• Moving from trying to fix an outmoded "content" model of relationships and couples therapy to an exciting "process" model of relationships and couples therapy - from fusion to connection.
• The ultimate and complex human dilemma: How to be connected with another and maintain a self...(Modulating the life long rhythm of separation and connection. This is a process and not a problem to be solved.)
• Dealing with differences versus differences in dealing.
• Individual and Societal Character Structures
• The coupling/uncoupling process.
• Love, Intimacy, Boundaries, Power.
• The Resnicks' "Circle of Relating".
• Intrapsychic, interpersonal, gender/ societal/ cultural/ ethnic/ religious (larger field) issues.
• Phenomenology: Meaning, meaning making systems and how we construct meaning.
• A fresh look at society's rules about, and models for, marriage - many of which are anachronistic.
• Being respectful of the individuals, the couple, the family as well as the ecosystem.
• Topics include but are not limited to: models of marriage, dealing with differences, communication, commitment, trust, contact, intimacy, love, power, assumptions, gender, differences and more.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION

A five day six night Residential Couples therapy training workshop (Basic and Advanced levels) for therapists and allied professionals who work with couples and those interested in learning to work with couples. You need not be part of a couple to attend.

Each day, the Resnicks work live (and perhaps some video) with real Model Couples to illustrate their way of encouraging couples to authentically represent themselves -- hopefully with grace and discrimination. By having each member of a couple fully and authentically engage with his/her partner, each can discover the degree of compatibility - by being who they are rather than who they and/or others believe they should be. Managed and postured relationships, while "working" temporarily, are fundamentally flawed and lead either to explosions and subsequent withdrawal, or they collapse into quiet desperation. Tragically, most relationships "fail" without the couple truly ever finding out whether or not they are compatible since they simply don't fully "show up", because of fears, rules, expectations, habits and "shoulds".

This will be a practical, "hands -- on" workshop with daily supervised practice for all therapists. All clinical work will be related to theory -- to clarify and to make both more meaningful and practical. The Resnicks are real therapists working with real couples on real issues. Daily small process groups are part of the program. Therapists and Model Couples come together to explore personal reactions to the theory and the clinical work in a warm, international, professional community of therapists and couples.

The Resnicks clearly and simply present their model of coupling and couples therapy and they compare their model to contemporary psychoanalytic, systemic, cognitive behavioral and postmodern approaches. They are interested in integrative similarities as well as differences that separate and define.

MODEL COUPLES NEEDED The Resnicks are inviting 3 or 4 demonstration "Model Couples" to join this workshop. Model couples participate in all discussions of the clinical work. The workshop is inclusive and transparent. Please check our website for additional information: www.couplestherapytraining.com.