Jesmond Therapy Centre has developed an in-person course for relationship and couple counselling for trained and experienced therapists, who would like to learn and add the skills and theory of couple work to their already existing counselling skills.

Whilst not qualifying the participant to be an agency trained and placement completed Couple Therapist, this is a Couple Counselling course unique to the North East in that it combines  affordable, cutting edge workshops in relationship counselling, from psychodynamic, systemic and developmental perspectives without the need for agency placement or strict modality adherence, giving the participants the skills and theory they may require to commence the journey into counselling couples.

Our course for 2025 has had a refresh and we have also introduced new sections on:

– Love and artificial intimacy (AI)
– Love and the permacrisis
– Couple Counselling and neurodiversity. 

 For full module details please see below.

Please note that this course may be unsuitable for those who have little or no experience in counselling.

Tutor: Graeme Armstrong
As primary tutor, Graeme Armstrong has been working as a therapist since 1998, in private practice and previously in Relate as both a couple counsellor and a supervisor.  He has trained to Post Graduate Diploma level in Couple Therapy with psychodynamic and systemic models as core approaches, and to Post Graduate Diploma Level in Systemic Therapy.  In 2012, he was awarded the Post Graduate Diploma with Distinction in Studies in Mindfulness, enabling him to create a distinct and cutting-edge approach to relationship therapy.   He has delivered over 20,000 hours of relationship counselling over this time.

This is a 6 module course, delivered over 3 weekends in-person (Saturdays and Sundays – 6 days x 6 hours), one weekend per month between October 2025 – December 2025, providing 36 CPD hours.   Actual dates are:

Saturday 18th / Sunday 19th October 2025
Saturday 8th / Sunday 9th November 2025
Saturday 6th / Sunday 7th December 2025

Hours each day in the Centre are 9.30 am – 4.30 pm

Payment by instalments also available – 3 x monthly payments of £276.66 – (All instalments to be paid prior to course start date) 
Note:  Early Bird Fee does not apply to payment by Instalments

The course is intended to cover:

• Psychodynamic and systemic models as core models in working with relationships
• Why we relate and what’s a relationship for?
• Who the client is in couple work?
• Domains of the self in evolution and how this impacts on couple work
• Exploration of ‘Couple Fit’ and the object relations theory of Henry Dicks
• The work of Esther Perel
• The work of Harville Hendrix and John Gottman in couple work
• Working with genograms as a primary tool in assessment
• Stages of relationships
• The New Technology of Relationships
• Neurodiverse couple therapy
• Couples, sex and power: Dallos and Dallos’ domains of power in relationships
• Risk and understanding the dynamics and approach to take with domestic violence in couple work
• Intercultural couples: the challenges to come as a new culture emerges
• Relationships after lockdown: impact and implications and why it still matters
• The construction of human sexuality: couple counselling with a sexual focus and how to (and why you should) talk to your clients about their sex life
• Relationship breakdown: why does it hurt so much?  
• Approaches to working with affairs and loss; affairs as relationship trauma
• Half a couple: working with individuals in relationship
• Contraindications in the work
• Irreverence to modalities: the use of direct and gutsy conversations in couple work
• Pulling it all together: the 7 C’s of Successful Couples ™©

The course text is delivered via 6 Power Points; each PPT is text heavy to form a manual for each module so course participants can use the PPTs as therapeutic resources.   In addition, the tutor, in collaboration with Jesmond Therapy Centre, will provide a google drive link to a library of articles, books and academic papers to supplement and deepen therapeutic knowledge over time.

There will be time for participant reflection/discussion, and we will make use of role play and participant case studies throughout to link theory to practice, utilising a range of academic source text and papers exploring relationships from multiple perspectives.

This has been a very popular course with some great feedback from previous delegates (Download the document below to read the feedback already received)

Outline of Couple Counselling Modules

Weekend 1

Module 1: The Well, The Web and the Ladder: underlying theory

• Psychodynamic and systemic models as the core models when working with relationships
• Unconscious drives
• The systemic approach to relationships
• John Burnham’s Social GRRAACCESS
• Looking at relationships
• Why relate?
• Helen Fisher’s work on relationships
• Working with a genogram as primary tool in relationship counselling
• Case study(s)
• Practice
• Couples are not politically correct
• Domains of the developmental self: the impact of the biological self in couple work
• Developmental stages and models of relationships: the work of Bader and Pearson and others
• Half a couple
• Reflections on theory

Module 2: Chalk and Cheese

• Working with chalk and cheese: difference in couple relationships
• Henry Dicks Couple Fit model
• Attachment styles
• Intake sessions
• Some themes in the work
• Who is your client?
• Half a couple
• Case study and practice

Weekend 2

Module 3:  A Toolbox for Togetherness

• Relationship styles: the pursuer-distancer dynamic
• Patterns of Relating
• The Work of John Gottman: The Four Horseman and The Sound Relationship House
• The Work of Harville Hendrix
• Case Study and practice
• Transference and projection: some reflections when working with relationships
• Practice
• Half a couple
• Reflections on theory

Module 4: Challenge and Change 

• Roleplay Delux
• Love in the time of the metacrisis
• Love in the time of AI.   Do we need new ways of understanding couples to fit the digital age:   What is algorithmic and artificial intimacy?  What does this mean for the future of relationships?
• New models of therapy:  are our models now obsolete?
• Intercultural couples: an emerging trend that bucks the models?
• Relationships after lockdown: impact and implications for couple work
• Practice
• Reflections on theory

Weekend 3

Module 5: The Pain Body 1

• What is neurodiversity?  Some examples: difference or disorder?
• Neurodiversity in the 21st Century
• The issues that neurodiverse couples face
• Masking and self-criticism in the ND partner
• Developing skills to help clients who present with neurodiverse issues
• The importance of psychoeducation
• The Human Givens RIGGAR model
• Mindfulness of breathing, working with the self-critic
• The ND partner and the NT partner
• Couples and power: discourses and the Work of Dallos & Dallos
• As therapists, what might be our dominant discourses?
• The importance of neutrality in couple work; how do we remain neutral without being neutralised?
• Contraindications in the work 1: situational couple violence and intimate terrorism
• Domestic violence: personality not patriarchy
• Contraindications in the work 2: other reasons to refer on
• Practice and reflections on theory

Module 6: The Pain Body 2

• Talking about sex – why you must, and how you do
• Eros and sex
• Why great sex is never politically correct
• Esther Perel’s approach
• The PLISSIT approach
• Affairs: as relational trauma and offering a treatment path
• Esther Perel’s approach (again)
• The 7 C’s of Successful Couples ™©: integration and tools for your tool box
• The work of Cecchin: irreverence and ways of constructing conversations and being (nicely) direct
• This is why we relate…. isn’t it?
• Practice
• Reflections on theory

This workshop is facilitated by Graeme Armstrong and provides 36 hours of CPD and a Certificate of Attendance is provided at the end of the course.

Click here to view our Training Booking Terms and Conditions.

Please note, our training room is on the first floor and is accessed by stairs.     If you have any special requirements, or if you need to advise us of anything before booking or attending the course, then please contact us.

Book Now and save £83.00 (10% Off)

Pay only £747.00 (Normal Price £830.00)
Enter Code ‘Couples25’ at checkout
Early Bird Offer expires on 8th September 2025

* Early Bird Discount
Discounts are available for personal & individual bookings only and does not apply to bookings made by and paid for by employers
The discount does not apply when payments are made by Instalments