Treating Couples Well: Collaborative Techniques for Challenging Times

CPD

Handouts

Speaker

David Treadway, PhD Related seminars and products

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David Treadway, PhD, has been a therapist and trainer for 40 years. His latest book is Treating Couples Well: A Practical Guide to Collaborative Couple Therapy. He’s also the author of Home Before Dark and three other books.

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: David Treadway maintains a private practice and has an employment relationship with Treadway Training Institute. He receives royalties as a published author. David Treadway receives a speaking honorarium, recording royalties, and book royalties from PESI, Inc. and Psychotherapy Networker. He has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: David Treadway is a member of the American Family Therapy Association and American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. 

Objectives

1. Develop a collaborative plan for treatment in the first interview.  
2. Utilize techniques to work on communications, behaviour changes, problem-solving, and sexual intimacy for couples. 
3. Apply an amends-and-forgiveness protocol in session for resolving past wounds affecting the current relationship, such as infidelity, substance abuse, and betrayal.  
4. Analyze family-of-origin dynamics that shape couple development.

Outline

• Describe how to help couples develop a collaborative plan for treatment in the first interview. 
  • In the first interview, couples are offered three different possibilities for organizing their work.
    • Working on here and now issues behaviorally
    • Working on making amends and forgiveness for past hurt and betrayals in the relationship
    • Starting with an evaluation of the family of origin issues that have influenced the couple
• Specify how to offer couples a variety of techniques to work on communications, behaviour changes, problem-solving, and sexual intimacy that they can apply to here-and-now issues at home. 
  • Couples are taught several ways of communicating more effectively, managing conflict, becoming more nurturing, and negotiating decisions.
• Apply an amends-and-forgiveness protocol in session for resolving past wounds affecting the current relationship, such as infidelity, substance abuse, and betrayal. 
  • Couples each take a turn expressing their hurt and angry feelings fully, being responded to by their partner with an amends letter of apology and then follow up with the couple negotiating amends actions.
• Discuss how to offer clients a focused approach to improve treatment outcomes for working on family-of-origin dynamics that shaped their development as a couple. 
  • Couples utilize family pictures and stories to reveal patterns of relationship, communication, nurture, and conflict that shape each member’s of the couples expectations, hopes and fears as they form a family on their own. Couples discuss their individual trauma histories and how that’s impacted them in their relationship. Couples assist each other in dealing with their family of origin issues. 

Target Audience

• Counselors
• Social Workers
• Psychologists
• Psychotherapists
• Therapists
• Marriage & Family Therapists
• Addiction Counselors
• Case Managers
• Physicians
• Nurses
• Other Mental Health Professionals

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