Couples Therapy Training     

Couples Therapy Training

Dates: 20th/21st May 2023 and

            24th/ 25th June 2023
            (Both days 9.30 – 17.00)

Cost: €560

Location:  McHugh House, Grand Parade, Cork City

CPD: Awaiting confirmation from IACP

Please Note:

Both weekends (4-days) are required to learn the basics of couples counselling.

To book a place, a non-refundable deposit of €100 is required, followed by the remaining balance four weeks prior to the first weekend. Please email mail@karenmurphy.ie for payment details.

Cancellation terms: A €100 non-refundable deposit is required to reserve a place. The balance is payable four weeks before the course start date. Once paid this balance is also non-refundable.

Details

By the end of this training you will be confident to start working with couples in your practice. This training will guide you through the theories of working with couples and the practicalities of working in relationship therapy. It will support you in starting with couples with techniques to guide you. And following from this will provide a strong experiential focus from watching couples therapy and role playing couples therapy to help foster the curiosity and creativity needed for working with couples who are experiencing deep and long term issues. My approach is integrative drawing on the developmental model, Gestalt relational approaches (including the Resnicks), family therapy techniques, Esther Perel, Terry Real and more. 

What it will involve will be full two weekends of training, a deep dive in working with couples. After than I will be providing ongoing monthly training and support to guide you through your early stages of couples work.  My aim will be to support you to understand how to work with couples. I will then offer referrals to you and we will work together through your work with couples through a combination of training and supervision. 

To start with I am only going to take on a small group so the training will be very intense and personalised. 


My hope is to create a community of passionate couples therapists to expand my referral network and ensure the clients are getting relational, knowledgeable and professional therapists to guide them to more positive relationships. 

This training is suitable for therapists who feel that they want to work with couples but are unsure where to start. It is for you if you want to have a comprehensive training and a mentoring space which will support you through your first months of couples work. You will need to be conscientious, passionate and willing to do a lot of reading and watching of training videos. Couples work is both deeply challenging and deeply rewarding. You will need to be a qualified therapist with at least two years experience of working with individual clients.

If this is something that may be of interest to you please email me at mail@karenmurphy.ie.  

Schedule of Training

Day One

Philosophy and theory of couples therapy
Content v Process in Couples work (we do not solve the problems for them)
Importance of relationship, respect and curiousity
Differentiation, conflict avoidance and hostility in relationshiops
Common presentations in couples therapy including affairs, infertility, sexual issues etc.
Video of a full first session of a couple
Self reflection and discussion of vide
Ethical considerations in couples work

Day Two

Communication Skils
Role Plays
How to conduct a first session with a couple in detail
Assessment tools in couples work including initial questionnaire and the paper exercise

Day Three

Contracting with the couple
Assessing if the couple is ready for couples therapy
The therapist as translator
Family of origin integration
Assessment of couples therapy session
What to do in individual sessions
Role Play

Day Four

Revisting how to conduct a first session
Homework for the couple
Video and analysis of couples therapy
Role Play
Recommended Reading 

About Me

I graduated in 2013 with a BA (Hons) in Counselling and Psychotherapy from Cork Institute of Technology (now MTU). I have established a successful full time private practice over the last nine years in Cork City. I developed an interest and passion for couples work which is now a large percentage of my practice. I have done extensive training and reading in relationships and couples therapy. This includes training with Bob and Rita Resnick, Family Constellations training and psychosexual training. My main couples training has been with Ellyn Bader and Peter Pearson’s Developmental model. I have over 200 hours of dedicated and certified relationship and couples training. I am deeply passionate about couples work and the significant improvement it can make to clients and their families. I participate in two peer supervision groups and have also facilitated a peer supervision group focused on couples work in Cork. I have run successful workshops on integrating couples therapy into your practice. I also have been interviewed by a journalist in the Irish Examiner about intimacy after having children. The article is here: https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/advice/arid-41067905.html