Connection Therapy

Dr. Brenda Murrow studies, teaches, and practices psychology, and she has a specific interest in how working with animals can inform us about the human experience. Her experiences shape her understanding of why this is possible and why she has come to the perspective that working in animal-assisted therapy environments is not just therapeutic (there is a lot of evidence to confirm this), but also that it can be diagnostic.

In this episode she shares some introductions into how she uses her learnings and experiences in animal-assisted therapy encounters to be able to assess and intervene in in-office therapy environments, so that all practitioners can benefit from these insights.

References:

Bruce Perry, MD, PhD

https://www.bdperry.com/about

Dan Siegel’s “Window of Tolerance”

Dan Siegel, https://drdansiegel.com/

Attend a Course at Connection Therapy:

https://connection-therapy.com/courses-and-events

We Want to Hear Your Feedback! Please Contribute to the Conversation: Share your thoughts on the podcast and how these concepts work in your practice, or ask a question and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode: https://connection-therapy.com/contact-us

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Brenda and Haley continue their conversation and in this part, they consider applications of the respective information about horse and about humans, and how it can be integrated to support better relationships.

They also explore the differences between interspecies relationships, for example when humans relate to horses vs. when humans relate to dogs each brings out different behaviors from humans.

Listeners will benefit from these perspectives by considering different viewpoints on common interactions that take on new meaning in their discussion.

For More Information about our Guest:

Haley Mathews, PATH Intl. CTRI®

https://www.xenophontrc.org/staff

https://pathintl.org/

Attend a Course at Connection Therapy:

https://connection-therapy.com/courses-and-events

We Want to Hear Your Feedback! Please Contribute to the Conversation: Share your thoughts on the podcast and how these concepts work in your practice, or ask a question and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode: https://connection-therapy.com/contact-us

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Brenda and Haley met at a Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH), International event, where Haley spoke about the behaviors of horses, and Brenda spoke about the behaviors of humans. After their respective presentations, they realized their discussions were complementary. In this conversation, they review each of their presentations for listeners to be able to similarly hear the complementary presentations horses and humans make.

Practitioners will benefit from learning both of these perspectives in their application to mental health and equine services.

For More Information about our Guest:

Haley Mathews, PATH Intl. CTRI®

https://www.xenophontrc.org/staff

https://pathintl.org/

Attend a Course at Connection Therapy:

https://connection-therapy.com/courses-and-events

We Want to Hear Your Feedback! Please Contribute to the Conversation: Share your thoughts on the podcast and how these concepts work in your practice, or ask a question and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode: https://connection-therapy.com/contact-us

Leave feedback or ask a question with a message on Instagram: @theconnectiontherapypodcast

Enjoying the podcast?

There are now playlists for you to navigate to your favorite topics: https://connection-therapy.com/playlist

Learning to relate to other species can make us more aware of relating to our own species. In this spirit, Dr. Murrow reviews some similarities and differences between horses and humans as described by Dr. Janet Jones in her book, Horse Brain: Human Brain: The Neuroscience of Horsemanship.

This episode has insights for mental health therapists and resources for anyone interested in improving their abilities to relate with others.

We Want to Hear Your Feedback! Please Contribute to the Conversation: Share your thoughts on the podcast and how these concepts work in your practice, or ask a question and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode: https://connection-therapy.com/contact-us

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There are now playlists for you to navigate to your favorite topics: https://connection-therapy.com/playlist

References:

Gottman Institute

https://www.gottman.com/blog/how-to-improve-your-relationship-in-24-hours/

Janet Jones, PhD

https://janet-jones.com/

Horse Brain, Human Brain: The Neuroscience of Horsemanship (2020), Trafalgar Square, Vermont, pp. 32-34, and 169-174.

Dr. Leslie Greenberg found some helpful insights that are still in use today in the practice of emotion-focused therapy (EFT). In this episode, Brenda reflects on how these early findings can be used in treatment. Whether you are an aspiring practitioner of EFT, or not, there is likely to be some ways these foundational elements can apply to your practice.

We Want to Hear Your Feedback! Please Contribute to the Conversation: Share your thoughts on the podcast and how these concepts work in your practice, or ask a question and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode: https://connection-therapy.com/contact-us

Leave feedback or ask a question with a message on Instagram: @theconnectiontherapypodcast

Enjoying the podcast?

There are now playlists for you to navigate to your favorite topics: https://connection-therapy.com/playlist

References:

Elliott, R., Watson, J. C., Goldman, R. N., & Greenberg, L. S. (2025). Research on emotion-focused therapy and implications for practice. In Learning emotion-focused therapy: A comprehensive guide. 2nd ed. (pp. 21–37). American Psychological Association (pp. 32, 326). https://doi-org.pgi.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/0000458-002

In this final segment of Ladan Safvati’s interview, she describes what an Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) session involves, from what the therapist is tracking to examples of the ways things may unfold. She ties in the concepts presented in the first two parts of the interview to integrate the learning and show how the theories can be applied.

For More Information about our Guest:

Ladan Safvati, LMFT

Director and Founder

Southern California Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy

https://www.eftsocal.com/about-socaleft

We Want to Hear Your Feedback! Please Contribute to the Conversation: Share your thoughts on the podcast and how these concepts work in your practice, or ask a question and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode: https://connection-therapy.com/contact-us

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Enjoying the podcast?

There are now playlists for you to navigate to your favorite topics: https://connection-therapy.com/playlist

Connection Therapy’s guest, Ladan Safvati, LMFT, continues to share an introduction of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT). In this episode, she discusses the difference between Emotion and Cognitive Schemas. She explains EFT’s focus on empathy, and provides guidance on the importance of “feeling our own pain” in order that we can be with other’s pain more effectively.

She also provides helpful information such as the process of Following is a form of “being with” our patients; whereas using techniques such as Guiding or Leading are “doing” interventions.

For More Information about our Guest:

Ladan Safvati, LMFT

Director and Founder

Southern California Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy

https://www.eftsocal.com/about-socaleft

We Want to Hear Your Feedback! Please Contribute to the Conversation: Share your thoughts on the podcast and how these concepts work in your practice, or ask a question and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode: https://connection-therapy.com/contact-us

Leave feedback or ask a question with a message on Instagram: @theconnectiontherapypodcast

Enjoying the podcast?

There are now playlists for you to navigate to your favorite topics: https://connection-therapy.com/playlist

Our guest this episode is Ladan Safvati, LMFT. Join us as she shares the history of Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) and highlights the theories of emotional change that guide EFT. She also provides a background to the ways EFT addresses and encourages emotion in therapy in service to its tenet that emotion is the way to evoke therapeutic outcomes.

For More Information about our Guest:

Ladan Safvati, LMFT

Director and Founder

Southern California Institute of Emotion Focused Therapy

https://www.eftsocal.com/about-socaleft

We Want to Hear Your Feedback! Please Contribute to the Conversation: Share your thoughts on the podcast and how these concepts work in your practice, or ask a question and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode: https://connection-therapy.com/contact-us

Leave feedback or ask a question with a message on Instagram: @theconnectiontherapypodcast

Enjoying the podcast?

There are now playlists for you to navigate to your favorite topics: https://connection-therapy.com/playlist

It is a common misunderstanding that there is a lack of evidence for mental health therapy beyond Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). CBT certainly has a significant body of research supporting it, but so too do many other styles of therapy.

This episode reviews a meta-analysis (summary of research) to support mental health clinicians in increasing their confidence about the variety of styles to select from that they can employ to support their clients.

References: ​​

American Psychological Association 2025 Year in Review

https://www.apa.org/news/science-spotlight/psychological-science

Elliott, R., Watson, J., Timulak, L., & Sharbanee, J. (2021). Research on humanistic-experiential psychotherapies: Updated review. In M. Barkham, W. Lutz, & L. Castonguay (Eds.), Bergin and Garfield’s handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change (7th ed., pp. 421-467). John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated.

Research articles are built on current-day practice and in order to fully understand their implications, it helps to go back to the original sources. This is especially true for some of the original therapy modalities, so that practitioners today can more fully understand the research findings in light of the original intentions.

In this podcast, Carl Rogers’ foundational article about the six conditions for therapeutic personality change is reviewed. This article by Dr. Rogers has been cited 12,000+ times since first publication in 1957, and has significant implications for research, as well as the overall field of psychotherapy.

We Want to Hear Your Feedback! Please Contribute to the Conversation: Share your thoughts on the podcast and how these concepts work in your practice, or ask a question and I’ll answer it in an upcoming episode: https://connection-therapy.com/contact-us

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Enjoying the podcast?

There are now playlists for you to navigate to your favorite topics: https://connection-therapy.com/playlist

References:

Rogers, C. R. (1957). The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 21(2), 95–103. https://doi-org.pgi.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/h0045357

American Psychological Association (APA) Information:

https://www.apa.org/about/governance/president/carl-r-rogers