Transforming Emotions

Dr. Robert Elliott,

(they/them)

As one of the founders of Emotion-Focused Therapy, I’m pleased to be co-leading the Unfolding Therapist Blocks training with Dr. Sarah Thompson, aimed at helping EFT therapists address their blocks to learning and carrying out EFT.

I identify as nonbinary and have particular current clinical interests in working with social anxiety and issues of marginalization, as well as EFT training and supervision. In my long career I have consistently tried to balance and integrate research and practice on psychotherapy. Much of my current work centers around supporting the next generation of EFT therapists, supervisors and trainers.

I am professor emeritus of counselling at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow, Scotland) and professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Toledo (Ohio). My books include Learning emotion-focused psychotherapy (2004/2025) and Emotion-Focused Counselling in Action (2021), as well as 200 journal articles and book chapters. I have been president of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, and previously co-edited the journals Psychotherapy Research, and Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies. In 2008 I received the Distinguished Research Career Award of the Society for Psychotherapy Research, and the Carl Rogers Award from the Division of Humanistic Psychology of the American Psychological Association. I now live in Northern California, where I continue to enjoy developing new applications of EFT and new ways of helping folks learn it. I also enjoy walking, running, science fiction, poetry, and all kinds of music.