Our Statement on Belonging
We were drawn to Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) because it validated our experience as human beings.
We believe our humanity suffers when we deny the experience of any other human being.
We believe our humanity is only complete when there is room for everyone’s experience.
We believe everyone has the right to acceptance and belonging.
We believe EFT has the power, when coupled with curiosity and receptivity, to create openings for everyone to learn to embrace and befriend their inner world and show up as more fully themselves in the world and in their most important relationships.
We believe we should treat our community of therapists with the same care and consideration with which we treat our clients.
We make this statement now because we would never expect our clients to show up authentically and risk unless we had made it explicitly safe for them to do so.
We are committed to ongoing dialogue with our community of therapists to hear, listen and respond to hurts, wounds, and other mis-attunements
We invite all voices and are committed to receiving feedback as a gift, seeing it as an opportunity to more fully connect.
We are committed to acknowledging, addressing, repairing and removing obstacles to anyone in this community feeling unsafe or unheard.
You are welcome here.
Actions We Are Taking
- May 2022 Externship – Support 6 Partial Scholarships
- 2022 – total of $1,709.92 donated to the Scholarship Fund
- February – September 2022 – Anti-racist Education and Process Group for White-Identified Therapists, Year 2
- August 2021 partnered with Just Relating to offer ChicagoEFT members a 25 percent discount off this first-of-its-kind online training series in sociocultural attunement for EFT therapists (program discontinued in February 2022)
- March 2021 4 scholarships of $400 each given to Core Skills participants who work with marginalized populations
- February 2021 7 scholarships (35% discount) given to Externship participants who work with marginalized populations
- February 2021 Diversity and Inclusion training for Externship Role-play Coaches
- March – November 2021 – Anti-racist Education and Process Group for White-Identified Therapists, Year 1
- January 2021 Asian American Peer Consultation Group began meeting
- October 2020 Update – Next Steps Emerging From the Community Conversations
- August 20, 2020 – ChicagoEFT’s Second Healing Conversation: Centering Marginalized Voices & Creating Opportunities for Healing Connection
- July 23, 2020 – EFT Listening Session: Centering Marginalized Voices & Creating Opportunities for Healing Connection
- June 20, 2020 – A Letter from then ChicagoEFT President
Here are a few resources to help us Listen and Learn.
We will be adding more resources.
Resources on Anti-racism
Podcasts
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- Racism in America: Leaning into the Truth with Dr. Yamonte Cooper (That Relationship Show)
- The Air We Breathe: Implicit Bias And Police Shootings (NPR Hidden Brain)
Videos
Books
Me and White Supremacy
by Layla F. Saad
White Fragility
by Robin DiAngelo
The Color of Money
by Mehrsa Baradaran
Overcoming Our Racism
by Derald Wing Sue
Resources on the Black Experience
Non-fiction
Fiction and Poetry
Roots
by Alex Haley
If Beale Street Could Talk
by James Baldwin
Beloved
by Toni Morrison
Citizen
by Claudia Rankine
Olio
by Tyehimba Jess
Resources for Therapy
Gurman, A.S., & Jacobson, N.S. (2002). Clinical handbook of couple therapy, Third Edition. New York, NY: The Guilford Press. Chapter 22: Couple Therapy Using a Multicultural Perspective. Particularly pages 586-588.
Neuro-Diversity: ADHD Resources
Books
The ADHD Effect on Marriage
by Melissa Orlov
The Couple’s Guide to Thriving with ADHD
by Melissa Orlov, Nancie Kohlenberger