A comprehensive and engaging course in relationship and couple counselling for experienced therapists who want to deepen their skills and confidence in working with couples. This course is designed for trained and experienced therapists (typically unsuitable for those with under three years’ counselling experience) who want to add depth, theory, and practical skill in couple work to their existing therapy practice.

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 is affordable and cutting-edge in relationship counselling and covers psychodynamic, systemic and developmental perspectives without the need for agency placement or strict modality adherence, giving the participants the skills and knowledge they may require to commence the journey into counselling couples (under appropriate supervision).

Couple counselling brings a very different approach to most counselling. This course takes an in-depth look at the dynamics that arise in couple relationships. It recognises that many couples bring long-standing relational patterns and family role expectations that can be direct, emotionally charged, and involve the expression of conflict. The course models and reflects these realities and includes robust, sometimes challenging material and discussion, delivered within a reflective and ethically held learning environment, to support delegates in deepening their understanding of the wide range of dynamics that can appear in couple relationships.

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.

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, via 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 of course, there will be role play.

This is a 6 module course, delivered in person over  3 weekends (3 x 6 hour Saturday and Sundays) throughout 2026 and providing 36 CPD hours.   Actual dates are:

Saturday 10th & Sunday 11th October 2026
Saturday 7th & Sunday 8th November 2026
Saturday 5th & Sunday 6th December 2026

Please note we have changed the dates of this course.   It will now run on a Saturday and Sunday and not a Friday and Sunday.

The course will be run from Jesmond Therapy Centre and the hours each day are 9.30 am – 4.30 pm (1 hour break).   The course is not available online.

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
• The intake session in couple counselling
• Working with genograms as a primary tool in assessment
• Stages of relationships
• Same sex 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 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.

Jesmond Therapy Centre hosts this course and provides the venue and administrative support. Course content, materials, and delivery are provided by the facilitator and reflect their professional approach and clinical framework.

This has been a very popular course with some great feedback from previous delegates.   Some feedback below from our 2025 cohort:

“I recently attended the Working with Couples at Jesmond Therapy Centre, and it was an excellent experience from start to finish. The facilitator, Graeme Armstrong, was incredibly knowledgeable and engaging, bringing the material to life with real-world insight and a thoughtful, accessible teaching style. I left feeling both inspired and better equipped for my work”

“I attended a course recently for couples counselling which spanned 3 separate weekends. The course was facilitated by Graeme Armstrong and was excellent. He encouraged debate throughout and this meant that each day was very engaging and enjoyable”

(Download the document below to read feedback received from previous courses)

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
• Couple relationships often involve direct, emotionally charged communication that can challenge therapists’ assumptions or expectations
• 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
• How people may relate with sameness and difference, drawing on biological, social, and culturally constructed perspectives on gender.
• 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 Deluxe
• 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 challenges existing models?
• Same sex relationships
• Relationships after lockdown: impact and implications for couple work
• Practice
• Reflections on theory

Weekend 3

Module 5: The Pain Body 1

• What is neurodiversity?  Understanding the different ways neurodiversity can present?
• 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
• 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: examining individual, relational, and structural explanations and why many existing models of domestic violence may offer only partial explanations, and how this impacts clinical decision-making
• 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
• Exploring the complexities of sexual expression within relationships, including areas that may challenge social expectations
• 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?

A Certificate of Attendance is provided at the end of the course.

Click here to view our CPD Booking Terms and Conditions.

Please note, the room in which we hold our courses 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.

Our Early Bird Discount has now expired.