Transformative Couples therapy® SMALL supervision GROUP

Sessions begin April 16th, 2025

This course has openings and is a great accompaniment to the TCT Experiential Skills Course.

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 four-hour meeting on Zoom the 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 David Mars, Ph.D. 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.

Lisa Gardner, LCSW TCT Faculty member and Certified TCT Supervisor is the course instructor.

Session Calendar

  • Six monthly two-hour sessions
  • Wednesdays 8 AM to 10:00 AM Pacific Time
  • COST: $100 per four-hour session, total cost $600 by subscription
  • Or $550 for all-at-once payment
  • April 16, 2025

    May 21, 2025

    June 18, 2025

    Summer break

    September 17, 2025

    October 15, 2025

    November 19, 2025

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 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.

SESSION DETAILS

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.

MEeting AGENDA

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.

About Lisa Gardner, LCSW

lisagardnerlcsw@gmail.com

+1(203)969-5689

92 Jordan Lane

Stamford, CT 06903

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and have been in practice for more than 20 years. 

I work with adults and couples around many issues including: feeling blocked, life transitions, anxiety, depression, unsatisfying communication, relational and developmental trauma.  When I work with a couple, we collaborate to re-ignite or nurture the caring, access the innate healing impulses that have been forgotten or covered and approach their differences from that perspective.

I am drawn to experiential therapies, the ones that a have a fundamental stance of kindness to normal human struggling, and that help us strengthen who we are at our core. My approach is attachment based and trauma and affective neuroscience informed.

I am a TCT Certified Supervisor, Certified in Transformative Couples Therapy (TCT®), and a Faculty member at the TCT Institute.  I also have extensive training in AEDP and EFT.

Education:

MSW from Fordham University 2002

BS from Georgetown University 1980

COURSE COMPLETION REQUIREMENTS:

Participants must complete all sessions to be awarded CE. 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. No specific assignments are required, other than reading the course materials sent out before we meet each 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.

At the end of the course, CE can be applied for via this link

Credits Education 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 12 hours of Continuing Education (CE) credits for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.

The cost for 12 Continuing Education (CE) credits will be $40. An email will be sent to all participants who complete the course from Credits Education.

Transformative Couples Therapy® Small Supervision Group, course 6117, is pending approval by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program to be offered by David Mars as an individual course. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE course approval period: February 19, 2025 to Nov 19, 2025. Social workers completing this course may receive 12 clinical continuing education credits. "