Transformative Couples therapy®
SMALL supervision GROUP
Wednesdays 2026

This course has openings and is an excellent complement to the TCT Experiential Skills Course, helping accelerate your application of TCT skills and theory.

  • Wednesday, 11:00 AM –1:00 PM ET

    • 4/22/26

    • 5/20/26

    • 6/10/26

    • 9/16/26

    • 10/21/26

    • 11/18/26

    • 12/16/26

    • 1/13/27

  • Full Payment: Normally $1000 for eight sessions. Now 25% off: $750 (click here for payment link)

    Monthly Payment: Normally $125 per session. Now 25% off $100 (Please contact Lisa Gardner)

    Refund available if you want to withdraw.

  • To register or to schedule a free 20-minute conversation with Lisa to learn more, click here.

About TCT Small Group Supervision

These small group supervision and training sessions provide an opportunity for participants to deepen their skills and effectiveness in treating couples using the Transformative Couples Therapy® (TCT) method. During each two-hour meeting on Zoom, two members of the group will receive forty minutes of focused attention a couple session on video.

We will give and receive training constructive witnessing and supervision in a balanced way from Lisa Gardner, LCSW and the group participants. We will be witnessing each other’s work, which is different than the commonly used practice of giving “feedback”. Feedback can often invite judgment, projection, and labeling of the work, while witnessing allows us to safely explore our learning edges.

In this group we will hold both the therapist and the couple in a deeply respectful and resonant place. We will use I-statements and the Seven Channels of Experience to stand in the shoes of both the therapist and the couple members. The result is that we co-create the secure base with each other that we want to co-construct with our couples. We will practice with each other the TCT consciousness of mindful perception, reception and expression in order to facilitate maximum growth.

About Lisa Gardner, LCSW

Lisa Gardner, LCSW is defined by her curiosity, dedication, and over 20 years of experience as a therapist helping individuals and couples find connection and growth. She approaches therapy as a continuous path of learning, believing that being open and curious allows her to be her best self for her clients, students, and colleagues.

Lisa views wholeness, satisfaction, and authentic connection as a deeply normal human need, and often distressing when that need is unmet. Her approach is rooted in experiential therapies that embody a fundamental stance of kindness toward this normal human struggling. She aims to create a grounded space where clients can feel safe enough to discover their most authentic, spontaneous selves.

Lisa has a passion for working with couples, serving as faculty in the Transformative Couples Therapy® Institute. Lisa began her journey in TCT with the AEDP (Immersion 2013) and AEDP for Couples/TCT in 2016 as a pupil of David Mars and Karen Pando-Mars Essential Skills Course. She continued with TCT Core Training, while deepening her skills with group and individual supervision. From 2017 through the present, she has been an Experiential Assistant at numerous trainings, teaching and supporting other therapists learning the TCT and AEDP models. Since 2022, Lisa has co-helmed the TCT Research Project as a clinical researcher and investigator. In 2025 Lisa joined David Mars as Faculty of the TCT Institute.

Described by colleagues as curious, open-minded, and devoted, Lisa also supports the therapeutic community by supervising, teaching and mentoring clinicians helping them grow in their own learning process. She holds an MSW from Fordham University (2002) and a BS from Georgetown University (1980).

    • 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 defenses of intellectualization.

    • Find shared matching values in couple members.

    • Describe how to process warded-off emotional experience.

    • Conduct meta-therapeutic processing when couples have 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.

    • Identify transformance striving in a session.

  • This course is designed for therapists who have some knowledge of TCT as intermediate to advanced learners.

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

    Cancellation policy: You may end your enrollment at any time and receive a full refund for the remaining sessions of the course.

    Complaints, questions or concerns may be communicated to David Mars, PhD by email at davidmarsphd@gmail.com for prompt attention.

    Lisa Gardner, LCSW is the presenter for this course. She is TCT Faculty member and is a TCT Certified Practitioner and Supervisor. Lisa has been central to the development of the TCT Institute and the TCT Research Project.

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

    The course will be conducted in the delivery format of synchronous distance learning. Interactions will be by recorded clinical video, role play, and group discussion.

    Special Needs - If you require ADA accommodations please contact our office 30 days or more before the event. We cannot ensure accommodations without adequate prior notification.

  • 8:00 am–8:15 am PT : Orientation and opening three-minute Channels of Experience meditation

    8:15 am–9:00 am PT: A participant shares video of a session for supervision and supportive consultation focused on creating a secure base in treatment and regulating emotional reactivity

    9:00 am–9:50 am PT: A second participant shares video of a session for supervision and supportive consultation focused on creating a secure base in treatment and regulating emotional reactivity

    9:50 am–10:00 am PT: Closure, including metaprocessing this Small Group Supervision and Training session.

  • Cameras on Zoom must be left on, with only brief exceptions. An evaluation will be required prior to CE being awarded. Attendance will be taken and documented each session by the course instructor. Please read the course materials sent out before we meet any session. Any questions can be addressed to lisagardnerlcsw@gmail.com. To attend this live, interactive course you must have access to a working computer, a room with sufficient privacy to protect the confidentiality of couple members whose clinical work is shown and internet connectivity sufficient to maintain a stable connection to Zoom.

    Credits.Education, #1032827 is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs. Credits Education maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.  Course meets the qualifications for 16 hours of Continuing Education (CE) credits for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.

    The cost for 16 Continuing Education (CE) credits is $40 to be paid by course participants. An email will be sent to all participants who complete the course from Credits Education.