COURSE 7 OF 12 · SPRING SEASON
Emotions as Energy in
the Body: Attuning to the
Secure Self
Emotions as Energy in
the Body: Attuning to the
Secure Self
Emotions as Energy in
the Body: Attuning to the
Secure Self
Identifying authentic needs vs. protective strategies to improve self-definition and attachment security in adult relationships.
Many clients have learned to treat their needs as something shameful, or to hide them behind urgency, pleasing, or withdrawal. This course helps you guide clients to feel emotion as energy in the body, tell authentic needs from protective strategies, and treat “neediness” as meaningful information.
3.0 CE Contact Hours
(NYS) LCAT + LMHC
Self-Study
About this course
This course conceptualizes emotions as energy moving through the body, with attention to how sensation and body-based awareness can reveal important, unmet attachment needs. It explores the clinical distinction between authentic needs and protective strategies, helping practitioners support adult clients in differentiating clear, sustaining needs from urgency, over-functioning, people-pleasing, withdrawal, control, or shame-based coping.
Case examples demonstrate how to slow emotional reactivity and translate emotional charge into insight, using creative, experiential exercises to help clients reclaim attachment needs as meaningful information rather than sources of shame, and foster secure attachment in adult relationships.
How this course follows the SEED Framework
Across three lectures and an experiential art activities, this course moves through every step of the SEED Framework, so you experience the process yourself before you guide clients through it.
S – Soulful Inquiry
Begins with a reflection on where clients override or dismiss their inner experience, and asks: What would it feel like to trust my emotions as guidance? The Emotional Energy in Motion visualization then invites clients to meet emotion through fire, water, wind, sound, and electricity.
E – Exploration
Distinguishes authentic needs from the protective strategies layered on top of them, such as over-explaining, people-pleasing, or withdrawing. A Johari’s Window exercise helps clients explore what they know, hide, miss, and are still discovering: What truth do I hide because it feels too tender?
E – Expression
In the expressive arts tree exercise, clients trace surface beliefs about neediness down to the core beliefs at the roots, then create compassionate reframes that let the tree bear new growth.
D – Deep Receiving
“Neediness” is reclaimed as a messenger of emotional truth rather than a flaw. A scripted EFT tapping practice helps clients listen beneath the charge and relate to their needs with self-trust. What if there is something real underneath it?
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, participants will be able to:
OBJECTIVE 1
Identify three ways emotional sensations may function as clinical signals of unmet needs,
relational activation, or protective coping strategies.
OBJECTIVE 2
Differentiate between authentic relational needs and protective strategies in clients presenting
with attachment anxiety or emotional withdrawal.
OBJECTIVE 3
Describe two experiential or expressive arts interventions that support clients in identifying
emotional energy in the body, naming underlying needs, and reframing shame-based beliefs
about neediness.
This is for you...
This is for practitioners who…
✓ Want to help clients distinguish authentic needs from
protective strategies such as over-accommodation, repeated reassurance-seeking, emotional withdrawal, control, or self-silencing.
✓ Work with clients navigating attachment wounds, relationship anxiety, emotional reactivity, shame around needs, or difficulty identifying what they feel.
✓ Use or want to integrate attachment theory, somatic
awareness, expressive arts, guided visualization, EFT tapping, and belief reframing.
✓ Support clients who intellectualize their feelings, struggle to trust their bodies, or experience “neediness” as something shameful rather than informative.
✓ Want practical tools for helping clients move from emotional spiraling into grounded self-awareness, clearer communication, and more secure relational choices.
This will help your clients…
✓ Recognize emotions as signals that may point toward needs, values, boundaries, and areas requiring care.
✓ Build greater body awareness by noticing sensation,
activation, emotional charge, and the movement of feeling.
✓ Separate authentic needs from protective strategies that may create confusion or relational tension.
✓ Reduce shame around needing reassurance, clarity,
connection, space, repair, honesty, or emotional safety.
✓ Express needs with more clarity, self-respect, and relational steadiness.
Tools to use in practice
A self-assessment, based on the lesson topics
Guided visualization and expressive arts exercise
A story-based scripted EFT Tapping Practice
Downloadable guidebook and lesson summaries
TESTIMONIALS
What practitioners are saying...
"Invigorates my practice."
"As a Licensed Mental Health Counselor with over a decade of experience, finding continuing education that not only meets my licensure requirements but also invigorates my practice is rare. The courses offered by Briana’s continuing education school have been so helpful. Her psycho-spiritual approach deeply resonates with my work, and I've been able to integrate the concepts into therapy with profound results."
- Lena M. LMHC
"A rich tapestry of insight."
"As an art therapist, I'm always seeking ways to deepen my skill set and offer more to my clients. The workshops and seminars at Briana's school are exceptional; each course is a rich tapestry of insight, practical skill-building, and transformative knowledge."
-Michelle C. LCAT
"Fills a gap in the field."
"Holding licenses in both clinical social work and art therapy, I find Briana's continuing education offerings to be unparalleled in their depth and relevance. Her unique blend of traditional psychotherapy with spiritual and creative modalities fills a gap in our field."
- Patricia M. LCSW, LCAT
ENROLLMENT
Choose Your Plan
SINGLE COURSE
$97
Emotions as Energy in
the Body: Attuning to the
Secure Self
3 Contact Hours for LCATs and LMHCs in New York State
Self-Study
NO REFUNDS
BEST VALUE
THE spring SEASON
$194
Courses 1, 2 & 3 · buy two, get one free
9 Contact Hours for LCATs and LMHCs in New York State
Self-Study
NO REFUNDS
About your instructor
My name is Briana MacWilliam, and I’m a Licensed Creative Arts Therapist (LCAT), Board Certified Registered Art Therapist (ATR-BC), educator, and the founder of Soul-Centered Security®.
I didn’t come to this work because my own relationships were easy. Divorce, grief, and heartbreak brought me face to face with the same attachment patterns I was helping my clients understand. What helped was building a deeper relationship with my body, emotions, creativity, and spirituality.
Over the last 20 years, I’ve served more than 6,000 clients and students across inpatient psychiatry, community mental health, higher education, and private practice. My work weaves together attachment theory, creative arts therapy, embodied practice, and spiritual growth.
I also have additional training in trauma-informed somatic therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), hypnotherapy, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. And I am the author of Secure in the Spark: A Spiritual Path to Heal Attachment Wounds, available on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
My courses for practitioners share the tools and creative processes that supported my own growth, and the healing of the people I’ve had the privilege of serving.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to take the 12-part courses in order? No. Each course stands alone and is designed to be entered at any point. That said, we recommend starting with Course 1 if you're new.
How will I receive my certificate? After completing your course work, there will be a learning evaluation, instructor evaluation, and webform to complete. After submitting your webform, your certificate will automatically be emailed to you.
How long will I have access to the course? Your purchase includes lifetime access, including to any updates we might make in the future. If a course is retired in the future, we will email you the digital files to download to your own device.
Which boards approve these courses? Briana MacWilliam, Inc. 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 creative arts therapists (#CAT-0014) and licensed mental health counselors (#MHC-0224). The ATCB has also accepted our courses in the past, because of our state approval, however, we recommend contacting the ATCB directly if you have a concern.
What if I have further questions? You can contact us at [email protected].
Start where your clients are stuck.
PROVIDER INFORMATION
Briana MacWilliam, Inc. 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 creative arts therapists; #CAT-0014, and is also an approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health counselors; #MHC-0224.
PLEASE NOTE:
While some subject areas overlap in education, a course that includes art therapy directives does not qualify a counselor to practice art therapy, and similarly an art therapist is not qualified to practice as a counselor, without proper licensing.
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