Starting September 2018
“ . . . couple therapy is about teaching a pair of human beings, joined by many bonds, some weak and some strong, how to live authentically with one another – from their hearts and bodies, from their longings and laughter. In return, we are rewarded with their revealed beauty”.
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Joseph Zinker and Sonia Nevis
This course aims to provide training for qualified professionals wishing to incorporate relationship counselling into their practice in a client-centred, integrative way.
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Course structure
The course will run from September to April (with a break in December), with 2 day - Saturday+ Sunday workshops on a monthly basis.
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Each workshop will contain theoretical input, discussion of clinical and couple issues as well as practice. Collaborative learning is encouraged, so participants can bring and contribute their own knowledge and experience.
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The programme uses a variety of teaching methods. These include formal seminars, structured skills development and practice, and workshops. As this programme is a clinical programme, there is a strong emphasis on practical and experiential work. This is an independent training course for qualified counsellor's, providing a private certificate. It is not affiliated with any educational boards.
Working With Couples - a Humanistic Approach
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How to be connected with another person and maintain your own self is one of the most complex human dilemmas shared by the human race from birth to death. It is a delicate balance between being an individual and at the same time being part of a relationship, and is often fraught with tension and difficulties, yet when it works well; it can be one of the most profound experiences.
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To function well in a relationship we need to manage issues around boundaries, power, autonomy, phenomenology (how individuals make meaning), cultural introjects, gender biases, communication differences, ethnicity, faith, education, socio-economic status – to name but a few!! We need to understand how we are different, and also how we differ in dealing with difference.
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It’s this latter part that generally creates most tension. We see difference as dangerous – a threat to our autonomy, criticism, attack, betrayal – and thus try to eradicate it either by becoming like the other (fusion), or trying to make the other the same as us (conflict). Yet in reality, contact and connection can only authentically occur through difference.
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This course will enable you to understand how to track and modulate the process of contact / connection / separation / withdrawal, using isolation as one polarity and confluence at the other. The model integrates many approaches and disciplines, including from Gestalt, TA, and some systems theory.
Meet the Trainers
Lindsey Alderson (MBACP Accred) is a Humanistic integrative psychotherapist who has been working with clients at the New Dawn Centre since 2002. Lindsey has a particular interest in relational work, both with adults and with children. She has worked with couples in a therapeutic setting for over 10 years and has worked with children and families for over 11 years.
Lindsey’s other passion is in helping others grow as counsellors. With a background in education (secondary school) and also training counsellors at the start of their journey (teaching levels 2, 3 and 4 CPCAB courses), she now co-tutors the current couple training course at the centre and is one of our regular facilitators in our Saturday seminar programme.
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Ross Hickman is an integrative psychotherapist working with singles and couples with a background in teaching adults.
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He has a real heart for those who are hurting and struggling with life issues whether as an individual or in relationship with others.
Ross deals with a wide range of common client presentations and his previous pastoral history enables him to work with a broad array of faith dilemmas.
He is experienced in working with porn and sex addiction as well as having an interest in helping those who work in the emergency services, were sent to boarding school and those affected by damaging relationships.
Want to get an idea of the course before committing?
Why not try our taster course
The Model
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The goal of this model is to increase the couples’ awareness of how they interact, so they can then choose how to proceed. Hopefully this will enable them to connect more powerfully and intentionally and achieve a satisfying outcome.
The stance is therefore one of optimism, celebrating what goes well and are strengths in the relationship. We assume people are doing the best they can, and aim to enhance awareness regarding the things that go less well in the relationship and block their productivity and satisfaction.
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We maintain that the relationship is the client, rather than either individual, and the work is for what is best for the relationship. Thus issues such as power and resistance to change are understood as occurring in relationship rather than being attributes of individuals.
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Consequently therapists need to develop awareness of their own patterns of relating, particularly within long-term relationships, so that they can use themselves as instruments of change.
Areas to be covered
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The theories underpinning couples counselling.
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Couple assessment
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Relationship life stages
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Couple dynamics
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Family systems
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The Imago concept: from unconscious to conscious relationship
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Working with sexual intimacy.
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Separation and divorce