BEFT Conference
Date: 25th April 2026 Venue: VAI London
09:15 - 16:45
Whether you are new to Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) or already certified, this in-person conference promises an engaging and inspiring day, bringing together members of the British EFT Centre alongside practitioners from across the wider EFT community. It’s a unique opportunity to learn, connect, and be part of a shared EFT experience, face to face.
Open to all BEFT Centre members and ICEEFT members not resident in Britain, the conference welcomes EFT practitioners at every stage of their professional journey, from trainees to experienced clinicians.
We are committed to keeping conference fees as accessible as possible in order to support the ongoing development of the EFT community. All profits directly support the work of the British EFT Centre and enable us to keep associate membership free of charge and open to all who are interested, with particular support for those based in Britain.
Resources:
Links to session handouts will be provided in advance of the event. We recommend having these materials available during the sessions you attend to help you get the most from the conference.
Location:
Date: 25th April 2026
Location: VAI (Voluntary Action Islington) London
Start/Finish: 09:15 - 16:45
Fee: £75 - early bird fee until 27th March + presenter fee| Time | Title | Speaker |
|---|---|---|
| 09:15 - 09:30 | Registration | - |
| 09:30 - 09:45 | Opening of the conference | Sarah McConnell, BEFT Co-Director |
| 09:45 - 10:45 | Key Note: All the EFTs: Thinking Systemically, Conceptualising Attachmently, Doing Emotionally | Dr. Robert Allan |
| 10:45 - 11:00 | BREAK | - |
| 11:00 - 12:00 | 1 of 2 Parallel Sessions: Sex, Attachment & Courage to Want | Matt Davies |
| 11:00 - 12:00 | 2 of 2 Parallel Sessions: Transforming Highly Reactive Relationships | Helene Igwebuike |
| 12:00 - 12:30 | BEFT Centre Session / Community Session | Janine Murray |
| 12:30 - 13:30 | Lunch. Opportunity to be interviewed by Zehra, Operations Co-Ordinator | - |
| 13:30 - 14:00 | In Safe Hands - Diversity in EFT Therapy | Sandra Taylor |
| 14:00 - 14:30 | Neurodiversity - SIG - | Fiona Pusey |
| 14:30 - 15:15 | 1 of 2 Parallel Sessions: Shaping Engaged Encounters in EFIT | Helene Igwebuike |
| 14:30 - 15:15 | 2 of 2 Parallel Sessions: EFT with partners impacted by dementia | Sandra Taylor |
| 15:15 - 15:30 | Break | - |
| 15:30 - 16:30 | 1 of 2 Parallel Sessions: EFT therapist, Heal and Take care… of thyself first! Self-Of-the Therapist. Radical, and easy, everyday tools for staying healthy and younger for longer. | Gulya Diyarova |
| 15:30 - 16:30 | What does it mean to be a Process Consultant? | Sarah McConnell |
| 16:30 - 16:45 | Closing of Conference | Sarah McConnell BEFT Co-Director |
All the EFTs: Thinking Systemically, Conceptualising Attachmently, Doing Emotionally.
We have seen an evolution to a clearer delineation of three modalities in our EFT work: EFCT, EFIT, and EFFT over the last few years. While EFCT goes back to Sue’s doctoral research in the early/mid 1980s and EFIT and EFFT work have been taking place for a decade or two as well, we now train, supervise, and certify each modality separately. Along with the ongoing call to work with ever more complexity in terms of clinical presentation, identities, culture, and other factors that contribute to clinical outcome, we have a lot to consider as we explore our EFT work. This keynote address will briefly outline the evolution to three modalities in our EFT work and how working more systemically relates to a better clinical experience and improved clinical outcomes.
“I have been helping couples, individuals, and families improve their most important relationships, health, and well-being for over 30 years now. I have been practicing psychotherapy since 2004 in a variety of settings including community mental health, hospitals, employee assistance programs, and private practice, and I am a Senior Lecturer at the University of Roehmapton London. In my private practice, I work with individuals, couples/relationships, and families dealing with issues such as anxiety, depression, breach in trust, adjustment to life transitions, trauma, stress, couples struggling in their relationship as well as others.”
Dr. Robert Allan PhD
Sex, Attachement and the Courage to Want – with Matt Davies
Studies have shown that Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) can have powerful effects on sexual relationships. Securely attached partners generally experience greater satisfaction and connection than those who are anxiously or avoidantly attached. In this workshop, we will explore both traditional sex and therapy models that illustrate the dynamics of sexual encounters and newer approaches that still leave important questions unanswered: How are sexual experiences facilitated in the first place? What allows us to truly want – and to express that want with courage and clarity?
Desire Is one of our most human experiences – yet for many people, the ability to desire sexual intimacy can feel too exposing. Feelings of shame often arise – shame about wanting too much, too little or in the “wrong” way – leading to confusion, guardedness, or silence. For others, the question of what is truly wanted in a sexual exchange may never have been asked at all.
This session invites gentle curiosity about the experiences. Through reflection, discussion, and an experiential exercise exploring non-sexual touch and consent, we will consider how emotion attachment, and vulnerablility shape our capacity for desire and connection.
Matt Davies.
He specialises in helping couples with marriages and relationships. He is a licensed psychotherapist with a humanistic and integrative training from Spectrum, after which he went on to graduate with an MSc in Psychosexual & Relationship Therapy from the Tavistock. He is an accredited member of the regulatory bodies: United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP), College of Sexual and Relationship Therapists (COSRT) and United Kingdom Association of Humanistic Psychology Practitioners (UKAHPP), where he also serves on the Accreditation Committee. He is in private practice in London and Sussex. He recently co-authored with his wife Sarah Davies the book ‘You, Me and the Space Between Us – How to (Re) build your relationship’. In his spare time he plays the violin in two Sussex Orchestras and enjoys exploring form and pattern through classical and modern projective geometry.
Shaping Engaged Encounters in EFIT – with Helene Igwebuike
In this workshop we explore and demonstrate when, why and how to set up different kinds of engaged encounters with individual clients. Just as with couples, the engaged encounter is at the very heart of EFIT as a way to access, deepen and fully transform the emotional connection with oneself and relevant others. It is crucial to help clients to move beyond ‘talking about’ emotions to feeling and speaking ‘from’ and directly ‘to’ different aspects of self and imagined others.. The challenge is knowing when and what to encounter and why. Come along to nail the Encounter!
Helene Igwebuike, MA.
An ICEEFT-certified Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer, I offer a warm, non-judgemental space where couples can safely explore their emotions, build understanding, and strengthen their relationships. I work in private practice and bring both personal and professional experience to my work.
Transforming Highly Reactive Relationships – with Helene Igwebuike
This workshop will focus on how to help couples transform reactivity to a resource for self-regulation and co-regulation. We will cover key concepts and interventions for effectively holding both partners and their triggered aspects of self so they can share their vulnerability from a place of greater awareness, compassion and clarity. You will become more skillful in intervening to help partners regulate their reactive emotions in the heat of the moment and transform reactivity to connectivity, curiosity and accessible responsive engaged (ARE) communication.
Helene Igwebuike, MA.
An ICEEFT-certified Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist, Supervisor, and Trainer, I offer a warm, non-judgemental space where couples can safely explore their emotions, build understanding, and strengthen their relationships. I work in private practice and bring both personal and professional experience to my work.
EFT with partners impacted by dementia – with Sandra Taylor
EFT has a great deal to offer people impactedby dementia, though there continues to be little published on any specific humanistic psychotherapeutic work in this area. In this workshop we will explore how therapists can work with partnerswhere one has a diagnosis of dementia, adjusting EFT concepts and skills whilst continuing to be clearly doing EFT. All therapists may find this workshop helpful as the numbers of people being diagnosed in the early stage of a dementia increases.
Sandra taylor, PhD.
Sandra has lived experience of being a partner with a person living with dementia and is now refocusing her work to EFT with people impacted by dementia, particularly with an LGBTQ+ lens. She is writing a chapter in a new Handbook of EFT on this theme. She 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.
“EFT therapist, Heal and Take care… of thyself first!”Self-Of-the Therapist. Radical, and easy, everyday tools for staying healthy and younger for longer.” – with Gulya Diyarova
This highly experiential EFT-informed session invites therapists to explore self-care through an integrated body–mind lens. Drawing on attachment and trauma theory, polyvagal and neuro-somatic principles, and body-based practices, the workshop offers simple, everyday tools to support emotional and physical wellbeing, vitality, and longevity in therapeutic practice.
G
ulya Diyarova, MSc Tavistock, UKCP, Acc. COSRT, ICEEFT Cert.
Gulya Diyarova is an ICEEFT-certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor, psychosexual and relationship therapist, and founding director of the EFT International School and EFT Clinic in London. A former medical doctor and clinical neurologist, she was instrumental in bringing EFT to the UK and has led EFT training, supervision, and workshops nationally and internationally since 2009.
What does it mean to be a Process Consultant? – with Sarah McConell
In training and supervision we often hear that EFT therapists are “Process Consultants” – that we follow the client’s process and slow it down so that they can become more aware of their own experience. But what does being a ProcessConsultant really mean? How do we learn to focus on the client’s process rather than the content that they bring? Through didactic learning, videos, exercises and discussion, we’ll explore this concept and get to the nitty gritty of process consulting.
Sarah McConnell, MA, EFT Trainer
If you are not able to pay the fee but want to attend, or you have any questions, email Zehra: zehrabutt@beftcentre.org