It’s Not Business — It’s All Clinical: An EFT approach to Client Engagement

CEUs
Certificate of Attendance: 3 hours
**Counts towards CEUs for AzBBHE.**

ABSTRACT

Although often labeled as “business” topics, conversations about policies, boundaries, session cadence, and client follow-through are inherently relational and clinical. They can be emotionally charged for both therapists and clients and can significantly influence a client’s engagement in therapy, sometimes contributing to premature termination. This workshop invites EFT therapists to expand their clinical perspective by viewing client engagement as a bidirectional, emotionally informed process that is influenced beyond the therapy room.

Participants will increase comfort and confidence in navigating these conversations – including late cancellations, session frequency, and signs of disengagement – by recognizing their own internal emotional responses and applying engagement-focused, EFT-informed strategies. Grounded in EFT principles, the workshop emphasizes internal awareness, clarifying expectations, and relational responsiveness, supporting therapists in approaching these conversations with clarity, confidence, and clinical intentionality, while fostering professional longevity and greater enjoyment in their work.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to:

1. Differentiate client engagement from therapeutic alliance and identify at least three behavioral, relational, and emotional indicators of early client disengagement across the full therapy experience (e.g., scheduling behavior, cancellations, responsiveness, affective shifts).
2. Recognize and articulate your own internal emotional responses, beliefs, and self-protective strategies that arise during business-related interactions with clients (late cancellations, session frequency, etc), and understand how these internal processes influence therapist responses and their client’s level of engagement.
3. Apply core EFT principles (e.g., tracking affect, transparency, curiosity, responsiveness to rupture) to business and boundary conversations in order to reframe these interactions as clinical processes that support therapist congruence, sustained client engagement, and client retention.

Content Level

Beginner to Advanced

Presenter Bio

Laura Cross, MS, LMFT, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist based in Denver, Colorado, and the Founder of the Individual and Relationship Therapy Center. She is a Certified Emotionally Focused Therapist and Supervisor and an AAMFT-Approved Supervisor, with extensive experience helping therapists and clients alike deepen emotional connection and engagement in clinical practice. Prior to her clinical career, Laura spent 22 years in sales and marketing, where she learned the importance of relational engagement and authentic communication—skills she now integrates into her training and supervision work. After completing her master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, she opened her private practice in Denver in 2013, which has since grown into a thriving group practice focused on evidence-based, attachment-informed care.

Laura is passionate about helping therapists reframe business-related conversations as clinically meaningful moments that strengthen client engagement, reduce premature termination, and support therapist congruence and professional longevity. Her work emphasizes internal awareness and relational leadership, guiding therapists to approach challenging conversations—often labeled as “business” topics—as opportunities to deepen therapeutic connection and support client retention.

Cancellation / Refund Policy: In the event that you have paid for an upcoming event but are not able to attend, you may request a refund up to 30 days prior to the event. Refund requests must be received in writing via email to: communityworkshops@azeft.com. Requests received at least 60 days prior to the start of the event will receive a full refund of the registration minus the Eventbrite refund fee. Requests received between 30-59 days prior to the start of the event will receive a 50% refund of the registration minute the Eventbrite refund fee. No refunds will be issued for cancellations received less than 30 days prior to the start of the event.