Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFCT) Externship - Edinburgh
Led by ICEEFT certified EFT trainers Sandra Taylor and Sarah McConnell
26-29 October 2026
The Quaker Meeting House, Edinburgh
26-29 October 2026
The Quaker Meeting House, Edinburgh
Join us in Edinburgh this October
We're delighted to be bringing the Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT) Externship to Edinburgh for the first time, creating an opportunity for therapists in Scotland and beyond to experience this internationally recognised training in one of Europe's most inspiring cities.
This course is organised by the British EFT Centre (BEFT).
Click here for further information and to register: EFCT In-Person Edinburgh Oct 2026 – BEFT Centre
We're delighted to be bringing the Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT) Externship to Edinburgh for the first time, creating an opportunity for therapists in Scotland and beyond to experience this internationally recognised training in one of Europe's most inspiring cities.
This course is organised by the British EFT Centre (BEFT).
Click here for further information and to register: EFCT In-Person Edinburgh Oct 2026 – BEFT Centre
What is Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy?
Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy offers a clear and compassionate way of understanding relationship distress through the lens of attachment, recognising that attachment is always lived and expressed within wider personal, interpersonal, cultural and social contexts.
Grounded in attachment theory and supported by a substantial and growing body of research, EFCT helps therapists understand the emotional patterns that shape relationships while offering a clear route and method for helping partners create lasting change.
The EFCT Externship is an internationally recognised 24-hour introductory training in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy. Delivered over four days, it combines live and recorded therapy sessions, presentations of theory and clinical practice, demonstrations, experiential skills training, and discussions of clinical material and therapeutic process.
Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy offers a clear and compassionate way of understanding relationship distress through the lens of attachment, recognising that attachment is always lived and expressed within wider personal, interpersonal, cultural and social contexts.
Grounded in attachment theory and supported by a substantial and growing body of research, EFCT helps therapists understand the emotional patterns that shape relationships while offering a clear route and method for helping partners create lasting change.
The EFCT Externship is an internationally recognised 24-hour introductory training in Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy. Delivered over four days, it combines live and recorded therapy sessions, presentations of theory and clinical practice, demonstrations, experiential skills training, and discussions of clinical material and therapeutic process.
Why attend an Externship?
Whether you're taking your first steps in working with partners or bringing many years of experience, the Externship offers a rich grounding in the theory and practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, providing a clear route and method for understanding relationship distress and working effectively with partners.
The aim is not simply to learn a model, but to begin seeing relationships, relationship distress and therapeutic change in a new light.
It is an opportunity to deepen your understanding of relationships, reflect on your own therapeutic practice, and learn alongside colleagues who share your curiosity and commitment to helping partners strengthen emotional connection.
Whether you're taking your first steps in working with partners or bringing many years of experience, the Externship offers a rich grounding in the theory and practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, providing a clear route and method for understanding relationship distress and working effectively with partners.
The aim is not simply to learn a model, but to begin seeing relationships, relationship distress and therapeutic change in a new light.
It is an opportunity to deepen your understanding of relationships, reflect on your own therapeutic practice, and learn alongside colleagues who share your curiosity and commitment to helping partners strengthen emotional connection.
Learning together
Sarah and I are passionate about creating a learning environment that is warm, thoughtful and engaging, where therapists are encouraged to think deeply, ask questions and develop their own way of working within EFCT. Together, we bring many years of experience as therapists, supervisors, and trainers and we look forward to creating a space in which therapists can think deeply, practise confidently and enjoy learning alongside one another.
Throughout the training, attachment remains central, while we also attend carefully to the wider contexts in which relationships are lived. People's identities, histories, families, communities and social worlds all shape relationship experience, and understanding those contexts enriches both our formulation and our therapeutic work.
Our aim is for you to leave not only with new knowledge and practical skills, but with greater confidence in helping partners explore the emotional meanings beneath their distressed cycles of interaction, shaping conversations in which they can more vulnerably share these experiences with one another and discover what becomes possible when they are truly heard, received and responded to.
Sarah and I are passionate about creating a learning environment that is warm, thoughtful and engaging, where therapists are encouraged to think deeply, ask questions and develop their own way of working within EFCT. Together, we bring many years of experience as therapists, supervisors, and trainers and we look forward to creating a space in which therapists can think deeply, practise confidently and enjoy learning alongside one another.
Throughout the training, attachment remains central, while we also attend carefully to the wider contexts in which relationships are lived. People's identities, histories, families, communities and social worlds all shape relationship experience, and understanding those contexts enriches both our formulation and our therapeutic work.
Our aim is for you to leave not only with new knowledge and practical skills, but with greater confidence in helping partners explore the emotional meanings beneath their distressed cycles of interaction, shaping conversations in which they can more vulnerably share these experiences with one another and discover what becomes possible when they are truly heard, received and responded to.
Together in Edinburgh
One of the pleasures of attending an Externship is the opportunity to step away from the demands of everyday clinical work and immerse yourself in four days of learning alongside colleagues who share your curiosity about relationships and therapeutic change.
The Quaker Meeting House provides a welcoming and thoughtful environment for that learning. Situated in the heart of Edinburgh, it offers a calm, light-filled space where we can think deeply together, develop new ideas and where we can think deeply together, develop new ideas and immerse ourselves in the theory and practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy.
Edinburgh provides a wonderful setting in which to learn, reflect and renew. One of Europe's most beautiful and historic cities, it offers magnificent architecture, welcoming cafés, green spaces, museums, galleries and a vibrant cultural life. Many therapists choose to arrive early or stay a little longer, making the Externship part of a richer experience of learning, reflection and renewal.
Some of the richest learning happens beyond the training room—in conversations over coffee, sharing ideas with colleagues, or walking through the city together after the day's teaching. Those informal conversations often become just as memorable as the learning itself, creating professional relationships that continue long after the Externship has finished.
One of the pleasures of attending an Externship is the opportunity to step away from the demands of everyday clinical work and immerse yourself in four days of learning alongside colleagues who share your curiosity about relationships and therapeutic change.
The Quaker Meeting House provides a welcoming and thoughtful environment for that learning. Situated in the heart of Edinburgh, it offers a calm, light-filled space where we can think deeply together, develop new ideas and where we can think deeply together, develop new ideas and immerse ourselves in the theory and practice of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy.
Edinburgh provides a wonderful setting in which to learn, reflect and renew. One of Europe's most beautiful and historic cities, it offers magnificent architecture, welcoming cafés, green spaces, museums, galleries and a vibrant cultural life. Many therapists choose to arrive early or stay a little longer, making the Externship part of a richer experience of learning, reflection and renewal.
Some of the richest learning happens beyond the training room—in conversations over coffee, sharing ideas with colleagues, or walking through the city together after the day's teaching. Those informal conversations often become just as memorable as the learning itself, creating professional relationships that continue long after the Externship has finished.
Practical information
For full course information, fees and booking, please visit the British EFT Centre (BEFT) course webpage.
This ICEEFT-endorsed Externship is organised by the British EFT Centre (BEFT). Therapists may attend Externships anywhere in the world, whether face-to-face or online, regardless of where they live.
Participants
You are eligible to apply if you:
For full course information, fees and booking, please visit the British EFT Centre (BEFT) course webpage.
This ICEEFT-endorsed Externship is organised by the British EFT Centre (BEFT). Therapists may attend Externships anywhere in the world, whether face-to-face or online, regardless of where they live.
Participants
You are eligible to apply if you:
- are a member of a recognised counselling or mental health professional organisation, or are a student on a substantial counselling or mental health training programme; and
- would like to develop your understanding of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy, particularly in relation to working with partners.
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Diversity and widening participation
We warmly welcome therapists in all their diversity. We recognise that belonging to one or more minority groups, or working primarily with minority communities, may make the cost of training more difficult to meet. Several widening participation reduced-fee places are available. Please click here for further information about eligibility and how to apply. |
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The trainers:
Sandra Taylor, PhD, is an ICEEFT certified EFT Trainer, Supervisor and Therapist based in Lancashire, England. She has an Advanced Specialist Diploma in Gender, Sex and Relationship Diversity Psychotherapy from Pink Therapy.
Sandra works in private practice and is a Co-Director of the British EFT Centre www.beftcentre.org She trains in Britain and internationally, face to face and online. For 5 years she ran, along with Robert Allan, LGBTQ+ Centred Externships and Core Skills. Her current interest is in developing dementia affirmative EFT, for LGBTQ+ people in particular. Some of Sandra’s identities are that she is a lesbian/queer cis-gender female, white, disabled, widowed and Catholic. Sandra is an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. She previously worked as Director of Relationship Counselling in a national charity, and was a Senior Lecturer providing counsellor trainer at the University of Cumbria after more than 10 years as an Occupational Therapist in a range of mental health settings including a mental health unit for deaf people. Sandra is a warm, engaging and knowledgeable trainer who is passionate about enabling therapists to learn EFT in its simplicity and subtle complexity, with its general principles and its adjustments to affirm clients in their intersectional identities. |
Sarah McConnell, MA is an experienced couple and family therapist in independent practice in Derbyshire, North West England. She is UKCP registered and also licensed as an LMFT-S in Texas. Sarah trained in Gestalt Therapy at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland, USA and then completed her Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy in Houston, Texas after working in the oil and gas industry as an executive leadership trainer and professional coach for 27 years. Sarah worked in independent practice in Houston and was one of the therapists involved in research in Houston using EFT couples therapy with the parents of autistic children demonstrating EFCT’s effectiveness over time (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28419496/).
Sarah moved back to the UK in 2016, and is now a Co-Director of the British EFT Centre. She is passionate in continuing to explore how neurodivergent clients can be better understood in therapy, and in developing EFFT and EFIT in Great Britain. |