Join us for an evening with Prof. Leslie Greenberg, Founder of EFT as he introduces his newest book: “Becoming Emotion-Focused.”
We will also be launching Caper Institute’s Membership Community during this Webinar!
About the Speaker
Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D. is Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Psychology at York University in Toronto, Ontario. He is the main developer of Emotion-Focused Therapy and the board advisory member of International Society for Emotion Focused Therapy, ISEFT. He was the Director of the York University Psychotherapy Research Clinic where he conducted many studies on EFT and trained many EFT therapists. He has authored the major texts on Emotion-focused approaches to treatment, and is the senior author on the original texts on Emotion-focused approaches to treatment of individuals and couples.
Date: Thursday, 29 January 2026
Time: 9:00 – 10:00 PM (SGT)
Register here!
Book Synopsis:
“On Becoming Emotion Focused” is a reflective, semi-autobiographical book where Leslie Greenberg traces how his life, training, and research converged into the development of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) and an “emotion-focused” therapeutic stance.[1][2][3] It explores whether the capacity for emotion-focused attunement is innate or can be deliberately cultivated, using his own history as a case study in how therapists learn to work deeply and skillfully with emotion.[2][3]
Core focus of the book
Greenberg describes becoming emotion focused as both a scientific–theoretical project and a personal journey, showing how key life experiences, mentors, and clinical moments shaped the principles of EFT.[2][3] He highlights how his emerging view of emotion as primary in human functioning led to specific therapeutic practices aimed at helping clients access, tolerate, and transform painful emotions rather than simply regulate or suppress them.[4]
Structure and themes
The book interweaves chapters explaining the foundations of EFT with chapters about Greenberg’s own life, making visible the “threads” that informed the model’s evolution.[2][5] Themes include the role of implicit and explicit learning in therapist development, the centrality of the therapeutic relationship, and the idea that one “has to feel a feeling in order to change it.”[2][4]
Takeaways for therapists
For practitioners, the book functions as a kind of developmental guide, suggesting that emotion-focused skills grow from personal emotional work, experiential training, and close attention to moment-to-moment process in sessions.[6][2][4] It encourages therapists to see their own biography and emotional development as inseparable from their clinical style, and to cultivate presence, empathy, and comfort with intense affect as the ground of EFT technique.[2][4]
Citations:
[1] On Becoming Emotion Focused by Leslie S. Greenberg https://www.karnacbooks.com/product/on-becoming-emotion-focused/98350/
[2] On Becoming Emotion Focused https://www.brownsbfs.co.uk/Product/Greenberg-Leslie-S/On-Becoming-Emotion-Focused/9781433843327
[3] On Becoming Emotion Focused https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/on-becoming-emotion-focused
[4] Emotion-Focused Therapy – Revised Edition https://eftiran.ir/files/8672232476.pdf
[5] On Becoming Emotion Focused by Leslie S. Greenberg https://www.karnacbooks.com/ProductTOC.asp?PID=98350
[6] Leslie Greenberg on Emotion-Focused Therapy: From certainty through chaos to complexity https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYvcLJcpghY
[7] On Becoming Emotion Focused https://www.vitalsource.com/products/on-becoming-emotion-focused-leslie-s-greenberg-v9781433843334
[8] On Becoming Emotion Focused – Lourdes University Online Bookstore https://lourdes.ecampus.com/becoming-emotion-focused-greenberg-leslie/bk/9781433843327
[9] On Becoming Emotion Focused by Leslie S. Greenberg https://www.booktopia.com.au/on-becoming-emotion-focused-leslie-s-greenberg/book/9781433843327.html
[10] Emotion-Focused Therapy https://www.dubraybooks.ie/product/emotion-focused-therapy-9781433826306
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