INTENSIVE COUPLES THERAPY LEVEL 1:

Intensive Couples Therapy Training Intensive Couples Therapy Training
Sale
Intensive Couples Therapy Training
$400.00 $800.00


An Accelerated Approach to Repair, Stabilize, and Strengthen Couples in Crisis

Date: Thursday May 8th 2025 Time: 9 AM - 6PM

Location: A Better Life Therapy Rittenhouse Square Office, 100 S Broad Street Suite 1920, Philadelphia, PA 19110

Trainers: Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT (read more) and Ariel Stern, LPC, CGT (read more)

Cost: $800.00 regular rate, $400.00 early bird rate until April 15th.

Intended Audience: Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists, Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Licensed Professional Counselors, and other related licensed mental health professional, Master’s Level License Eligible Therapists, and Graduate Level Students in the Mental Health Field.

Included in tuition: 9 hours of training, 9 CEU’s Available, The Couples Therapy Flipchart

Overview

During a 50-minute session, couples therapists are oftenspinning plates. They have to decide whether they should ask a question that needs answering but mighttake them off course, or if they should just allow a conversation to continue. When one or both partners become flooded, the therapist might need to use the rest of the session helping them regulate, only to hear the couple complain in the next session, “Last week we hardly dove into any of the issues we want to talk about. We hope we can get to them this week.” 

 On their own, couples often struggle to fully discuss their issues. They become stressed and upset with each other and, as a result, close the door on the conversation. A typical couples therapy session often repeats this pattern: An issue is opened, the couple grapples with it for10 or 20 minutes, and then they have to sweep it under the therapist’s carpet until the following week. Needless to say, relationship issues are not helped by having their at-home experience mirrored in the therapy room. In an intensive session, when theclients become distressed, they are offered skills, empathy, or a break, then they return and continue to discuss their issue. By practicing this regulation in real time, with a guide, their cycle has an opportunity to change.


During an intensive, the therapist can use all the tools they would like to use. They can ask questions, veer off course when necessary, allow people to talk for longer periods of time, facilitate regulation, and still have time left for lunch! Having two to three days together, back to back, allows you and your clients to fully focus on whatever goal they came in for. The goings-on of the world stay still for a moment while the couple discusses their challenges, works through their conflicts, and has time to explore possibilities for what is next.

Level 1 Training:

During the level 1 training, therapists will explore the following:

OVERVIEW OF INTENSIVES: WHAT THEY ARE, WHY WE DO THEM, AND WHO THEY HELP

  • Intensive Couples Therapy Defined

  • The purpose and benefits of intensive couples therapy

  • Who intensive couples therapy helps

  • Contraindications to intensive couples therapy


PREPARING FOR INTENSIVE COUPLES THERAPY: TRAINING, PAPERWORK, AND POLICIES TO SET YOURSELF (AND YOUR CLIENTS) UP FOR SUCCESS

  • An overview of couples therapy trainings and characteristics that promote successful intensive couples therapy 

  • Clear communication prior to the intensive using policies, paperwork, and consult calls

  • Scheduling and Payment

  • Marketing

  • Assessments

DAY 1 OF THE INTENSIVE: THE FIRST 90 MINUTES, INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS, AND PREPARING AND PROVIDING FEEDBACK

  • Overview of the first day of the intensive and creating an agenda

  • Joining through confidence and hope

  • In depth description of joint and individual assessment

  • Case studies of both joint assessment and individual assessments

  • Directions for preparing feedback providing feedback

  • Tools for joining, assessing, and providing feedback provided.

DAY 2 OF THE INTENSIVE: THE USE OF ENACTMENTS TO DECREASE TRIANGULATION AND INCREASE CHANGE-MAKING

  • The risk of triangulation in couples therapy 

  • Successful set up of enactments through assessment, facilitation, redirecting, and restructuring.

  • Case studies/role plays of enactments

DAY 2 OF THE INTENSIVE: USING EXERCISES TO BUILD ENACTMENTS

  • How to choose the right exercises

  • Helping couples get set up into exercises

  • Exercises provided: Speaker/Listener, the HARD conversations model, Guided Imagery, the intimacy wheel, repair, and Negotiation and more

  • Case studies of exercises

DAY 2 OF THE INTENSIVE: INTERVENING IN DYSFUNCTIONAL PATTERNS TO CREATE A NEW PATH

  • When to step in, when to step back

  • Identifying diffuse physiological arousal/flooding

  • Interventions: Stop the Pattern, Map The Dance, commonly used psychoeduction, cross-tracking, doubling, Physiological Self Soothing, and more

  • Case studies highlighting the effective and ineffective use of interventions

DAY 2 OF THE INTENSIVE: THE FINAL HOUR AND BEYOND

  • How to know when it’s time to wrap up.

  • Utilization of The Farewell Conversation

  • Future planning through couple agreements and plans, referrals, and follow up appointments.

  • Following up and closing loose ends


The Intensive Couples Therapy training will educate participants utilizing:

  • Lecture style teaching

  • Role Plays

  • Videos

The training is a 1 day, 9 hour training and is in process for being approved for CEU’s by the PA Board. These CEU’s are also often applicable nationwide, depending on state requirements.


About the trainers:


Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist. She is a Clinical Fellow of The American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and an Approved AAMFT Supervisor. Elizabeth is the author of the relationship books I Want This To Work and Til Stress Do Us Part and The Couples Therapy Flip Chart, a Clinicians Guide. She is also the founder of A Better Life Therapy. Elizabeth specializes in working with betrayals, high achievers, and those struggling with perinatal mental health. Elizabeth has provided intensive couples therapy for over a decade. She also a trainer at PESI.


Ariel Stern, LPC, CGT is a Licensed Professional Counselor and Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist. Ariel is a Senior Therapist, Supervisor, and Clinical Director of A Better Life Therapy, LLC. Ariel specializes in substance misuse, pregnancy, postpartum, and parenting, and trauma. She has been providing intensive couples therapy sessions for over a decade and also offers consulting services with HBO regarding mental health in their shows.


Location:

The training will be held at A Better Life Therapy’s main office at 100 S Broad Street Suite 1920.