Restoring Broken Bonds: Healing Relationship Betrayals with Emotionally Focused Therapy

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Dates: Thursday, April 30 and Friday, May 1, 2026, 9:00 am - 4:30 pm

Location: Wyndham Bloomington - Mall of America: 1901 Killebrew Dr, Bloomington, MN 55425

Pre-requisite: Must have taken the EFT Externship

Our Trainers:

Lisa Palmer-Olsen, Psy.D. is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in San Diego California. She is a Certified EFT Therapist, Trainer, and Supervisor, and is a Founder and one of the Directors of the Emotionally Focused Couples Training and Research Institute at Alliant International University. Lisa completed her dissertation research on how to train and teach Emotionally Focused Couples therapy to professionals. Dr. Sue Johnson, the founder of EFT, and Dr. Scott Woolley, were part of her dissertation committee. Dr. Palmer-Olsen’s primary clinical and research interests are in the areas of couple and family therapy; specifically with those couples and families dealing with trauma and attachment related struggles. She is an AAMFT clinical member and approved AAMFT supervisor.

James Furrow, Ph.D., is a recognized leader in the development and practice of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) with couples and families. Together with EFT originator, Dr. Susan Johnson, Jim co-authored Becoming an EFT Therapist: The Workbook and The EFT Casebook, and Emotionally Focused Family Therapy: Restoring Connection and Promoting Resilience. His presentations are well regarded nationally and internationally for their substantive, practical, and inspiring focus. Jim maintains an active research program studying the process of EFT and its outcome with couples and families. His research appears in Applied Developmental Science, Developmental Psychology, Journal of Couple and Relationship Therapy, Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, Journal of Systemic Therapies, and Psychology and Spirituality. Formerly Jim served as the Freed Professor of Marital and Family Therapy at Fuller Graduate School of Psychology where he trained psychologists and marital and family therapists in couple therapy for over two decades. He is a clinical fellow and an approved supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, a member of the National Council on Family Relations, and a Certified Family Life Education. He is a certified EFT therapist, supervisor, and trainer. 

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

Relationship betrayals are a common and often complex challenge for partners and therapists working to repair and rebuild trust and renew intimacy.  Betrayals often vary in their source (e.g. emotional, sexual, financial, etc.) but their impact is typical.  Deception leads to fractured trust and even the most experienced therapist can feel overwhelmed guiding partners’ through the bumpy path from crisis to repair. 

This workshop provides therapists a guide and map through the stages of betrayal recovery increasing focus and confidence in a treatment process that promises repair and restoration of a trusting bond.  Following the proven practices of Emotionally Focused Therapy, this training illustrates how betrayals as an “attachment injury” can be effectively repaired through the EFT process of change. 

The workshop format offers opportunities to explore moment to moment analysis and discussion of betrayal repair and the revisit the clinical decision-making needed to stay on a path of recovery.  Key moments and clinical interventions are reviewed that support managing the emotional storms, creating a shared story for the betrayal, and walking through the uncertainty and hurt toward rebuilt trust and intimacy.

KEY POINTS OF WORKSHOP

  • Conceptualize issues of deception as a type of "attachment injury" where a fundamental breach of trust inhibits partner's ability to resolve an attachment injury.

  • Provide practical direction in treating relational betrayals as attachment injuries.

  • Explore the relationship of attachment security and recovery from these betrayals through original research.

  • Review steps in an empirical supported approach to attachment injury resolution with a particular focus on recovery from relational betrayal. 

  • Examine key moments in the process of resolving attachment injuries through video and case demonstration examples by the EFT Trainers.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will be able to:

  1. Identify the impact of relationship betrayal on a couple relationship.

  2. Identify the impact of relationship betrayal on the process of couple therapy

  3. Critique partner betrayals and related distress using attachment theory. 

  4. Identify factors associated with resilience in face of relationship loss, trauma, and adjustment.

  5. Describe the process and characteristics of recovery from a relationship betrayal. 

  6. Conceptualize the treatment of attachment injuries within the EFT process of change.

  7. Review process for disclosure of a relationship betrayal.

  8. Apply EFT interventions that foster stabilization in the context of heightened distress common following disclosure of relationship betrayals.

  9. Practice EFT interventions used in accessing and processing emotional blocks associated with relationship betrayals.

  10. Recommend partner’s access and sharing of pain, loss, and remorse associated related to an attachment injury. 

  11. Practice EFT interventions and practices that enable couples to renew trust and re-engage new patterns of security following a relationship injury.

Costs:

$325 for interns/students
$375 for pre-licensed
$425 for fully licensed
$20 discount for MNCEFT members- Members! Make sure to pick the appropriate “level” from the drop down menu on the bottom of the registration page to ensure you are getting your discount!

Registration closes at 10 pm on Saturday, April 25th, 2026.

Pre-requisite: Must have taken the EFT Externship

Continuing Education Credits: We will apply for 12 CEUs by the MN Board of MFT including 1 Cultural CEU and 1 Ethics CEU. Check with your board to see if you can transfer CEUs if you have a different credential.

Diversity: We aim to cultivate a climate of inclusion, an environment where all can feel safe, valued, cared for, and given an opportunity to form meaningful connections with each other.  In all facets of our work we strive to embody what we hope to see in the world – a just, loving humanity and community in which people are free to be themselves fully – where people can embrace their most basic universal human attachment needs without fear of persecution or marginalization as a result of religion, race, ethnic or national origin, sexual/affectional orientation and preferences, gender expression, family structure, age, class, mental health, physical character or disability.  These values are inherent in the attachment science and humanistic approach to intervention that all our work is based on.

Cancellation Policy: If you need to cancel. please email Amanda Pikala at amanda@amandapikala.com. If you cancel before April 16th, 2026 you will receive a full refund, minus a 5% administrative fee. If you cancel on or after April 16th, 2026, no refund will be issued.