Master the Approaches these Experts Rely On

Module 1

• The common mistakes therapists make with “mixed agenda” couples
• How to use individual and conjoint sessions to help both partners take responsibility for their contributions to the problems in the relationship
• How to help them reflect on the consequences of ending their commitment to each other and the impact it may have on their family
• How to prepare them to deal with the next stage in their lives, whether they divorce or not, with a fuller awareness

• Challenging the myth of therapeutic neutrality
• The clarifying questions to ask ourselves when we’re ambivalent about pushing the relationship on or helping the couple pull the plug
• When and how therapists should offer couples direct feedback about staying together or not
• How to help a couple say goodbye to each other when that’s the appropriate course for them

• Crisis Phase – Learn strategies for guiding couples through the decision process, handling emotional issues, addressing the practical questions of how to negotiate the legal system, developing a co-parenting plan, and working through other day-to-day details
• Insight Phase – Help divorcing couples review the deeper meaning of their marriage, determine what they’ve learned, find ways to mourn their loss, and express regrets and appreciation to each other
• Vision Phase – Support the couple in finding ways — often through ritual — to honor the marriage and approach divorce as an important life passage rather than a shameful failure

• How to reframe, persuade, and structure therapy in ways that enhance the likelihood of reconciliation
• The specific language choices that can either create optimism or pessimism with ambivalent couples
• Teaching motivated partners how to develop a step-by-step plan for saving their marriage
• How to help motivated clients wishing to maintain a marriage focus on themselves, rebuild strengths, and keep their desperation at bay

• The common dynamics and dilemmas of gray divorce
• Common mistakes therapists make in working with boomer stepparents and their adult stepchildren
• Best practices for handling the often combustible triangle of biological parent, adult stepchild, and newly married stepparent
• How to help alienated boomer fathers and their daughters develop emotional connection in the wake of a divorce

• How therapists, attorneys, and financial professionals can work together as a team to maximize the outcome for all parties involves in a divorce
• The training required to become a collaborative divorce coach
• The stages of the collaborative divorce process and which couples it is most appropriate for
• Concrete strategies for encouraging constructive dialogue at the divorce settlement table

Meet the Course Experts:

William Doherty, PhD, is a professor and director of the Minnesota Couples on the Brink Project at the University of Minnesota. His books include Helping Couples on the Brink of Divorce: Discernment Counseling for Troubled Relationships, with Steven Harris. He is cofounder of Better Angels, an initiative to depolarize America.

Terry Real, LICSW, is an Internationally Recognized Family Therapist, Speaker and Author. Terry founded the Relational Life Institute (RLI), offering workshops for couples, individuals and parents around the country along with a professional training program for clinicians wanting to learn his RLT (Relational Life Therapy) methodology.

Tammy Nelson, PhD, is an internationally acclaimed psychotherapist, Board Certified Sexologist, Certified Sex Therapist and Certified Imago Relationship Therapist. She has been a therapist for almost 30 years and is the executive director of the Integrative Sex Therapy Institute. She started the institute to develop courses for psychotherapists as the need grew for certified, integrated postgraduate sex and couple’s therapists in a growing field of mental health consumers who need more complex interventions for their relationship needs.

Michele Weiner-Davis, MSW, director of the Divorce Busting Center, is the author of the bestsellers The Sex-Starved Marriage and Divorce Busting.

Patricia Papernow, EdD, is the director of the Institute for Stepfamily Education and a psychologist in private practice. She’s the author of Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationships: What Works and What Doesn’t.

Elana Katz, L.C.S.W., is an EFT trainer and a senior faculty member at the Ackerman Institute for the Family, where she teaches advanced family therapy and directs the Family and Divorce Mediation Program.