Marriage and Family Therapists and Therapy Students

There is a hunger in the therapy world for more hands on help around helping couples on the brink, stepfamily issues, and how to be pro-marriage in today’s consumer, throw-away culture.

Therapy Training

Are you a therapists looking for more on how to do therapy and a student looking to gain practical advice on how to do therapy? Consider purchasing my nationally presented workshops - now available on DVD. They are all CE Eligible.

Topics include:

Working with Couples on the Brink

Bad and Good Couples Therapy

Priority Setting in Couples Therapy: The Family FIRO Model

Working with Remarried Couples in Stepfamilies

How Experienced Therapists Undermine Marriage

 

Free downloads:

• Bad Couples Therapy: How to Avoid Doing it
• How Therapists Harm Marriage
• Couples on the Brink
• Divided Loyalties: Stepfamily Life
• Values Sensitive Therapy

• Fixing Healthcare: What Role Will Therapists Play?

For many years I have been writing for therapists and doing workshops around the country when my schedule permits, but until now I have not been able to respond to requests for more hands-on training and supervision in working with couples from my philosophy and clinical approach.  I am pleased to now have a way to get my message and approach to a wider audience without sacrificing my own life balance.
But first, what’s distinctive about what I offer to marriage and couple therapists? 

• My emphasis on therapist values and skills for preserving marriages when this is feasible and consistent with respecting client autonomy and safety (see values statement at http://marriagefriendlytherapists.com/values.php). In other words, how to move beyond neutrality while still being a sensitive, skilled therapist.
• My expertise in working with couples on the brink of divorce when one or both partners are ambivalent and demoralized, especially when one spouse is leaning “out” of the marriage and the other wants to save it.  
• My expertise in working with couples in stepfamilies where parenting issues and children’s and other third parties threaten to undermine marriages that are basically sound. 
• My expertise in the “micro steps” of sessions, specific questions and comments, pacing and leading, and managing the flow of sessions with couples.   Too much consultation is at the 500 foot level and not grounded enough in how to talk to clients in real time and how to structure sessions for maximum effect.  For example, I have learned how to strategically use separate conversations when one of the partners is melting down or expressing a lot of ambivalence about the therapy.