Les Greenberg

Leslie Greenberg, Ph.D. is Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Psychology at York University and is author of the major texts on Emotion-focused approaches to treatment. He received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Professional Contribution to Applied Research. He has received the SPR Distinguished Research Career award and the Carl Rogers award of the APA Society for Humanistic Psychology.. He conducts a private practice for individuals and couples and offers training in emotion–focused approaches in Toronto and internationally.

The Transforming Power of Affect
This presentation will address the theory of emotion and advances in research on the role of emotional processing in therapy. Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) is based on the principle that reflection on aroused emotion helps people to make sense of emotion and that the best way to change an emotion--whether shame, sadness or fear-- is with another emotion. I will focus on the transformation of emotion describing how it goes beyond exposure. Research on these hypotheses and clinical procedures for transforming emotions will be presented.