Presentations
Read all about the keynote speakers on this page
The promise of EFT
EFT is making key specific contributions to the art and science of psychotherapy, our understanding of human strengths and vulnerabilities and the creation of secure empowering relationships. These will be outlined.
These contributions offer a path forward through the darkness of chaos and uncertainty to a place where we can stand together and find the balance needed to confront our many problems. The future of EFT and its potential to help build a more secure world where we can understand who we are and how we can grow as human beings will be outlined.
Karin Wagenaar and Jef Slootmaeckers have interviewed Sue Johson, to prepare ourselves for the EFT World Summit 2024. Click here to watch this interview.

Sue Johnson
Founder EFT
Canada

Frans de Waal
Primatolagist
the Netherlands
Evolution of Emotions and Empathy in the Primates
Emotions suffuse much of the language employed by students of animal behavior — from “social bonding” to “alarm calls” — yet are still regularly avoided as explicit topic in scientific discourse. Given the increasing interest of human psychology in the emotions, and the neuroscience on animal emotions such as fear and attachment, the taboo that has hampered animal research is outdated. It is crucial to separate emotions from feelings, which are subjective experiences that may accompany the emotions. Whereas science has no access to animal feelings, animal emotions are as observable and measurable (face, voice, physiology, neural activity) as human emotions.
I will further draw upon research on empathy and the perception of emotions in primates to make the point that the study of animal emotions is a necessary complement to the study of behavior. Empathy is an old mammalian mechanism that probably started with maternal care but then spread to other social relationships. While the emotions serve as organizers of adaptive responses to environmental stimuli, empathy rests on the capacity to perceive another’s emotions and to match these emotions, which may lead to helping responses. A remarkable degree of directed altruism is observable in the primates.
Brain mechanisms for certainty, uncertainty and hope: a neuropsychoanalytic perspective
In this presentation, Mark Solms will describe the pivotal role that is played in memory and voluntary and involuntary actions by the processing of certainty and uncertainty regarding expectations. These memory and action mechanisms will be discussed in relation to brain mechanisms for emotion, with a special focus on hopeful expectations. Finally, these issues will be linked to the process of psychotherapy.

Mark Solms
Neuropsychologist
South Africa

Siebrecht Vanhooren
Existential psychologist
Belgium
Embracing uncertainty in order to overcome despair: An experiential-existential point of view
Certainty can be understood as the experience that we have our existence – ourselves, the other, the planet and the beyond under control. As we widen our perspective, it is obvious that certainty is only a timely experience, and once we experience its opposite, we might feel betrayed or (self-)deluded. Experiencing uncertainty is often accompanied with existential shattering: the experience of angst, despair, a loss of meaning, existential isolation, and sometimes shame and guilt. In today’s world, we are not only facing uncertainty through our moments of personal brokenness. A larger uncertainty is looming in the background: climate change and all its consequences in the shape of ecological disasters, wars and mass migration. Climate change immediately endangers ‘our’ existence, ranging from plants and animals to us, human beings. How can we cope with all of this? Are there any beacons of hope, and can we be certain that everything will be alright in the end? Or are these beacons of hope only fata morganas we would like to believe in in order not to drown in the overwhelming sea of despair?
Paradoxically, we can only find new meaning, courage and wisdom by rooting deeper and grounding more firmly in existence on the one hand, and by integrating uncertainty and other aspects that threaten our existence (such as death, isolation, and meaninglessness) into our lives on the other hand, as Tillich suggests. Reaching for connection beyond ourselves might become a resource from where we can courageously embrace the state of our world (and ourselves) and act bravely. What is your beyond yourself(-ves)?
The Science of Sex in Long-Term Relationships
In this talk, sex educator Emily Nagoski will describe a transformative approach to “low desire.” Based on the most current science, this talk offers three actionable ideas for helping clients sustain (or rebuild!) a sexual connection in a long-term relationship by shifting focus from desire to pleasure and strategies to co-create it.
Karin Wagenaar has interviewed Emily Nagoski, to talk about her presentation during the EFT World Summit. Watch the whole interview here.

Emily Nagoski
Psychologist & Sexologist
USA
Contact Us
If you have any questions about the 2024 EFT World Summit please get in touch with us.
+31 85 902 28 36
info@efteuropa.com
Stadsplateau 7-8.22
3521 AZ Utrecht
The Netherlands
The 2024 EFT World Summit is organized in cooperation with:

Dutch EFT Foundation

International Centre for Excellence in
Emotionally Focused Therapy
Click here to read the ‘Registration and Cancellation procedure’.