22: Rhonda Goldman, PhD – Professor, Psychologist, and Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) Expert

Masters in Psychology Podcast

Dr. Rhonda Goldman has known from a young age that she has always wanted to become a psychologist. Her mother was a psychologist, so she admits she “kind of had a little bit of a bird’s eye view” of the field of psychology. Dr. Goldman is a professor in the Clinical Psychology Department at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology and a licensed Clinical Psychologist in Illinois. In this podcast, Dr. Goldman discusses why she chose York University in Toronto, ON, Canada for her undergraduate degree and why she stayed at York University for her master’s and doctorate. She also reveals how exciting it was to work with Dr. Les Greenberg to further develop Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT). Dr. Goldman has taken her passion for EFT and applied it to couples and individuals. She and other colleagues formed the Emotion-Focused Therapy Institute (EFTI) which facilitates and fosters training and educational opportunities for psychologists and therapists interested in incorporating EFT into their professional practices or expanding the types of therapy they use in their own practice. Dr. Goldman also discusses other organizations that may serve as a home for people interested in Emotion-Focused Therapy and those wanting to integrate EFT or other types of therapy into their repertoire of skills. In particular, she discusses how she became a founding board member of the International Society for Emotion Focused Therapy (isEFT) and its purpose. Dr. Goldman was a past-president of the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) and she discusses how this can serve as another resource or home for those who want to integrate other types of therapy into their practice. During my discussion with Dr. Goldman, she admits that she was lucky in many ways. She was lucky in that she knew while she was an undergraduate that she wanted to be a psychotherapist. Some people don’t figure out what they want to do for a living, let alone knowing what major to declare in undergraduate or graduate school. She was also lucky to have found an exciting place to study, receive good mentorship, and an exciting field of study at York University. She also mentioned that she was lucky because she graduated with her PhD with little to no debt. She said that she would hear stories of people graduating and “paying back debt for years and years” and said that wasn’t her experience as there are many opportunities and agencies to help fund your education in Canada. When asked if there was anything she wished she had known about psychology ahead of time before choosing her career path, Dr. Goldman said she wished she had known that psychology “is so diverse” and that “there’s so much you can do with a degree, especially in clinical psychology.” She then proceeded to list some of the things you can do including applied psychology, therapy, research, and neuropsychology. She states “I wish I knew how much there was to offer, I mean, and I think that’s why you have what you’re doing [the Master’s in Psychology Podcast and website] is trying to help people sort through all that psychology has and try to find their track within it, right? And so, I think that’s really great, because people need some guidance, I think along those line because there is so much out there.” Connect with Dr. Rhonda Goldman: Faculty Page | WebsiteConnect with the Show: Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn https://vimeo.com/682933285 Interests and Specializations Dr. Rhonda Goldman focuses on Emotion-Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples and individuals. She conducts research on EFT for couples, emotional processes, empathy, and vulnerability as well as work on case formulation and the dynamics of emotion, love, and power. She travels internationally providing training workshops for mental heal professionals who want to incorporate EFT into their professional practices. Education Bachelor of Arts (B.A.), Psychology (1987); York University, Toronto,