From Contention To Contemplation: Overcoming Core Impasses In Couples Therapy

Course overview

Many couples come to therapy emotionally disconnected from each other, polarized by a constant state of struggle and unable to see past the last fight. Couples often engage in a repetitive cycle of interaction, resulting in their feeling stuck and hopeless. Once this reciprocal pattern can be identified, couples can be empowered to break the pattern and learn new ways of relating to one another that better satisfies their needs. The purpose of this course is to train therapists to conduct a strength-based assessment and identify those dynamics in a couple?s interaction that serve to perpetuate unsatisfactory relationship patterns. Therapeutic techniques discussed include diagramming a couple?s vulnerability cycle using pictorial representations and facilitating new patterns by identifying the partners? beliefs and core premises and providing training in retroactive analysis of conflictual interactions.