Couples Counseling: Innovative Approaches That Really Work – Part 1

This course will teach the participant to

• Name features that suggest a couple may not be a good candidate for couples therapy
• Name features that facilitate and interfere with good communication
• Describe ways of training couples to be present, especially when feeling anxious

• Couples Counseling: Assessment & Early Sessions
  • The therapeutic environment
  • The therapeutic contract
  • Helping couples clarify their goals
  • The dialectic of early sessions
  • What we can evaluate
  • Red flag warnings
• Couples Counseling: Building Communication Skills
  • What do people need to disclose?
  • Contrasting communication needs
  • Building a joint vocabulary
  • Obstacles to effective communication
  • Making communication easier
  • Emotional regulation
• Couples Counseling: Building Intimacy Skills
  • Being present
  • Managing anxiety
  • Yearning to be seen, fearing to be known
  • Describing current lived experience
  • The fallacy of “triggering”