High Impact Couples Therapy
How to deal with the
“Couple from Hell”

Dear Colleague,

Every couples therapist has them. The couples that you dread. The ones that give you that queasy feeling in your stomach as soon as you see their appointment on the calendar.

The problem is that neither partner wants to listen to the other. Each one is holding on to blame, whining, and withdrawal. They show up expecting you to “fix” their partner.

Things that work with other couples don’t work with them. Every time you see them, they are emotionally distressed, fixated upon the issue of the day and the fight of the week. You probably feel confused and inadequate.

Thousands of therapists around the world struggle in situations just like this. Most of them are passive and reactive in these situations, getting taken along on the stomach-churning ride. To really break through this negative pattern, you have to take a leadership role, and control the therapy to create real change.

How You Create and Sustain Change
Perhaps no one is better equipped to handle highly volatile couples than Doctors Ellyn Bader and Peter Pearson. Ellyn and Peter are the founders of The Couples Institute here in Menlo Park, California. They have made a career of restructuring explosive marriages and reviving “dead” ones. And they have now trained therapists around the world. They are the pioneers of the Developmental Model of Couples therapy. Their book, In Quest of the Mythical Mate is required reading in many graduate programs.

Ellyn and Peter have developed a breakthrough new resource, revealing the secrets to starting and sustaining successful couples therapy—even when you are working with the “Couple from Hell.” The album includes five audio CDs and a companion workbook.

Ellyn and Peter illustrate how to create a context for change that includes: illuminating the partners’ vision, changing the process for discussing highly charged issues, managing emotional reactivity, and resolving intrapsychic conflicts.

The result is a structure for your interventions, and your clients change faster, with less conflict and greater positive momentum. You’ll discover specific ways to get both partners aligned in the same collaborative outcome. As the leader, you will guide the therapeutic process to a more positive termination. Here is a breakdown of what you will learn in this powerful new resource:

Segment One: Creating the Context for Success
In this lesson you’ll explore the big picture view for a successful therapy process. You’ll discover four pillars that will help you anchor all your sessions. You’ll learn to create alignment and how to become more effective at: making real contact; getting the couples' attention; having the couple realize what their work is; integrating what you hear into effective interventions; targeting goals for immediate impact; and, instilling hope for a much brighter future!

Segment Two: Getting the Therapy off to a Powerful Start
In this important segment, you’ll find out the critical first steps to successful therapy—including what to do before the first session. You’ll hear a role play of the telephone interview and a demonstration, along with listening to a demonstration of some essential elements you must incorporate into the first few sessions.

Segment Three: Leading the Process for Change
Many couples therapists are too passive and reactive. Instead of just reacting to their “fight of the week,” you’ll learn how to take an active leadership role, successfully guiding the therapy. You will also discover common goal setting pitfalls, so that instead of getting mired in the couple’s negative process, you create collaboration.

Segment Four: Balancing Interpersonal Issues and Intrapsychic Conflicts
This area is the critical link—the one most therapists are confused about! You will learn when to work with the couple, how to improve their process for discussing loaded issues, and when to deal more specifically with a partner’s individual issues. In this lesson you will discern how to balance family of origin issues, intrapsychic conflicts, and the systemic dynamics of the relationship.

Segment Five: Breaking Through Major Challenges and Ingrained Impasses
In this segment, Ellyn and Peter reveal how to handle four of the most difficult situations you will encounter in couples therapy:

• Internal conflicts posing as interpersonal problems;
• Paradoxes;
• Hypocrisies; and,
• Dismantling unrelenting negative projections.

By the time you complete working through this resource, you will:

1. Learn how to start therapy before the couple arrives for the first interview.
2. Recognize and implement five essential elements in the first interview.
3. Incorporate vision setting as a mechanism to shift couples away from destructive/blaming cycles and into positive outcomes.
4. Learn to use therapist self definition as a leverage for change.
5. Develop new skills for managing extremely volatile partners.
6. Utilize Gestalt methods for quicker resolution of intrapsychic conflicts.

If you would like to see more couples in your practice—and you would like to be better equipped to handle even the most difficult couples—this is the resource you need.

It is only $247, and it comes with our one year, no excuses-no risk guarantee. If you don’t become better equipped to manage your tough cases, then return the album any time within 12 months and we will even pay the postage! Get your set today and start being more effective tomorrow!

Order High Impact Couples Therapy 5 CD album with workbook
$247