Instructor: Adele Lafrance, PhD
Location: Best Western PLUS The Arden Park Hotel, 552 Ontario Street, Stratford, ON, Canada
Early Bird Cost: $269 CAD + HST by September 1, 2025
Regular Cost: $299 CAD + HST after September 1, 2025
**All prices are in CAD$. American Patrons - your dollar goes further! $1 CAD = $0.73 USD (as of May 27, 2025 - check online for current exchange rate)
REGISTRATION DEADLINE: September 25, 2025 by 4pm ET
* For information about Group Rates and Discounts click here.
EFFT Intensive Workshop: Transforming Caregiver Self-Blame
with Dr. Adele Lafrance, Co-Developer of EFFT
IN PERSON EVENT
October 2, 2025, 9am - 4:30 pm ET
Certificates of Attendance / CEU's / CE Information
All attendees will receive a Certificate of Attendance indicating the number of direct education hours (5.5), not including breaks. For those who aren’t able to attend the full session, a partial hours certificate will be provided. Certificates may be used to qualify for eligibility for Continuing Education Credits from licensing boards and professional colleges; it is the participant’s responsibility to contact their college or association to confirm its requirements and the workshop's eligibility for CEU's / CE’s.
Cancellation Policy
An administrative fee of $50 will be charged for all cancellations. Cancellation 14 or more days prior to the workshop date – receive a refund, less $50 administration fee. Cancellation less than 14 days prior to the workshop date – receive a credit, less $50 administration fee, to be applied to a future workshop. No credit or refund will be issued if you do not notify us in advance of the workshop date. You may transfer your registration to another individual at no extra cost. In this case, please notify Mission: Empowerment of the name of the alternate person. The organizers reserve the right to cancel the event due to instructor illness, extreme weather, under-enrollment or other unforeseen circumstances. If a workshop is cancelled, any registration payment will be returned in full. Liability is limited to a refund of workshop/live-stream fees only.
Refunds will not be issued in cases where a registrant did not receive the workshop information due to email issues. It is the registrant’s responsibility to contact us if they don’t receive the required information at least 2 business days prior to the start time of the workshop.
Workshop Description
Caregiver self-blame is a painful and powerful emotional process that often goes unrecognized or unaddressed in clinical work - yet it can seriously affect one's quality of life, fuel therapy-interfering behaviours, and negatively impact the quality of relationships. This full-day clinical training is designed for helping professionals working with parents and caregivers who carry self-blame - whether in the context of general parenting, parenting a loved one with a medical issue, or parenting a loved one with a mental health issue. The workshop will also address self-blame following the loss of a loved one due to suicide, or other tragic circumstances.
The first portion of the day focuses on caregiver self-blame and its significant impact not only on parenting behaviours, but on the caregiver’s own well-being, emotional health, and quality of life. Research and clinical vignettes will illustrate the ways that caregiver self-blame can fuel shame, internal suffering, defensiveness, enabling or accommodating behaviours, and even expressions of other-blame. Clinicians will learn how self-blame functions as an emotion regulation strategy and how to intervene with targeted tools. These include both cognitive and emotion-focused interventions - as well as a structured chair-work technique - designed to restore self-compassion, reduce internal distress, and support the caregiver in their supportive role.
As the day progresses, attention will shift to addressing self-blame in the context of tragic loss, with the example of suicide. When someone loses a loved one to tragic circumstances, self-blame can complicate grief and contribute to persistent emotional suffering. Survivors may engage in self-punishing behaviours or experience a painful disconnection from their lost loved one. When self-blame is deep, as is often the case with tragic loss, well-intentioned efforts to use reassurance to lift self-blame are likely to be ineffective and can contribute to feelings of shame and isolation related to the experience. Clinicians will learn to identify the emotional and cognitive drivers of this form of self-blame and learn techniques to help clients process guilt, reduce shame, and find a path toward healing and reconnection.
Throughout the day, participants will receive:
- Clinical theory to guide practice
- Guidelines for cognitive and emotion-focused interventions
- An intervention script for chair-work
- Application guidelines
- A video demonstration and testimonial
- Opportunities for optional experiential practice
Participants will leave with tools to:
- Reduce shame, self-blame, and emotional distress in clients
- Improve client well-being, engagement, and empowerment
- Support healing in clients navigating complex parenting dynamics or unresolved grief
- Apply self-blame interventions in individual, dyadic, or group formats
Learning Objectives:
Identify emotional and cognitive markers of self-blame in both caregiving and grief contexts
Explain self-blame as an emotion regulation strategy and its clinical implications
Apply cognitive, emotion-focused, and experiential chair-work interventions across diverse settings
Support clients in transforming self-blame to reclaim their caregiving role and their personal well-being
Help grieving clients reconnect with a lost loved one in a healthier and more compassionate wayThis training is suitable for counsellors, psychotherapists, psychologists, and other mental health and helping professionals. No prior training is required. Participation can be active or passive, in line with participant comfort. Given the sensitive nature of the content, the workshop will not be recorded.
**Attending this workshop meets criteria towards certification as an EFFT Clinician/Therapist/Advanced Therapist (if desired). For more info about certification,
Recommended Accommodations
Best Western PLUS The Arden Park Hotel (same hotel as the workshop venue)
552 Ontario Street, Stratford, ON, Canada, N5A 3J3
Hotel Direct Phone: (519) 275-2936
Toll-Free Reservations (Canada & USA): 1(800) 780-7234
For the best available rates, please contact the hotel directly.
*Note: This hotel books up quickly during Stratford’s theatre season – reserve early to secure your spot.
For additional accommodation options, visit: Visit Stratford – Places to Stay
What Others Are Saying:
“Adele is an extraordinary speaker-- engaged, alive and vulnerable at once, really smart and daring to make all of us think expansively. I have been quoting her since the talk!”
“Transparent, educated, humble, real, a risk-taker, a healer, a new refreshing voice for our field”
“Truly excellent integration of personal and professional experiences and perspectives, clinically useful and stimulating”
“Adele is compassionate, clear, and transparent. These things increase her engagement with listeners. And she shares her ideas in the context of theory, research, practice, and the lived experience of others. Such a dynamic speaker. And she is not afraid to bring the concepts of love and spirituality into her presentation and work"
About the Presenter
Dr. Adele Lafrance is a clinical psychologist, research scientist, author and co-developer of emotion-focused treatment modalities, including Emotion-Focused Family Therapy. She has published extensively in the field of emotion and health, including the EFFT Clinician’s Manual published by the American Psychological Association. She has also written a popular parenting book titled: What to Say to Kids When Nothing Seems to Work.
A frequent keynote speaker at professional conferences, Adele is known for her engaging, energetic and authentic presentation style. She provides consultation and training for clinicians, school boards and mental health agencies worldwide.
Adele is perhaps best known for promoting family-focused care for children, adolescents and adults struggling with mental health issues.
For more information about Adele and her work, visit: www.dradelelafrance.com
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