Discover a breakthrough model for couples therapy that gives you a roadmap for change and ends imposter syndrome.
You’ll never again have to wonder what to do in your sessions!


Gain full confidence to address all scenarios instead of guessing and hoping you’re getting it right.
Featured In:

Too many training courses give you only behavioral skills and leave you with band aids that don’t heal the deeper wounds or lead to sustained change.

Why not use a model that helps you become the confident leader and guide your couples are looking for?
A model that gives you x-ray vision to see what's really going on, and the skills to help your couples uncover the deep issues. With you as their guide, your couples can finally face and resolve years of damage and tension.

The secret is sitting in the tension. And it works, even in the most complex cases.
An environment for mind-blowing transformation in less than a year, with “aha” moments starting immediately
In 12 weeks or less you will have a completely different mindset when facing tough situations!


Author of Mating in Captivity and The State of Affairs
This high-touch, world-class program offers you…
A private, Members Only area with 24 in-depth written lessons, hundreds of hours of case consultations, client handouts, roleplays, a vibrant community of like-minded therapists, and more.
- The Hostile-Angry Couple
- The Conflict Avoidant Couple
- The Passive Aggressive Partner
- The Narcissistic Partner
- The Self-Absorbed Partner
- The Silently Disengaged Partner
- The Addicted Partner
- Lies, Betrayal, Affairs, and Infidelity

Author of Mating in Captivity and The State of Affairs
Three steps to recharge your therapy practice, and the couples that work with you
01
02
03
Get immediate access to this high-touch,
comprehensive program when you join!

The Hostile-Angry Couple

The Conflict Avoidant Couple

The Passive Aggressive Partner

The Narcissistic Partner

The Self-Absorbed Partner

The Silently Disengaged Partner

The Addicted Partner

Lies, Betrayal, Affairs, and Infidelity

The 24 lessons are strategically sequenced to continue building your skill and interventions.
- Goal-Setting for a Powerful Start
- Assessment from an Attachment Theory Perspective
- Assessment Tools to Diagnose the Couple’s Developmental Stage
- Understanding Differentiation
- Accessing the Emotional Brain for Rapid Change and Trauma Healing
- Recognizing the Three Types of Motivation
- Developing Empathy in Self-Absorbed or Narcissistic Partners
- Resolving Intrapsychic Impasses
- Navigating Clashing Goals and Values Collisions
- And much more!
The Members' Area is also where you’ll be part of a thriving community that generates valuable interactive discussions. After each clinical call you have the opportunity to ask questions, address stuck places, and discuss how to move therapy forward. We don’t shy away from difficult issues like:
How to integrate individual sessions into your couples work
How to manage confidentiality
How to integrate couples therapy when one partner is in early recovery
How to handle sexual desire discrepancy
How to handle threats of violence or divorce
How to help couples repair and reconnect after infidelity

Attachment theory, neuroscience, and differentiation are combined to give you a broad range of targeted solutions, instead of being pitted against each other.
I believe I can help you develop a confident understanding of what to do, when to do it, and why you’re doing it, so that you can work with the types of couples who used to make you shudder. I know this is a tall order.
Here’s why I believe I can make such a promise.
Attachment Theory
The quality of early life experiences profoundly affects couples' relationships. You’ll become skilled at assessing each partner’s primary attachment pattern and learn immediate applications to help couples develop secure attachment.
Differentiation Theory
Understanding this theory enables you to help couples manage their conflicts and differences with a foundation that will last them a lifetime. You will support the evolution of each partner, as well as the growth of the relationship.
Neuroscience
One of the biggest breakthroughs in our profession is our recent knowledge that the mind can change the architecture of the brain. We teach cutting edge techniques and approaches to deal with early life trauma that is stored in the emotional brain and contributes to the pain couples inflict on each other. Changing their interpersonal process becomes much easier when you understand some neuroscience and can share it with your couples.
When integrated, these powerful pillars provide an unprecedented foundation that can teach you to:
Help couples understand the underlying cause of relationship distress.
Apply practical techniques to get healing results.
Motivate unmotivated partners to take action.
Create progress so your couples don’t get discouraged and give up.
The training is the beginning. A community of like-minded therapists is the support you’ve been missing.
Live Clinical Training Sessions
Monthly live clinical training sessions show you exactly how the Developmental Model can work with your actual cases, including theory and interventions. Go more in depth about passivity, narcissism, trauma, the Initiator-Inquirer, attachment and the Developmental Model, diagnosing stages and choosing interventions, getting off to a strong start, and much more.
Client Handouts
Newly Redesigned Client Handouts – including Setting Limits on Conflict, Couples Questionnaire for diagnosing each partner’s stage of development, Self-Assessment After a Fight, Fostering Empathy, and many more reinforce what you’re learning and help your couples progress faster.
Members’ Case Consultations
You’ll have a special area to post your own cases for ongoing consultation. You’ll get feedback from from me and your colleagues on specific challenging topics. These are just a few examples of past cases the group has worked on together: The No-Orgasm Secret, Narcissist Having an Affair, Are We Best to Separate?
Referral network
List yourself and your practice in our Members Directory. You can use the directory to find therapists around the world to refer to — as well as therapists who can refer to you. Your network of professionals and possible future friends just expanded!
Weekly drop-in calls
Join our trainers every Thursday at 9am or 1pm Pacific Time to learn in real-time how to apply the model to your actual cases.
Post your own gnarly clinical questions
Do you have a case that has stumped not only you, but everyone you’ve turned to? Bring all your cases and questions – no holds barred – and get effective feedback that you can use immediately.
36 CE Hours
For most licenses in the United States, this course fulfills the CE requirementsfor a whole licensing period Click here to read course objectives and information before registering. Some international bodies also recognize these credits.

Live clinical sessions

Client Handouts

Case consultations

Referral network

Weekly drop-in calls

Post your own gnarly clinical questions

36 CE Hours
And it doesn’t stop there! Join today and unlock...
Deep dives and demonstrations of specific techniques
Become better prepared for anything that your sessions might bring up by joining a deep dive into the best and latest techniques for handling any topic that comes your way.
Real client video sessions
Exclusive Video Demonstrations (including 2-chair Gestalt work, managing infidelity, confronting jealousy, and more) show you exactly how to implement what you’re learning.
Calls with guest experts like Dan Siegel, Esther Perel, Janis Spring, and Peter Pearson
You’ll access multiple experts in couples therapy, whose experience, knowledge, and skill set span the entire field. It’s like being part of several programs all in one!
Specialty training on topics like neurodiverse couples, addiction in couples therapy, infidelity repair
Topics like these require a broader skill set and more refined expertise. Go beyond average and get training in more speciality topics so that you can better serve a larger community of couples.
24/7 access to a supportive community of therapists
This Supportive Community of Therapists around the world is open 24/7 for you to get suggestions that could completely change the way you work with a tricky couple. And best of all, you will be supported and encouraged if there are days when you feel like giving up and quitting couples work.
Live tech support
Technology brings us together and connects us from all over the world, but sometimes it can also fail us in epic proportions. Don’t worry – we’ve added live tech support to help get you through any and all online roadblocks to make sure that you can get – and stay – connected.

Deep dives and demonstrations of specific techniques

Real client video sessions

Calls with guest experts like Dan Siegel, Esther Perel, Janis Spring, and Peter Pearson

Specialty training on topics like neurodiverse couples, addiction in couples therapy, infidelity repair

24/7 access to a supportive community of therapists

Live tech support
Who endorses The Developmental Model? The best of the best, and those who aspire to join them.


Creator of DARe - Dynamic Attachment Repatterning experience


BONUS VALUE $366
BONUS #1 You’ll receive a booklet with 21 of our most popular handouts. Your couples will love them too!
BONUS #2 Get off to a powerful start with a red carpet welcome!

AND… if you enroll by January 29th at 11:59 Pacific Time, you’ll get THREE MORE BONUSES!
Register By 11:59pm Pacific Time on April 30th to Receive These Bonuses
1
Obsessing After Infidelity
- Learn how to know when obsessing is valuable and when it’s not
- Discover how to use the unrelenting questions and the search for more evidence to move partners forward
- Support the positive aspects of uncovering details while discouraging the processes that are destructive
- Guide your sessions in positive ways

Included are 3 handouts: a transcript of the webinar, Deep Empathy: One Partner Suspects an Affair, the Other Denies It, and Guide to Working with Infidelity: Self-Assessment, Evaluation, and the Three Stages of Infidelity Treatment.
2
$150 Gift Certificate

1
"What Do You Say When…?" PDF Guide
- A client has been lying to you and their spouse for months
- A client suddenly threatens to leave therapy and their marriage
- A client doesn’t follow through on agreements (again!)
- A potential client asks about your success rate
- couples want to rehash the same fights and want you to referee
- A client verbally attacks their partner in your office
- A client makes outrageous demands on their partner

Don’t spend any more time dreading your sessions when you could flip right to a page and read exactly what to say (available digitally and in a printer-friendly version for those of you who love the feel of your hands on the page!)
2
21 of Our Most Popular Client Handouts

As a bonus, you’ll receive 21 of our most popular handouts. Your couples will love them too! Use these immediately to demonstrate new techniques, concepts, or ways of thinking without having to break open a textbook.
“I keep coming across a super helpful new handout that elicits a happy yelp of delight from within me, because I just know that it will shine light onto an insight or concept that I want to communicate to my client.”
Extra Bonus #1:
One Month Free

Extra Bonus #2:
Tell Me No Lies book

couples or individuals
Extra Bonus #3:
Stepping Stones to Intimacy

These additional bonuses are ONLY available when you sign up BEFORE January 29th at 11:59 PST! After that, they’re gone for good.

$189 Value

book sent to your door

Client Handout

a one-to-one VIP experience with our program concierge, Ruth.
About Ellyn
This Program is a Magnum Opus Created by one of the Leading Pioneers of Couples Therapy, Dr. Ellyn Bader

Since 2006, Ellyn has led innovative couples therapy training programs. Professionals from around the world connect with her online for live training sessions and forums to study couples therapy. Therapists from 69 countries have taken her online training course.
Ellyn has co-authored two books. The first one, In Quest of the Mythical Mate, was awarded the Clark Vincent Award by the California Association of Marriage & Family Therapists for its outstanding contribution to the field of marital therapy and has been reprinted more than 20 times. She has been featured on over 70 radio and television programs including The Today Show and CBS Early Morning News, and she has been quoted in The New York Times, The Oprah Magazine, Cosmopolitan and many more.
Sounds great, but what’s the data on the Developmental Model?
88% of therapists say they use it every week
96% say it gave them a roadmap for couples work
94% apply practical techniques to get healing results
95% say it also helps them with individual clients
95% say it’s easy to integrate with what they already know
Over 3,000 therapists in 69 countries have adopted The Developmental Model
The Developmental Model is the last relationship training you’ll ever need. Are you ready to try it risk-free and transform your practice?
How do I know the Developmental Model is right for me?

- Make lasting impact and transformation with your couples?
- Feel confident in how you address difficult situations without feeling burnt out?
- Be supported by expert trainers and like-minded peers so you’re not going it alone?
- Access endless resources with interventions and solutions for every situation?
- Become grounded as a leader and guide instead of subconsciously siding with one partner?
- Enjoy your sessions instead of guessing how you’re going to uncover root issues?
- Advance your practice to include ideal clients and a waiting list?
We have all the answers. We know that’s a bold promise.
See what our students and advanced therapists have to say…







FAQs about the Developmental Model Training Program
To get the most out of your investment, we recommend spending 5-6 hours per month, whether it’s attending live calls, posting your case and getting feedback, reading the lessons, or diving deeper into a topic found in the bonus calls or special training calls. There’s unlimited value for you to use however you choose!
The Developmental Model program is the most personalized and in-depth training available. With live, interactive calls with advanced trainers, bonus calls, special guest calls, messaging forums with your peers, and our vast library of updated resources, you have everything at your fingertips. Our students say this training comes with “a Search Tool Better Than Google” because of the specific and vast resources available instantly. You can type your question or keyword into the search box and pull up case studies, consultations, lessons, discussions, and solutions for anything you need help with in seconds. And with ongoing live support, you’re never left to figure things out on your own.
Less than $6 a day! You can subscribe to this program for $189/month OR make one annual payment of $1,997 (a $271 savings!)
This is not a program you navigate alone. No matter where you live, you are included and supported. We tailor our live calls to accommodate most time zones and every call is available with a replay. Because we serve therapists all over the world, this program works wherever you practice. With access to messaging forums, live interactive calls, replays, reading material, and more, you will see how personal this program really is.
Our lessons are tailored to give you clear solutions to the biggest problems your couples face. This includes challenges like infidelity, passive aggressive or narcissistic partners, conflict avoidance, addiction and substance abuse, hostile fighting couples – truly anything you can think of. Each lesson solves the problems of “What do I say when…?” and gives you the best ways to structure a treatment program from start to finish. Often therapists can get lost or stuck navigating these issues and default to solving the wrong, smaller problems, leading to burnout or playing whack-a-mole with the problem of the week. With our approach, you can build motivation with your couples so they work harder than you do and you can even relax in your practice because you’re always prepared.
The only criteria to enroll is a desire to work with couples. This program is appropriate and beneficial for licensed therapists, coaches, clergy, mediators, and interns.
The program starts about 4 minutes after you enroll! Once you join, you can immediately log into the site and find answers to your questions. Our students say our search tool is better than Google, so you can find answers to implement in your own practice right off the bat. We will have a limited opening April 24 – 30, 2023 so don’t wait too long to join. If you aren’t able to join this month, be sure to get on the waiting list and we’ll notify you of future enrollment opportunities.
Most licenses receive 36 CE hours. Click here to read the course objectives, accreditation, and other information before registering.
Because the Developmental Model focuses on relationship challenges and enables individuals to face their own contributions to relationship stress, it provides clarity and direction for individual therapy sessions as well. Some of our students have said the Model helps them assume the leadership role as a therapist, gives individuals tools to navigate their couple and family relationships, and reduces their own stress too. While it’s taught with couples in mind, we’ve received insurmountable evidence and feedback that it’s great for individual therapy, too.
We've packed a lot into the Developmental Model of Couples Therapy and I want to give you 30 days to let it digest, integrate into your daily life, and make sure it really works for you. If it's not, we wouldn't dream of keeping your money. Just send us a quick email within 30 days of registration and we will refund every penny.
Live 90-minute training calls usually happen on Mondays or Fridays between 9 am to 1 pm Pacific. That is in response to surveys we take regularly to find out members' preferred days and times.
We survey all members whenever new groups begin. All calls are recorded so even if you miss the live calls, you will have access to video & audio recordings.
We've also added a Thursday 9am or 1pm Pacific Drop-In call once per week that works well for people in various time zones. These calls are designed to further support your learning, Q&A, and give you the opportunity to connect with other members.
Here are a few of the upcoming live orientation and clinical calls:
- Oct 16 (Monday), 1pm – 2pm Pacific – Orientation Call (Recommended)
- Oct 20 (Friday), 11am – 12:30pm Pacific – Clinical Call (Recommended)
- Oct 23 (Monday), 8am – 9:30am Pacific – Bonus Call (Optional)
- Oct 27 (Friday), 9am – 10:30am Pacific – Special Training Session (Optional)
- Nov 3 (Friday), 11am – 12:30pm Pacific – Clinical Call (Recommended)
Optional Thursday Weekly Drop-In Calls:
- Sept 28, 9am – 10am Pacific
- Oct 5, 9am – 10am Pacific
- Oct 12, 1pm-2pm -Pacific
- Oct 19, 1pm – 2pm Pacific
- Oct 26, 9am – 10am Pacific
What You Receive In The Developmental Model Training Program
Value Per
Item
Total
Value
12 Live Training Sessions & 8 Special Training Sessions
$350
$7,000
8 Live Bonus Training Calls (Including 100 Plus Archived Bonus Calls with Guest Experts like Dan Siegel, Esther Perel and others!)
$79
$8,532
8 Videos of Real Client Sessions by Dr. Ellyn Bader and Dr. Peter Pearson
$75
$600
100 Plus Archived Clinical Training Calls and 39 Special Training Sessions with Dr. Ellyn Bader
$89
$12,371
32 Client Handouts to Support Your In- Session Work
$30
$960
Being part of a Supportive Therapist Community
-
Priceless!
Investing in your Professional and Personal Growth
-
Even More Priceless!
Value of the Program
-
$29,463
Total cost of The Developmental Model Training Program with Dr. Ellyn Bader
-
$189 a month OR one payment of $1997 (save $271)
BONUS #1 Your bonuses are waiting for you – don't leave them on the table! These resources make implementing The Developmental Model easy.
BONUS #2 Get off to a powerful start with a red carpet welcome!

If you enroll by January 29th at 11:59 Pacific Time, you’ll get
THREE MORE BONUSES!
Extra Bonus #1: One Month Free - it’s like adding $189 to your pocket!

Extra Bonus #2: Tell Me No Lies book
Tell Me No Lies book sent to your door. Almost all therapists struggle with clients who lie. I’ve included this book as a bonus because chapter 3 will help so many clients when you’re confronting and explaining the common pattern of lies and lie inviting behavior. The book gives you an in-depth understanding of how to confront lies and partners who deny inviting lies. This can help whether you’re working with individuals or couples, online or in your office.

Extra Bonus #3: Stepping Stones to Intimacy

Stepping Stones to Intimacy highlights the natural states all couples go through, so you can make sense of why things feel the way they do right now.
Iron Clad Guarantee - Zero Risk to You:

You can accomplish all this in your first 30 days:
- Have a clear, non-pathological way to describe to your couples why they are stuck
- Feel more confident in your ability to conduct first sessions
- Have diagnostic and assessment tools ready to use
- Look forward to Monthly Training Calls
- Find value in the Development Model of Couples Therapy
- Become comfortable knowing how to take charge in your sessions
- See clients respond better, make more progress, return with enthusiasm
- Imagine getting referrals for more couples
If this program isn't working for you, we wouldn't dream of keeping your money. Just send us a quick email within 30 days of registration and we will refund every penny.
Hear from more of your colleagues...






Martha Kauppi, LMFT, ACST Madison, WI
Challenging Couples, Community, Clinical Improvement

Janae Munday, LCSW Phoenix, AZ
Individuals, Tools/Framework, Clinical Improvement

Glen Denlinger, LCSW, BCD President & Clinical Director of Well Marriage Center. Fairfax, VA
New Therapists, Experienced Therapists, Training, Associates, Confidence

Tammy Van Hinte, MA, RCC Victoria BC
Community, Personal, New Therapist, Full Practice

Tom Bruett, MS, LMFT Denver, CO
Diversity, Community, Clinical Improvement

Alexa Elkington, MFT Las Vegas, NV
Remote Work, Complicated Cases, Clinical Improvement
