Many therapists dedicate much therapy time helping betrayed partners heal deep emotional wounds in the wake of an affair. Therapy is often lopsided in a victim–perpetrator model, dealing with the injury of the betrayal. Less attention is typically paid to helping the partners who had the affair, one-night stand, or online infidelity, especially regarding why and how it happened. This workshop will give you a more nuanced understanding of the motivations for the infidelity and present practical interventions around the underlying meaning of the cheating and what it means about the relationship.
Couple therapists must be able to organize each session in such a way that allows for measuring progress in their treatment plan. One such way is to think of placing the couple and therapist in discreet “containers” or exercises that stress the couple. These exercises, tasks, or games allow the therapist to test and retest hypotheses, test a particular capacity, or otherwise allow the therapist to view couple performance in real time. These containers include a task, timing, and possible roles casted by the therapist and may include a role the therapist must also play. An example might be a psychodrama whereby partners must replay a recent event – step by step – as the therapist, as investigator, gets the facts. Or another container might involve a deal breaker issue whereby partners are required to persuade each other out of a deal breaker while the therapist plays the role of mediating only the manner in which partners argue their points.
During this time of extreme polarization in the country, political stress has invaded couple relationships. Loyalties to different political tribes create tensions, as do different ways of coping with this stressful environment. This is new territory for couples therapists, and of course we are dealing with our own distress about what’s going on the country. The presenter will offer clinical strategies for helping couples in turbulent times, along with examples of how he has applied couples therapy strategies to create community interventions to reduce polarization, via the nonprofit Braver Angels.
Ericksonian hypnotherapy and the Self-Relations approach are experiential methods of change. In combination they can be synergistic. Psychotherapy is best when clients have a first-hand experience of an alive therapeutic process. Such dynamic empowering experiences pave the way for dynamic understandings. Bill O’Hanlon and Jeffrey Zeig will engage with each other and the participants to examine commonalities and differences in their work.
Motivational factors may be central in the life of a couple. The panel will describe conflicts due to motivational factors and provide therapeutic options.
In this demonstration I will show how therapists can apply the psychological flexibility model to go anywhere within the model at any time with anyone and still do good work.
Couples say they want better communication often without having the developmental capacities to bring about what they so desperately desire. The Initiator-Inquirer Process can be used to increase clients' capacity for empathy, self-definition and giving when it is not convenient.
The Imago Dialogue Process is a structured interaction between intimate partners that creates Safety so they can drop their defenses, become vulnerable and experience connecting. Using the structure enables couples to talk about any subject with creative engagement and without polarizing.