JOIN US ONLINE for a special scheduled class offering*
Neufeld’s Five-Step Model of
Emotional Maturation
Course Start Date: January 27, 2026
Tuesdays 09:00AM – 10:00AM PT
Runs for 4 weeks
Dr. Neufeld outlines what needs to happen to mature emotionally, whether one is a child or catching up as an adult. This developmental knowledge is especially important as immaturity has become epidemic, and most interventions make the mistake of attempting to address the symptoms of immaturity rather than getting at the roots. This model is easy to follow, whether you're a parent, teacher, or therapist.
* although students can take this course anytime on their own, this is a special opportunity to benefit from a guided learning experience with Neufeld Institute Faculty. Former and current registrants of this course can enrol in this class for $50 CAD.
Scheduled Class Details:
📌 Course Start Date: January 27, 2026
⌛ Duration: 4 weeks
🗓️ Tuesdays 09:00 AM – 10:00 AM Pacific
🏷️ Tuition: $150 CAD per person
We invite your participation in this Scheduled Class offering of 'Neufeld’s Five-Step Model of Emotional Maturation', where you will gain further insight from Neufeld Institute Faculty members Eva de Gosztonyi and Robin Brooks-Sherriff. They will offer a rich tapestry of unique perspectives, all within the attachment-based developmental approach.
Scheduled Classes combine Dr. Neufeld’s video lectures and supplementary course material with live faculty-facilitated support sessions. These interactive weekly classes are designed to deepen your understanding of Dr. Neufeld's teachings. It is a unique opportunity to join our experienced faculty and other students online to ask questions, discuss key insights, and explore practical applications.
All of the classes are recorded. If you miss a class, you can keep pace with the group by viewing the recordings at your own convenience during the week.
Please note: you will receive access to the course one week before the start date. There will be some material to review before the first class.
Meet our experienced faculty members, who will support you in this course
School Psychologist
Toronto, Canada
Eva's passion for the material on emotional development plus a life-time of experience as a psychologist developing programs for students who were having trouble with their emotions, puts her in good stead for supporting this material.
Community Health Nurse
Calgary, Canada
Robin has worked as a registered nurse in various capacities with families and clients for over 30 years. She offers a variety of courses and is available for speaking engagements. Her favourite material to teach and support is the adolescence material - Making Sense of Adolescence and Adolescence & Sexuality. This is a good match to her current work as a Sexual Health Nurse. Robin serves on our admin team and holds various staff responsibilities including managing Dr. Neufeld’s events. She is a mother, wife, daughter, sister and many other things in a complicated loving family.
COURSE SUMMARY
In this course, Neufeld reveals why emotional immaturity is so epidemic in our society, even among the most educated, and clarifies what we can do to bring our children, students, and clients to their full human potential as creatures of emotion. Given that emotion is at the heart of the matter in psychological maturation, understanding the developmental steps that need to take place to get to emotional health and maturity is absolutely essential for addressing stuckness along the way. This knowledge can help to avoid the most common pitfall of battling against the symptoms of emotional immaturity while failing to address its roots. This model is surprisingly easy to apply and provides a clear map for parents, teachers, and therapists who have made emotional maturity and well-being their priorities for the children and adults in their care.
SUITABILITY/APPLICABILITY
These insights and resulting practices are applicable to every venue — home, school, and treatment — and every age group, from infancy through old age. As always, Dr. Neufeld focuses on how problems develop in childhood and adolescence as a way of creating a foundation for healing and treatment throughout the lifespan. Although the course is addressed primarily to helping professionals and educators, the material is very helpful to parents, as well as for self-understanding and healing. A growing number of therapists are using Neufeld's Five Steps as a template for treatment.
SAMPLE TOPICS
- how the prefrontal cortex works to support emotional maturation
- reframing the stress response and resilience response as emotional phenomena
- the dual role of attachment in facilitating and restricting emotional expression
- how to recognize the signs of emotional immaturity
- how empathy, courage, patience, and self-control are the natural fruit of emotional maturity
- the natural cure to impulsiveness and lack of self-regulation
- how inner conflict cures impulsiveness and is the natural engine of higher development
- the early warning signs of a child or adolescent in emotional trouble
- the role of emotional immaturity in anxiety, depression, aggression, and addiction
- the singular emotional condition that becomes the common denominator of most troubled behaviour and syndromes
- the role of emotional playgrounds in emotional health and development
- how to use the five steps as a roadmap to emotional maturity
COURSE OUTLINE
The course is structured into four sessions, with each session including approximately an hour and 20 minutes of instructional video from Dr. Neufeld.
- Session 1 — Emotion as the Heart of the Matter
In the first session, Dr. Neufeld puts emotion back into the centre of our considerations as the core dynamic that underlies most troubling behaviour, syndromes, and diagnoses. Looking through the lens of emotion sheds significant light on the nature of stress, resilience, spontaneous development, adaptation, troubling behaviour, and even mental illness. - Session 2 — Back to the Beginning: getting the first step right
Surprisingly, it is the failure of emotion to find safe expression that thwarts both emotional health and the process of maturation. The objective of this session is to appreciate the developmental foundations of emotional health and maturation, so that retreating to the beginning becomes our informed response. - Session 3 — Towards Fully Feeling: addressing the impediments
In this session, the role of feelings in emotional health and development is revealed. Since feelings are several steps removed from emotion, we discuss what can go wrong and how this can be corrected. Feeling one's emotions is absolutely essential to moving forward towards emotional health and maturity. - Session 4 — Supporting the Final Steps AND The Five Steps as a Template for Treatment
The role of felt conflict in becoming emotionally mature is revealed together with how to support tempered experience and expression. The Five Step Model is presented as a template for treatment regardless of age and venue.
Inquiries
If you have questions or require additional information that you cannot find on our website or FAQ page, you may contact our office on our Inquiries page.
Charity & Non-Profit Status
The Neufeld Institute is a registered Canadian charitable organization under the name Neufeld Institute Foundation and is also registered as a NPO in British Columbia. If you would like to make a contribution to us, please go to our donation page.
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