Michelle Wangler – Revolutionize Your Work with Couples: Proven Techniques for Couples Therapy to Transform Your Practice

Outline

Couples Stages

• A developmental perspective
• Identify developmental arrests
• Process of differentiation with couples
• Identify the type of couple

Hostile-Angry Couple

• Get off to a strong start
• Establish self as leader
• Incorporate neuroscience / brain research
• Guide couple out of destructive patterns
• Strategies to refocus entrenched blaming
• Techniques to encourage accountability

Conflict-Avoidant Couple

• Types of Conflict-Avoidant couples
• Separate the “we”
• Handle developmental tension
• Therapists: Avoid enabling their arrested system
• Manage their consuming desire to merge

Initiator-Inquirer Exercise

• Provide appropriate structure before beginning
• Teach exercise to couple
• Strengthen the Capacities of the Initiator
• Strengthen the Capacities of the Inquirer
• Therapist challenges

Additional Tools and Interventions

• The Paper Exercise to diagnose and intervene
• Interpret results from Couples Diagnostic Questionnaire
• Gestalt 2-chair to illuminate resistance to change