Full Course Description

John Gottman & Julie Gottman on the New Science of Couples and Family Therapy

Program Information

Objectives

Investigate how to better help couples develop the trust, enduring commitment, and physiological calm that are the key to yielding more robust and measurable clinical outcomes

Outline

The History of Couples and Family Therapy
- The Way It Was
- New Gurus and New Ways
Where Are We Now?
- Couples Therapy Research
New General Systems Therapy
- The Magic of Love
History of Gottman Research and Love Lab
- Relationship Assessment Checkup
- Work in the Love Lab
What Predicts Marriage Happiness and Success?
- Homeostasis Ratio
- “Dow-Jones” of Couple’s Communication
- Roach Hotel Model
Creating the Magic
- Three Components Needed
- Control-Power Dynamics
Gottmans’ Couples Therapy
- The How
- Power of Attunement
- Emotional Command Systems
- Skillful Conflict
- Baby Makes Three
What We Know From This

Copyright : 03/24/2018

The Gottman Method Approach to Better Couples Therapy

Program Information

Objectives

Demonstrate how to enhance a couple’s capacity for gratitude, cherishing, and commitment
Apply interventions that increase couples’ ability to deescalate anger, manage conflict, and repair ruptures in the relationship
Employ personal calming techniques in calm in the midst of couples’ relationship conflicts and have hope when they feel hopeless

Outline

Sharpening Concepts of What Works
- Get the Data
- Love Lab Creation
Gottmans’ New Love Lab
What Predicts Future of a Relationship?
- Masters versus Disasters
- Positive to Negative Ratio
- Roach Hotel Model
Phase Space Plots of Relationships
- Attractors
- Vectors
- Case Study
- Influence Functions
- Parameters
  - Change the Eight “Sliders”
Sound Relationship House
- Scales
- Seven Mechanisms with Interventions
Conflict and Physiology
Three Gottmans’ Couples’ Interventions
- Power of Positive Startup
- Power of Turning Toward and Accepting Influence
- Power of Repair
Building Trust
Building Commitment
Summary of The Magic Trio and Making Couples Therapy Work
Questions and Comments

Copyright : 03/24/2018

Enhancing Assessment in Couples Therapy: New Approaches to Improving Outcomes

Program Information

Outline

Gottman Relationship Checkup Questionnaire
- What Therapist Receives
- Strengths and Challenges for Clients
- Client Checkup Summary
History of Previous Profile Attempts
- Past Issues
The Sound Relationship House Theory
- What Makes Relationships Work
- Scales
Reliability and Validity of Gottman Relationship Checkup
- Significant Correlations
Gottman Relationship Checkup Website Demonstration
Case Study #1
Case Study #2
Who Comes to Couples Therapy?
- When We See Them
- Results of Couples Research
Conclusions Drawn
Questions and Comments

Objectives

Conduct a thorough assessment of a couple’s relationship using the Gottman Relationship Checkup
Respond with effective feedback about your clients’ relationship’s strengths and how to best address their areas of concern
Develop a develop a personalized treatment plan based on each partner’s responses to the assessment questionnaire

Copyright : 03/23/2018

Couples Therapy for Treating Trauma: The Gottman Method Approach

Program Information

Objectives

Determine the impact of PTSD on a couple’s relationship to inform the clinician’s choice of treatment interventions for both the individual and couple.
Apply simple yet effective clinical interventions in session to help clients acquire a new perspective of PTSD and a more adaptive approach to managing symptoms.
Assess the often ignored social and interpersonal symptoms of PTSD in clients.

Outline

What is PTSD?

DSM-5
Ignored PTSD Symptoms
Epidemiology
Cases of PTSD
Neuroscience of PTSD
The Physiology of PTSD

Effective Treatments of PTSD

Individual Treatments
Couples Treatments
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)

Couples’ Therapy for PTSD

PTSD’s Affects on Relationships
The Non-PTSD Partner
Effects on Sound Relationship House
- Love Maps
- Turning Toward
- Conflict Management

Intervention for Couples with PTSD

Surfacing
Exploration
Returning to Couple Interaction
Specific Interventions
Creating Shared Meaning

The Crisis of Trust in Today’s Couples

OBJECTIVES

Discuss how younger generations conceptualize relationships today

OUTLINE

Discuss how younger generations conceptualize relationships today
- They are in committed relationships, but not necessarily married
- They are more comfortable having sexual encounters that are usually free of emotional attachment
- The younger generation is waiting later to get married, usually as a way to guard against early divorce. This is especially true among women
- Women are having children earlier in their marriages
Explain the trends in relationship satisfaction over the past three decades
- Kids drive marital satisfaction down by driving couples apart and creating more conflict
- There is a higher level of education amongst today’s couples and more individual fulfillment for women.
- There is more polyamory today as part of the “hookup culture,” and an imbalance of security with this from one partner
- Women are relying less on wife and child-rearing roles in order to achieve happiness
Identify the byproducts of open relationships or those based on sex alone
- Partners in an open relationship often feature a dynamic where one partner is a willing participant and the other keeps up a façade in order to please the willing partner
- Noncommittal relationships are partially based on issues with attachment; in contemporary relationships among younger generations, parents’ divorce may play a role
- Even relationships labeled purely sexual/free of emotional commitment contain degrees of attachment. The brain chemical oxytocin is released even during non-sexual physical touch.