians worldwide
Who is this training for:
This training is suitable for therapists from all clinical backgrounds who want to deepen their attunement, enhance their responsiveness, and support clients in processing painful emotional experiences more effectively.
The training opens with a clear, practice-oriented exploration of the role of empathy and responsiveness in psychotherapy. Each day will include brief lectures, video demonstrations by Jeanne Watson and co-founders of EFT with real clients, live modelling, case discussions, and skills practice supervised by Jeanne Watson and Christina Michael. Different empathic interventions based on specific processes will be demonstrated. Videos of evidence-based methods for evoking and exploring emotion, and for dealing with overwhelming emotions will be presented. Participants will engage in guided exercises, case discussions, and structured skills practice designed to strengthen empathic responsiveness in session. Participants will be introduced to the moment-by-moment empathic attunement skills to help them track, access, deepen, and transform emotion. The major principles of emotional change will be discussed including awareness, expression, regulation, reflection, and restructuring. A major focus of the workshop will be on differential intervention of emotional states and the use of specific tasks designed to address different types of emotional processing problems including, puzzling emotional reactions, painful self-criticism, and emotional injuries from past relationships. Training will be delivered in English.
Course details:
This online training is an intensive skills training led by Prof Jeanne Watson and facilitated by Dr Christina Michael. The focus of the program will be experiential (through the use of skills practice in small groups), learning to facilitate clients cognitive-affective processing of painful experiences.
The program will provide hands-on skills development to therapists from a variety of clinical backgrounds with an opportunity to enhance their skills of empathic attunement in emotion-focused psychotherapy. Participants will be trained in the skills of moment-to-moment attunement to clients’ experience in the session. Skills training will include a combination of brief lectures, video demonstrations, case discussions and supervised practice of experiential exercises.
You will learn and practice different empathic responses and ways to ways of facilitating your decision making and responsiveness moment-to-moment in therapy including emotional deepening and emotional regulation. You will learn how to hold client’s emotional pulse and how to optimally express empathy; the different empathic response modes and markers for how to intervene differentially will be identified and demonstrated.
You will learn the how to:
Emotion Focused Therapy:
A humanistic, evidence-based form of therapy that integrates person-centred and gestalt therapies, with particular relevance to working with depression, trauma, borderline processes and anxiety difficulties. It has gained international recognition through the work of Les Greenberg, Robert Elliott, Laura Rice, Jeanne Watson, Rhonda Goldman, Antonio Pascual – Leone and others.
About the Team:
About the trainer:
Professor Jeanne WatsonAbout the facilitator:
Dr Christina Michael
Professor Jeanne Watson is internationally known as one of the most influential researchers in empathy and one of the main developers of Emotion-Focused Therapy for individuals.
Jeanne C. Watson, Ph.D. (C. Psych.) is a Professor in the Department of Applied Psychology and Human Development at the University of Toronto, and one of the most influential figures in the advancement of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) and therapist’s responsiveness. Her research on the process and outcome of psychotherapy has significantly shaped contemporary clinical practice, particularly in the areas of empathy, emotional processing, and therapeutic change.
Dr. Watson is the author and editor of 10 books and more than 80 scholarly articles and chapters, making her one of the leading contributors to the EFT literature. Her recent book, The Responsive Therapist: Attuning to Clients in the Moment (with Hadas Wiseman), has quickly become an essential text for therapists wishing to deepen their presence and attunement in session. Her book on Emotion Focused Psychotherapy for Generalised Anxiety Disorder co-authored with Dr. Leslie Greenberg is an essential book for clinicians.
In recognition of her outstanding scientific contributions, Dr. Watson received the Distinguished Research Career Award from the International Society for Psychotherapy Research (ISPR) in 2020—one of the highest honours in the field.
Today, she is internationally sought after as a trainer, researcher, and speaker, known for combining rigorous scientific insight with a warm, compassionate teaching style. Her work continues to inspire clinicians around the world to strengthen their empathic responsiveness and therapeutic effectiveness
See more on Professor Watson.
Dr Christina Michael is the founder and clinical director of the Cyprus Institute for Emotion Focused Therapy (CiEFT).
Christina is a counselling psychologist, registered in Cyprus and the UK and she currently works as a Senior Counselling Psychologist in Cyprus. Christina has received her Doctorate in Counselling Psychology at Glasgow Caledonian University. Before moving to Cyprus, she worked in Scotland for 7 years with a wide range of mental health difficulties and she was also an Associate Lecturer for the Doctorate in Counselling Psychology for 4 years. Christina specialises in Emotion Focused Therapy for which she is an internationally accredited supervisor. At CiEFT, she splits her time between seeing clients, supervising mental health professionals and students, and facilitating EFT trainings all over the world, alongside Prof Robert Elliott, Prof Les Greenberg, Prof. Jean Watson, Juliette Becking and others. Christina continues to work for Universities in Cyprus and the UK as a Visiting Lecturer. Her main research interests are post-traumatic growth, grief and effective therapeutic processes. Christina has offered formal feedback for the “Emotion Focused Counselling in Action” book and translated the Greek version of this book called “Θεραπεία Εστιασμένη στο Συναίσθημα”
See more on Dr Michael.
Course Outline
(9am-1pm Toronto time; 4pm-8pm Cyprus time; 2-4pm UK time)
Day 1: The role of empathy in psychotherapy
Morning (09:00-11:00 Toronto time)
- Introductions
- Overview of empathy
- Overview of responsiveness
Afternoon (11:15-13:00)
- Demonstration
- Skills practice
- Large group debrief
Day 2: Empathy: Attuning and Resonating
Morning (09:00-11:00 Toronto time)
- Empathic Attunement
- Empathic Resonance
- Video demonstration
- Skills practice
After break (11:15-13:00)
- Enhancing Empathy in clinical practice
- Skills Practice
- Large group debrief
Day 3: Empathic expression
Morning (9:00-11:00)
- Types of empathic responses
- Empathic deepening
- Empathic conjectures
- Empathic refocusing
- Empathic affirmation
- Empathic reflection to affect
- Evocative empathy
- Video demonstration
After break (11:15-12:00)
- Small group skills practice
- Behavioural Correlates & Discussion
- Large group debrief
Day 4: Empathic Markers
Morning (09:00-11:00)
- Empathic markers
- When and how to use the different empathic response
- Markers for self-criticism and Unifinsished business and relevant empathic responses to track affect
- Videos
After break (11:15-13:00)
- Small group practice
- Large group debrief
- Applications of empathy for clinicians of different backgrounts
- Conclusion
Participation:
Due to the experiential nature of the course, only few seats will be available – places will be booked on a first come, first served basis.
Participants can be qualified therapists and students (Postgraduate Diploma/MSc Level or above) from Person-centred, Psychodynamic, CBT, ACT, and related backgrounds.
*Note: The didactic parts of the training as well as the Q & A’s sessions will be video-recorded.
Reservation of your place:
We have received a high interest for this training, so in order to book your place you are advised to proceed with payment ASAP. As suggested initially we cannot guarantee a place for you with only the registration form you submitted.
We appreciate that a high number of people wants to attend to the training so in order to be fair everyone, places will be confirmed on a first come first served basis based on payment order strictly. If you anticipate any issues with the above please do let me know.
Cost:
Due to the high demand of the course and so that we are fair with everyone, in order to reserve your place at an early bird rate you need to pay either the full amount or the first instalment before the 10th of February.
Fees table
| Payment Options | Choose your Plan |
|---|---|
| Early Bird Fee (*before the 10th of February) | Early bird payment in full: €390 |
| Early Bird payment plan (*completed before the 10th of March) | Payment Plan: 1st Instalment: €195 (before the 10th of February); 2nd Instalment: €195 (before the 10th of March); |
| Standard Fee (*after the 10th of March) | Payment in full: €445 |
If you have any questions, or you need clarification, do not hesitate to get in touch.
Cancellation Policy: Additionally to our Standard Cancellation Policy for this particular training, we cannot accept any cancellations after you register and pay your deposit and/or pay in full. Of course, if for any reason, the training is cancelled, your full payment or deposit will be returned to you.
