Jesmond Therapy Centre has developed a course for relationship and couple counselling for trained and experienced therapists, seeking to add the skills and theory of couple work to their already existing counselling skill set.   

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 training in relationship counselling, from psychodynamic, systemic and mindfulness perspectives without the need for strict modality adherence.  This approach provides participants with knowledge and skills they may require to start the journey of counselling couples (under appropriate supervision).   

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 (Saturdays and Sundays – 6 days x 6 hours), one weekend per month between October 2023 – December 2023, providing 36 CPD hours.   Actual dates are:

Saturday 7th / Sunday 8th October 2023
Saturday 11th  / Sunday 12th November 2023
Saturday 9th / Sunday 10th December 2023

Hours each day are 9.30 am – 4.30 pm

Payment by instalments also available – 2 x monthly payments of £395.00 – (All instalments to be paid prior to course start date)  Note:  Preferential Rate 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 is the client in 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
• Mindfulness and compassion as potent components that go to the heart of couple work
• The use of mindfulness to sustain practitioner wellbeing and prevent burnout
• 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
• Challenges to couple work: Digi sexuality, use of AI/IT
• Relationships after lockdown: impact and implications
• 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 and The Web: 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
• Working with chalk and cheese: difference in couple relationships
• Half a couple
• Reflections on theory

Module 2: When The Music’s Over: exploration of couple fit

• Henry Dicks Couple Fit model
• After the honeymoon period: the necessary illusions model
• Stages of relationships: the work of Bader and Pearson and others
• Attachment styles
• A short history of marriage
• Who is your client?
• Half a couple
• Case study and practice

Weekend 2

Module 3:  Make Me a deal, and make it straight: patterns of relating

• 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: You do not have to be good: challenges, mindfulness and compassion

• Intercultural couples: an emerging trend that bucks the models?
• Do we need new ways of understanding couples to fit the digital age?
• Relationships after lockdown: impact and implications for couple work
• Mindfulness in relationship counselling
• The mindful therapist
• Settling the mind, grounding and resting in the simple feeling of being
• The mindful therapist
• Compassion and acceptance in relationships
• The work of Kristen Neff, Paul Gilbert and Choden in self compassion
• Why are we not more compassionate?
• Compassionate relationships
• Practice
• Reflections on theory

Weekend 3

Module 5: When everything falls apart: challenges to the work and contexts that present

• Couples and power: discourses and the Work of Dallos & Dallos
• Contraindications in the work 1: situational couple violence and intimate terrorism
• Contraindications in the work 2: other reasons to refer on
• Practice
• Half a couple
• Reflections on theory

Module 6: Irreverence, sex and Oedipus wrecks

• Talking about sex – why you must, and how you do
• The PLISSIT approach
• Affairs: as relational trauma and offering a treatment path
• 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
• 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 training, then please contact us.

Preferential Rate – Book Now and save £79.00 (10% Off)

Pay only £711.00 (Normal Price £790.00)

* Preferential Rate is 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 Installments