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Training Institutes/Workshops at York

The clinic is pleased to announce its 2025 continuing education program for community-based professionals. Description of each Institute and registration forms come after the calendar section.

Additional institutes/workshops will be posted as we determine availability.

EFT levels 1, 2, 3 and Couples will now be hosted through the Greenberg Institute of EFT. Please click here to see their offerings.

2025 Training Calendar**

DatesTypes of Training Institute
April 22-25, 2025Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2)(Videoconference Format) - Waitlist Only
May 16, 2025Learning to Identify Errors in Managing Resistance & Ambivalence in Therapy: A Video Analysis Workshop (Videoconference Format)
May 29-30, 2025Treating Eating Disorders Using an Emotion-Focused Approach (Videoconference Format)
June 23-25, 2025Emotion Focused Family Therapy Training (Videoconference Format)
August 8 & 15, 2025Static-99R Certified Training (Videoconference Format)
November 3-5, 2025Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule, Second Edition (ADOS-2)(Videoconference Format)
November 7, 2025Integrating Self-Compassion into Psychotherapy (Videoconference Format)
November 11-14, 2025Integrating Body-based Practices into EFT for Trauma (In-person)

Additional trainings for 2025 coming soon!

If you submit a registration form and do not hear from us within 2 business days, please follow up.

To be notified of any of our upcoming trainings/workshops, please email yupc@yorku.ca with your email address.

** York University Psychology Clinic reserves the right to cancel any registration at its sole discretion, in which case a full refund will be provided.

The ADOS-2 is a semi-structured, standardized measure of communication, social interaction, play, and restricted and receptive behaviours synonymous with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is widely considered the ‘gold standard’ measure of behavioural observation for assessment and diagnosis of ASD. With updated protocols and the addition of the Toddler Module, the ADOS-2 provides a highly accurate evaluation of current behaviour in individuals from 12 months of age to adulthood, from individuals who are nonverbal to individuals who are verbally fluent. By observing and coding these behaviors, you can obtain information that informs diagnosis, treatment planning, and educational placement.

Through completion of this introductory course, you will:

  • Learn the differences between clinical and research use of the ADOS-2
  • Learn how to select the appropriate module for working with different clients
  • Learn how to administer the tasks within each module
  • Learn how to code the specific items within each module
  • Obtain experience that will support your future administrations with the measure as you work towards independent clinical use

Session Description

Fee:

  • Option A: $975 CDN
  • Option B: $1100 CDN
  • Option C: $165 CDN

(10% discount for full-time graduate students and York faculty/staff))

Trainer: Dr. Adam McCrimmon

Registration Form ADOS-2

Teaching therapists to ‘code’ therapy process - to explicitly tune in to and pick up on these signals (or process ‘tells’), is a new direction in training to help therapists become ‘process experts’ on a moment-by-moment basis as therapy is unfolding. These process markers, especially of unproductive process (at times of resistance, noncompliance, stuckness, criticism, etc.) are often hidden and difficult to spot without training. As a result, therapists inadvertently make responsiveness errors because they don’t recognize the signs and are not taught how to use them to steer the process back on a productive track.

In this workshop, we will use in depth analysis of video examples and lots of practice with feedback. You will learn how to identify the classic observable signs of unproductive, repetitive cycles that we all fall into that keep therapy from moving forward. You will learn to become adept at quickly identifying / diagnosing the quality of the collaboration on a moment-by-moment basis in real time during therapy; and then learn how to get it back on track when it’s off. These skills cut across therapy approach and diagnosis. Westra and Di Bartolomeo (2024) underscore the importance of being attuned to micro-moments in session as a way to track client progress in real time (i.e., Process Coding) and improve therapist responsiveness. Similarly, the method of Deliberate Practice (i.e., thoughtful and systematic continuous practice with expert feedback) has continued to demonstrate superiority to more passive training models in psychotherapy workshops (e.g., Chow et al., 2024; Westra et al., 2021). This workshop will harness both methods (i.e., Process Coding and Deliberate Practice) to improve your recognition and responsiveness to challenging therapeutic moments.

As part of this workshop, you will complete a pre- and post-workshop test of your skills (follow the YouTube link to complete the first half of the test). This will give you a sample of the kinds of difficult situations we will consider in the workshop and you will learn how to score your responses in the workshop (as well as how to generate effective responses).

Podcast: The Future of Therapy Training (with Dr. Westra & Alyssa Di Bartolomeo) Listen Here

Please read Session Description for additional information and pre-workshop tasks to be completed

Fee: $300 CDN (10% discount for full-time graduate students and York faculty/staff)

Trainer May 16 2025: Dr. Henny Westra, Dr. Jordan Harris & Alyssa Di Bartolomeo

Registration Form

Eating disorders are complex psychiatric illnesses that are challenging to treat. In this workshop, Dr. Stillar will outline how to treat Anorexia Nervosa, Bulimia Nervosa, and Binge-Eating Disorder, from an Emotion-focused Therapy lens. The emotion-processing difficulties that are often at the core of eating disorders make EFT a compelling approach to eating disorder treatment. Dr. Stillar will discuss eating disorders in terms of emotion theory and teach participants how to formulate an EFT case conceptualization for an eating disorder client. Furthermore, she will teach participants how to use the two-chair dialogue intervention to treat eating disorder cases. Additionally, she will also show video demonstrations of several EFT interventions that she commonly uses in her practice with eating disorder clients such as, focusing, self-soothing, and chair work.

Learning Objectives:

After attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

  1. Formulate an EFT case conceptualization for a client with an eating disorder.
  2. Understand how emotion-processing deficits are often at the core of eating disorder symptoms.
  3. Utilize the two-chair dialogue EFT intervention to treat a client with an eating disorder.
  4. Understand how EFT interventions facilitate the development of healthy emotion processing and emotion regulation capabilities within an individual with an eating disorder diagnosis.

Fee: $600 CAD (10% discount for full-time graduate students and York faculty/staff)

Trainer: Dr. Amanda Stillar

Registration form EFT ED

The essence of EFFT is to afford caregivers a role in supporting their loved one’s well-being, treatment and/or recovery, regardless of their age, level of motivation or involvement in formal treatment themselves. The clinician’s role is to support parents and caregivers to increase their involvement in three domains including: 1. behavior coaching, 2. emotion coaching and in the use of 3. therapeutic apologies, if relevant. A fourth module involves supporting caregivers to identify, understand, and transform “emotion blocks” that can lead to therapy-interfering attitudes or behaviors in caregivers. A similar module will be introduced to identify and transform clinician blocks.

Dr. Stillar will introduce EFFT theory and skills, engaging participants using didactic and experiential learning, including skills and techniques that can be integrated into existing treatment models for those clients & families who do not respond to standard care. Videos will also be shared for demonstration purposes.

Session Description

Fee: $900 CAD (10% discount for full-time graduate students and York faculty/staff)

Trainer: Dr. Amanda Stillar

Registration form EFFT

Static–99R is an actuarial tool that combines readily available information to assess sexual recidivism risk among adult males with a history of sexual crime. It has moderate accuracy in ranking individuals according to their relative risk for sexual recidivism and is widely accepted by the scientific community and applied professionals.

Participants will engage in a dynamic and highly interactive environment that utilizes game elements, pre-training videos, and case-based learning designed to replicate applied practice. The intended audience is anyone interested in assessing sexual offending risk among adult males.

Learning Objectives

  • Report and interpret Static-99R scores
  • Understand the background and research supporting Static-99R
  • Select appropriate populations with whom to score Static-99R
  • Apply (2016) Static-99R coding rules to most types of cases

Session Description

Fee: $300 CDN (10% discount for full-time graduate students and York faculty/staff)

Trainer: Dr. Andrew E. Brankley

Registration Form

The ADOS-2 is a semi-structured, standardized measure of communication, social interaction, play, and restricted and receptive behaviours synonymous with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It is widely considered the ‘gold standard’ measure of behavioural observation for assessment and diagnosis of ASD. With updated protocols and the addition of the Toddler Module, the ADOS-2 provides a highly accurate evaluation of current behaviour in individuals from 12 months of age to adulthood, from individuals who are nonverbal to individuals who are verbally fluent. By observing and coding these behaviors, you can obtain information that informs diagnosis, treatment planning, and educational placement.

Through completion of this introductory course, you will:

  • Learn the differences between clinical and research use of the ADOS-2
  • Learn how to select the appropriate module for working with different clients
  • Learn how to administer the tasks within each module
  • Learn how to code the specific items within each module
  • Obtain experience that will support your future administrations with the measure as you work towards independent clinical use

Session Description

Fee:

  • Option A: $975 CDN
  • Option B: $1100 CDN
  • Option C: $165 CDN

(10% discount for full-time graduate students and York faculty/staff)

Trainer: Dr. Adam McCrimmon

Registration Form

Many therapists have been introduced to the concept of self-compassion, but they may not have been taught how to explicitly integrate this knowledge into clinical practice. In this workshop, we will explore how self-compassion can be integrated into clinical work on three levels (1) Therapists presence – which includes how clinicians relate to themselves and their own challenges with compassion (2) Therapeutic alliance – which includes therapists presence and compassion with their clients, in a safe and supportive therapeutic relationship and (3) self-compassion based interventions, offering these to clients to help them to be with difficult experiences and emotions in sessions, and at home.

Being a compassion-based therapist requires that we, as therapists, first have this experience with ourselves. Experiential practices and didactic work will be integrated into this workshop. This workshop will offer clinicians core skills and practices to cultivate presence and self-compassion as a foundation for strong and effective therapeutic relationships, self-care. Key self-compassion practices will also be offered that can be introduced to clients for supporting themselves to be more compassionate with difficult experiences and emotions, to allow for deeper therapeutic work.


​Learning Objectives:

  • Describe key principles for integrating self-compassion into clinical practice
  • Explore an empirically based model of therapeutic presence
  • Discover the neurophysiological underpinnings of therapeutic presence, client safety, and effective clinical relationships
  • Learn about self-compassion as a resource to both enhance therapists’ presence and to work with the barriers to presence
  • Enhance the therapeutic relationship through compassion and self-compassion practices during the clinical hour
  • Explore self-compassion practices that can be introduced to clients for supporting themselves to be more compassionate with difficult experiences and emotions, to allow for deeper therapeutic work.

Session Description

Fee: $300 CDN

(10% discount for full-time graduate students and York faculty/staff)

Trainer: Dr. Shari Geller

Registration Form

This workshop will provide training in body-based interventions that are applicable in EFT, in general, and EFT for trauma, in particular. Change in EFT is contingent on clients’ awareness of emotion, capacity to regulate and explore emotional experience, and to access adaptive emotion. This is the essence of emotional transformation regardless of the procedure. Yet anyone learning and practicing EFT will come across clients who struggle in these areas, who are “stuck”, and have difficulties engaging in standard EFT procedures. This can be particularly true when working with complex trauma such as child abuse and neglect.

It is well recognized that traumatic experiences are embodied, thus several body-based approaches to trauma therapy have been developed. As well, a fundamental principle of EFT is that emotion, per se, is embodied. Thus, attention to bodily experience is intrinsic to standard EFT intervention. Attention to the body can provide entry into and deepen emotional experience, and help shift maladaptive emotions, for example in two-chair dialogues for fear and shame. A more explicit focus on bodily experience can augment EFT intervention and help those clients who struggle to productively engage in EFT procedures.

This training will focus on body-based interventions designed to enhance positive experiences that are essential to emotional transformation and change in EFT. These include (1) grounding to promote calm and present-centered awareness, (2) regulation to promote safety and counter fear, (3) empowerment to promote agency and counter powerlessness, (4) surrender/letting go to counter over-control, and (5) compassion to counter shame and rejecting anger of significant others. This approach to body-based practice incorporates a rich variety of tools drawn from yoga therapy, including breath work, postures, visualization/imagery, establishing intentions, focus on opposites, meditation, and existential/spiritual practices.

Participants will learn the body-based interventions that are most relevant to the different phases of therapy, to identify in-session markers for introducing body-based intervention, and how to fully integrate these interventions into EFT sessions and procedures (e.g., focusing, imaginal confrontation of perpetrators, two-chair dialogues, and memory work).  

Prerequisites: Participants must be familiar with basic EFT theory and intervention (e.g., Level One EFT or equivalent).

Session Description

Fee: $1525 CDN

(10% discount for full-time graduate students and York faculty/staff)

Trainer: Dr. Sandra Paivio

Registration Form EFT Trauma

When cancellations are made more than 14 days prior to the workshop date, you have a choice: receive a refund (less $50.00 administration charge) or a credit for the full amount (less $20.00) to any future York University Psychology Clinic (YUPC) workshop.

If cancellation is received fewer than 14 days prior to the workshop date you will receive a credit (less $50.00 administration charge) to any future YUPC workshop.

We regret that a refund/credit cannot be offered if your cancellation is not received at least one full business day prior to the day of the workshop. Alternatively, a colleague may attend in your place at no extra cost. Please notify us in advance of the name of the person attending.

The 3 & 4 day Institutes requires a $250.00 non-refundable deposit. These non-refundable deposits are not transferable unless we are able to fill the vacancy created by the change in plans. Please note, that if registration payment is transferred it is only transferable once.

When cancellations are made 28 days prior to the workshop date, you have a choice: receive a refund (less the $250.00 non-refundable deposit)or a credit towards a future Institute.

We regret that a refund/credit cannot be offered if your cancellation is received with fewer than a 28-day notice prior to the workshop date.