Designed for Parents and Mental Health Professionals.
This introductory course provides the foundations of Dr. Joanne Dolhanty’s EFST® for Parents. Participants learn a practical, evidence-based approach that helps parents navigate both their own emotions and their child’s emotional experiences, strengthen motivation for change, and transform relationships within the family.
EFST® equips parents with simple yet powerful skills that foster emotional connection, resilience, and healing. Through learning to understand and respond effectively to emotions, parents become better positioned to support their child through mental health challenges and life’s difficulties.
EFST® is backed by a growing body of research demonstrating its effectiveness. Studies show that even this foundational course can create meaningful and lasting change for both parents and children.
In one large randomized clinical trial, only the parents attended the EFST® course; the children experiencing mental health difficulties received no direct intervention. Children were assessed before the course, after the course, and again at follow-up. Despite not participating themselves, the children showed significant improvements in their mental health and well-being. Most remarkably, at the 12-month follow-up, many no longer required mental health treatment.
These findings highlight a central principle of EFST®: when parents are empowered with the right emotional skills, they can become a powerful force for change in their child’s recovery and well-being.
PARENTS:
This course will be relevant to parents who have a loved one of any age (young child, adolescent or adult child) suffering from a mental health or physical health problem, or other problems such as social or educational struggles.
Parents who register for this course are strongly encouraged to be followed by a clinician.
PROFESSIONALS:
This course will be relevant to mental health professionals who are interested in the role parents can play in supporting their young, teen, or adult child.
This is the first course in EFST-P training for professionals to experience how the core program is delivered to parents.
Mental health professionals may recommend this course to parents as an introduction or supplement to their ongoing work together.
Professionals will complete this course as the first step in learning how to facilitate EFST® programming with parents. In addition to the above goals and objectives, they will observe and experience:
