Experiential Assistant ongoing training series

SESSIONS BEGIN january 29, 2024

This series will feature clinical videos of video-recorded and captioned “unlikely transformations” with couples with complex issues, combined with training in the theory and practice of Transformative Couples Therapy®. As a clinician, I imagine you know the experience of asking yourself the question: “How can I possibly help this couple to find a stable and loving contrast to how they have been living?” Productively answering this compelling question is the driving motivation for this course.

The third hour of each training session will focus on applying the skills you just learned into meaningful application with a live role-play couple. This “couple” will emerge from within the breakout room on Zoom with three other participants and a trained TCT Experiential Assistant.

Participation in this series requires an admission interview. Please contact Dr. Mars using the form below to schedule your interview.

Session Calendar

Eight monthly two-hour sessions
Mondays 8am-10am PST
Continuing Education
This course is currently under review for 16 CE from the APA.
Cost
$60 per two-hour session
Total cost $480 USD

  • January 29

    February 26

    March 25

    April 22

    May 19

    June 17

    Summer Break

    September 16

    October 21

Training Objectives

At the end of this program, participants will be able to:

  • Identify three ways to help establish a secure base in treatment.

  • Describe two ways to regulate emotional reactivity in both couple members.

  • Detect the healthiest aspects of each couple member.

  • Utilize two methods for couple members to process emotional experience.

  • Design healing a portrayal to treat relational trauma.

  • Define why affirmation of the self is important.

  • Explain how clients can melt defense of intellectualization.

  • Find shared matching values in couple members.

  • Describe how to process warded-off emotional experience.

  • Conduct meta-therapeutic processing when couples experience reparative experiences.

  • Define the value of the core emotion of surprise in treatment.

  • Integrate core affect through slowing down.

  • Locate two ways to tailor treatment to a couple member’s attachment style.

  • Select opportunities to help couple members to feel and show more positivity.

  • Utilize openings to soften defenses.

  • Define three early signs of dorsal vagal response.

  • Demonstrate knowledge of two ways to regulate dorsal vagal response.

  • Specify how the frequency of dorsal vagal response can be reduced in treatment.

  • Distinguish methods for engaging avoidantly attached patients in treatment.

  • Detect an example of a tough case in which an unexpected breakthrough occurred.

  • Explain how a meditative state of mindfulness helps in treatment.

  • Conduct a role play of meta-therapeutic processing.

  • Explain the value of increased awareness in couple members. (*Iwakabe, S., Edlin, J., Fosha, D., Gretton, H., Joseph, A. J., Nunnink, S. E., Nakamura, K., & Thoma, N. C., 2020)

  • Identify transformance striving in a session. (*Iwakabe, S., Edlin, J., Fosha, D., Gretton, H., Joseph, A. J., Nunnink, S. E., Nakamura, K., & Thoma, N. C., 2020)

Additional Information

This course is designed for intermediate to advanced learners.

Our target audience is Psychologists, MFTs, Licensed Professional Counselors, Psychiatrists, Licensed Social Workers and Pastoral Counselors.

On alternate monthly sessions there will be no video presentation and Power Point from David Mars, but instead three participants will share video of their TCT clinical work following the same time frame.

Cancellation policy: You may end your enrollment at any time and receive a refund for the remaining sessions of the course. Questions or concerns may be communicated to David Mars, PhD by email at davidmarsphd@gmail.com or by phone at 415-234-3821.


David Mars, PhD, the presenter for this course, holds a PhD in Psychology, is licensed as an MFT, and has taught Transformative Couples Therapy® (TCT) to psychotherapists since 2009. He is the developer of the TCT method and taught the method as a faculty member of the AEDP Institute for eleven years. He is the director of the Center for Transformative Therapy has been treating couples in private practice for over forty years. For a more complete bio, see https://cfttsite.com/david-mars-phd-mft


There are no conflicts of interest or external commercial support related to this course or any course offered by the Center for Transformative Therapy.

CUE Management Solutions, LLC is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. CUE Management Solutions, LLC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

Schedule

All times are PST

8am-8:10am: Orientation and opening eight-minute Channels of Experience meditation

8:10am-8:20am: Check-in and discussion of each participant’s response to the meditation and any breakthroughs or problems in treating their clients with TCT

8:20am-9:00am: Presentation and discussion of video-taped clinical Transformative Couples Therapy session and/or Power Point presented by David Mars

9:10am-9:50am: Participant shares video and receives supervision from David Mars and consultation from their colleagues

9:50am-10am: Closure, including metaprocessing the training session.