PROFESSIONAL TRAINING

 



DESCRIPTION OF WORKSHOP

This workshop for therapists -TURNING FIGHTS INTO INTIMATE CONVERSATIONS - presents Collaborative Couple Therapy. Its goal is to enable participants to:

1. Become each partner's spokesperson, scriptwriter, and advocate.

2. Turn problems into moments of intimacy.

3. Use fights as entry points into conversations that can expand the relationship.

4. Recognize pathological behavior as a default position that people fall back on when they are unable to get themselves across.

5. Bring out what each partner is struggling with in a way that gets everyone empathizing.

6. Find ways to empathize with the less likeable partner.

7. Become more conversant with their self-talk during couple therapy.

8. Deal with couple gridlock by re-assembling the relationship on the next higher level.

9. Recognize the subtle pejorative attitude that can easily creep into our work with clients.

10. Substitute loss of voice for resistance as the key psychopathological concept

 

The Major Elements of the Workshop:

POSITIONS. In order to do couple therapy you need a position: a way to make sense of the flood of material coming at you and a plan for how to intervene. Dan lists common positions as an introduction to describing his own.

THEORY OF RELATIONSHIPS. Dan uses a fight with his partner to lay out his theory of relationships and the couple therapy approach that emerges out of it.

LIVE DEMONSTRATION WITH VIDEO ANALYSIS. Using volunteers from the audience to role-play the partners, Dan demonstrates his therapeutic approach, followed by a video replay in which he describes the rationale behind each intervention.

THE THERAPIST'S INNER DIALOGUE. Using volunteers from the audience to help him read from a prepared script, Dan describes the conversation he has with himself while doing couple therapy. We see here the hidden tempestuous life of the therapist.

THE SOURCE OF THE PARTNERS' PROBLEM is loss of voice - the inability to express what they feel or even recognize fully what it is. Partners take these feelings that make them uneasy and sweep them under the rug or turn them into something the other is doing wrong - that is, they avoid or blame.

THE TASK OF THERAPY is to turn the couple's avoidant or angry interaction into an intimate conversation by discovering the missing heartfelt feelings and creating a joint platform (re-assembling the relationship on the next higher level).

THE PARTNERS' INNER DIALOGUES. A clue to the partners' missing heartfelt feelings is in their inner dialogues - what they say to themselves while talking to each other. A task of therapy is to bring out these inner dialogues.


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WORKSHOP SCHEDULE

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

Pleasant Hill, CA April 11, 2008, Friday, 9am-4pm. Collaborative Couple therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. JFK University, 100 Ellinwood Drive. Phone (800) 557-1384. Website www.jfku.edu/ce. You may also register at the door.


OUTSIDE THE BAY AREA
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Portland, OR. Trainer is Nan Narboe who has taught with Dan since the 80s, and brings him to Portland two to three times a year. Nan's ongoing CCT training group meets from 1pm to 4pm on the last Friday of the month, September through June. Limited to those who have taken Dan's 6 hour introductory workshop. Contact her for information (503-516-5832 or Narboe@comcast.net). Free reading group, Saturday, May 17, 1 to 4 pm. Email Nan to register.

Portland, OR. Friday, April 18, 2008. Deepening the Relationship in Couple Therapy (a new workshop developing ideas presented in Dan's introductory workshop: Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Further information to come).

Troy, MI. Thursday, April 24, 2008. 9am-4:15pm. Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. San Marino Club. For information, contact R. Cassidy Seminars 866-992-9399 or www.ceuregistration.com. (You can sign up starting in mid-February)

Lansing, MI. Friday, April 25, 2008. 9am-4:15pm. Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Radisson Hotel Lansing. For information, contact R. Cassidy Seminars 866-992-9399 or www.ceuregistration.com. (You can sign up starting in mid-February)

Ann Arbor , MI. Saturday, April 26, 2008. 9am-4:15pm. Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Kensington Court Ann Arbor. For information, contact R. Cassidy Seminars 866-992-9399 or www.ceuregistration.com. (You can sign up starting in mid-February)

Waltham, MA. Friday, May 9, 2008. 9am-4:15pm. Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Hilton Garden Inn. For information, contact R. Cassidy Seminars 866-992-9399 or www.ceuregistration.com. (You can sign up starting in mid-February)

Worcester, MA. Saturday, May 10, 2008. 9am-4:15pm. Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Crowne Plaza-Worcester. For information, contact R. Cassidy Seminars 866-992-9399 or www.ceuregistration.com. (You can sign up starting in mid-February)

Clark, NJ. Friday, May 16, 2008. 9am-4:15pm. Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Crowne Plaza-Clark. For information, contact R. Cassidy Seminars 866-992-9399 or www.ceuregistration.com. (You can sign up starting in mid-February)

New York, NY. Saturday, May 17, 2008. 9am-4:15pm. Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Doubletree Guest Suites Times Square. For information, contact R. Cassidy Seminars 866-992-9399 or www.ceuregistration.com. (You can sign up starting in mid-February)

CANCELLED. Sorrento, Italy May 25 to 30, 2008. Workshop led byTerry Patterson and Dan Wile. Sponsored by Pronto Professional Seminars. For information, contact www.italyseminars.com or 877-236-9864.

CANCELLED, WILL BE RESCHEDULED FOR THE FALL. Los Angeles, CA. Friday, May 30, 2008. 9am-4:15pm. Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Skirball Cultural Center. For information, contact R. Cassidy Seminars 866-992-9399 or www.ceuregistration.com. (You can sign up starting in mid-February)

CANCELLED, WILL BE RESCHEDULED FOR THE FALL. Pasadena, CA. Saturday, May 31, 2008. 9am-4:15pm. Collaborative Couple Therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Hilton Pasadena. For information, contact R. Cassidy Seminars 866-992-9399 or www.ceuregistration.com. (You can sign up starting in mid-February)

Carmel, CA. Friday, Oct 10, 2008, 9am-4pm. Collaborative Couple therapy: Turning Fights Into Intimate Conversations. Rancho Canada. Monterey County-CAMFT.


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MONTHLY TRAINING MEETINGS

These meetings, which are held in three San Francisco Bay Area locations, provide continuing training in Collaborative Couple Therapy. Each meeting lasts three hours and has three parts:

1. Didactic. An aspect of Collaborative Couple Therapy is presented.

2. Case Consultation. Participants who wish to do so present couple cases for consultation. Emphasis will be on the aspect just discussed
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3. Demonstration and Practice. One of these cases will be chosen for role-play demonstration. Dan, and any of the participants who wish to, play the part of the couple therapist, followed by a video replay in  which the therapist elucidates his or her inner dialogue, with particular emphasis on the organizing issue of the session.


Schedule

Oakland, California, 9:15am-12:15pm, Saturdays
May 31, June 14, July 12, 2008.

Sebastopol, California, 1-4pm, Fridays
April 4, May 2, June 6, 2008

Palo Alto, California (new location), 9:30-12:30pm, Saturdays.
June 7, July 19, Sept 6, 2008


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CEUs

California MFTs and LCSWs. Apfelbaum-Wile Seminars (AWS) is approved by the Board of Behavioral Sciences to provide continuing education for Marriage and Family Therapists and Licensed Clinical Social Workers (provider #PCE 8). The one-day workshop meets the qualification for 6 CEUs, the two-day workshop for 12, and each continuing training session for 3. At some of the workshops, CEUs will be provided through the host's provider number. Email Dan for particulars.

MCEP credit. Email Dan to find out which of the California workshops and continuing training meetings provide MCEP credit, through which sponsoring organization, and whether the course has been approved or just submitted for approval.

 

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