When Depression and Marital Distress Intersect: The Role of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy

Presented by Andrea K. Wittenborn, PhD, LMT on 11-05-2010 at 9 a.m. Pacific to 10:30 a.m. Pacific (1:30 p.m. Eastern)

The most common presenting problems couple and family therapists treat are marital distress and depression. Research has shown these two difficulties to be highly intertwined and, when co-occurring, can be more effectively treated through couple psychotherapy than an individual modality. This workshop will first briefly review the emerging empirical support for using Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for comorbid depression and relationship distress and will then explore how EFT can be used to treat these commonly co-occurring issues.

This web conference is intermediate instructional level and designed to help clinicians:

  1. Utilize assessment strategies for depression in the context of couple distress;
  2. Analyze the current literature on depression treatment for adults in distressed couple relationships;
  3. Describe how Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) can guide the treatment of depression in couple relationships.

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Continuing Education (CE) Information

1.5 CE credits will be provided by GoodTherapy.org for attending this web conference in its entirety.

GoodTherapy.org is also an Approved Education Provider by NAADAC, The Association for Addiction Professionals (provider #135463). Of the eight counselor skill groups ascribed to by NAADAC, this course is classified within counseling services.

GoodTherapy.org is an NBCC-Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEPTM) and may offer NBCC-approved clock hours for events that meet NBCC requirements. 

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To receive CE credit hours for an archived event, you will need to complete a survey as well as a 12 or 15-question exam, verifying that you listened to or watched the event in its entirety. Archived CE events generally are considered "homestudy" by licensing boards.

Registration Information

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Meet the Presenter

Andrea K. Wittenborn, PhD, LMT

Andrea K. Wittenborn, PhD, LMT

Andrea K. Wittenborn, PhD, LMFT, is an Assistant Professor of Human Development at Virginia Tech in Falls Church, where she trains marriage and family therapy master’s students and maintains an active program of research in the AAMFT accredited program. Prior to joining the Virginia Tech faculty, she received her PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy from Purdue University and researched attachment-based family intervention at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School/Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Her research program focuses on examining attachment processes in couple relationships as well as the occurrence and treatment of depressive symptomatology from an attachment theoretical lens. Currently, Dr. Wittenborn is studying the effectiveness of Emotionally Focused Therapy for couples with comorbid depression and relationship distress in an ongoing randomized clinical trial. This research and previous related investigations were supported through federal, foundation, and internal funding sources.

In addition, Dr. Wittenborn often writes on the topic of EFT and publishes her work in peer-reviewed scholarly journals. She has also written a series of articles on EFT therapy and research, including EFT for male depression, new findings on the effectiveness of EFT for depressed women, and the study of how EFT therapists’ own attachment strategies may influence the process of therapy. She also co-authored a chapter in the upcoming book EFT Casebook: New Directions in Treating Couples edited by Drs. Jim Furrow, Brent Bradley, and Susan Johnson.

Dr. Wittenborn regularly presents her research at international, national, and state conferences and is often invited to lead clinical workshops on EFT and attachment for couple and family therapists. She is known for her warm approach to clinical training and supervision as well as her extensive knowledge of the research literature. She lives in Washington, DC with her family.

Continuing Education Provider Approvals

  • Logo GoodTherapy.org has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 6380. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. GoodTherapy.org is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.
  • Logo This course has been approved by GoodTherapy.org, as a NAADAC Approved Education Provider, for educational credits. NAADAC Provider #135463. GoodTherapy.org is responsible for all aspects of their programming.
  • GoodTherapy.org, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0395.
  • GoodTherapy.org, LLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0022 and for licensed mental health counselors #MHC-0031.

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