Last Chance Couple Therapy: Bringing Couples Back from the Brink | Peter Fraenkel, PhD

This lecture is part of the Ackerman Distinguished Family Therapy Lecture Series, designed to contribute to conversations on advancements and opportunities in family therapy training.
Therapy with couples on the brink of dissolving the relationship presents unique challenges for couple therapists in developing a therapeutic alliance and a mutually-agreeable plan for change efforts. These partners typically present with high levels of conflict, anger, contempt, and discouragement, low levels of pleasurable connection, major differences in their life goals, relational trauma, and little patience, good will, or hope. One or both spouses may be highly ambivalent about trying to improve things, and may be reluctant to engage in the therapy process lest they be stuck in an unhappy relationship.
Often, couples come to us having tried therapy without lasting success, and announce that “this is our last chance.” However, with an approach that honors partners’ ambivalence, it’s possible to turn even the most hopeless relationships around. In this workshop, we’ll explore how to engage reluctant partners in therapy without making them feel trapped in an unhappy future.
In this webinar, you’ll learn how to:
● Restore hope when couples seem about to give up.
● Carry out an engaging and nonthreatening first session.
● Introduce fresh perspectives on problems and engage clients in trying.
changes that they’re emotionally unprepared for and that feel irrational to do given their level of discouragement.
● Offer strategies for safeguarding communication and restarting passion and pleasure.
● Although we’ll focus on four major types of Last Chance Couples, the approach applies to couples at any level of distress.
www.ackerman.org

[@rubym3496]

Hi there, is it possible to have the pp slides? They are so concise.

[@Mscursed2]

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