How Not To Do Couple Therapy: The Challenges of Working With Couples

Presenter: Robert Taibbi (VA), LCSW

CEUs: Category 1 | 3.0 

Of all the various therapy formats, couple therapy is probably the most challenging, especially if you are relatively new to this type of work. It’s all too easy to feel like the clients where you get pulled into the weeds of content or arguments over whose reality is right, feel pressure to be a judge, or find yourself working harder than the couple is. In this 3-hour workshop, we’ll look at these common traps, discuss the goals and tasks of couple work, walk through the critical opening sessions, and learn how to combine couple work with individual treatment. You’ll know what to do and, more importantly, what not to do and leave feeling creative and energized.

Workshop Objectives:

At the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

1. Define the 3 major traps of couple therapy. 
2. Discuss the 7 primary tasks of couple work.
3. Describe the focus and goals of the initial sessions.
4. Evaluate how to combine couple and individual treatment.

Recommended Reading

• Taibbi, R. (2017). Doing couple therapy: Craft & creativity in work with intimate partners. 2nd ed. New York: Guilford.

About the Presenter:

Robert Taibbi, LCSW is the author of 13 books and over 300 articles in the areas of clinical supervision, brief therapy, couple and family therapy, and an online columnist for Psychology Today entitled Fixing Families that has received over 20 million views. He has provided trainings nationally and internationally and is currently in private practice in Charlottesville, Virginia.

https://www.bobtaibbi.com/