Gottman Method Couples Therapy Clinical Training
Level 3: Practicum
Presented by Certified Gottman Therapists and Trainers:
Sinead Smyth, LMFT & Dr. Mike McNulty, LMFT
There is no better way to learn how to apply the Gottman Method than this workshop.
Through videotaped cases of real couples, hands-on role plays, demonstrations of assessments and interventions, and nuanced discussion of technique, the Level 3 Practicum significantly expands your understanding of when and how to use Gottman Method approaches. In a small-group setting, you will have the opportunity to practice and refine your use of Gottman Method therapy and receive personalized guidance in developing a roadmap for clinical decisions.
Level 3 Practicum content represents the true resistances and co-morbidities we face as therapists and how we can transform them into effective healing methods for the couple. The workshop is structured to help create a safe and secure environment so participants can learn and practice while feeling free of criticism and negative judgment.
Workshop Objectives:
At the end of this workshop participants will understand how to:
•Effectively use the Oral History Interview during a couple’s assessment and understand its implications
•Clearly explain to a couple their strengths and challenges in terms of the “Sound Relationship House”
•Help partners identify their own “Four Horsemen” and understand the antidotes
•Select and utilize appropriate tools to help a couple deepen their “Friendship System”
•Clarify a couple’s conflicts in terms of solvable, perpetual, and grid-locked problems
•Use the “Dreams Within Conflict” technique to help a couple feel hopeful and to achieve break-through with their perpetual conflict
•Successfully intervene when one or both partners are flooding
•Help a couple reach solutions using the Compromise Ovals intervention
•Sensitively intervene when co-morbidities are present
Training Prerequisites:
•Master’s or doctoral degree OR current enrollment in a graduate program within a mental health-related field
•Completed Level 1 Live Training or DVD Home study*
•Completed Level 2 Live Training or DVD Home study*
•Therapy experience highly recommended, but not required
Please either email a copy of your Level 2 certificate of completion to sinead@eastbayrelationshipcenter.com or bring to day one of level 3.
Video Participation:
Participants are asked to bring a short (ten minute or so) video segment (on DVD or USB thumb drive) of difficult and challenging couples to the Level 3 workshop. The therapist’s work with the couple will not be critiqued; in fact the video does not even need to show the therapist; just seeing the couple is all that is needed. The purpose will be to use these couples to illustrate how the Gottman Method can be applied to these tough cases. Trainers will describe how they would treat these couples and then participants from the audience will volunteer to role play these couples with the trainers demonstrating using a variety of interventions with these couples.
Participants will then have the opportunity to practice using these interventions in a supportive small group setting with other participants’ role playing the couples from the videos.
Bringing a video tape isn’t required, but it will help make the training more meaningful for everyone. If you cannot bring a taped segment, it would help to bring a brief written description of a challenging couple for the same purpose. This is for Case Discussion within the context of Certification Practicum ONLY and is not related to the videotaped interventions submitted for final Certification Review. Note: Unfortunately, we are not able to support the following formats: Mini DVD’s, “High-8,” alternate or nonstandard international formats, such as “Super-8.”
Who Should Attend:
Participants working in the following fields will benefit from this training:
•Mental health providers
•Allied professionals and clergy
•Students and interns
•Family clinic staff Professors/teachers of couples therapy
•Researchers in the social sciences
•Employee assistance professionals
Continuing Education: 20 CE Hours
The course is approved through National Marriage Seminars for 20 CE hours for an additional fee.
