The Developmental Model of Couples Therapy: Integrating Attachment, Differentiation and Neuroscience After completing this course you will be able to:

1. Integrate core concepts from Attachment, Differentiation and Neuroscience into work with couples.
2. Diagnose the developmental stage of a couple’s relationship.
3. Select stage-appropriate treatment interventions in your work with couples.
4. Describe how to actively control and contain conflict in your office with hostile, angry partners.
5. Decide when couples therapy is the treatment of choice and know how to get couples work off to a strong start, while avoiding common pitfalls.
6. Identify and assess early attachment patterns and explain to couples why understanding this is crucial to how they interact with one another.
7. Recognize four common ways couples manage anxiety that inhibit their growth and result in chronic problems of depression, withdrawal or addictions.
8. Describe entrenched blame and withdrawal patterns.
9. Apply effective empathy between partners who have become disengaged.
10. Describe to couples the role of the limbic system in increasing the intensity of their fighting.
11. Differentiate between differentiation and individuation.
12. Locate vulnerability to shift entrenched hostility.
13. Discuss the role of the “limbic brain” in couples conflict.
14. Establish effective treatment plans with passive aggressive partners.
15. Explain the origin of passive aggressive dynamics.
16. Develop effective limit setting with the spouse of the passive aggressive partner.
17. Utilize effective repair strategies for couples recovering from an affair.
18. Utilize Gestalt methods to resolve internal conflicts.
19. Examine individual conflicts that impede relationship growth.