2023-2024 Transformative Couples Therapy® Small Group Supervision

with David Mars Ph.D. on Zoom

These small group supervision sessions provide an opportunity for participants to deepen their skills and effectiveness in treating couples using the Transformative Couples Therapy® method. Each four-hour meeting on Zoom, three of the six members of the group will share 15 to 20 minutes of a couple session on video.

We will give and receive constructive witnessing and supervision in a balanced way from the group members and David Mars. Witnessing of the work is different than commonly used “feedback”, which can often invite judgment, projection and labeling of the couple members and even the therapist.

By contrast, in this group we will hold both the therapist and the couple in a deeply respectful and resonant place. We will use I-statements and the Seven Channels of Experience to stand in the shoes of both the therapist and the couple members. The result is that we co-create the secure base with each other that we want to co-construct with our couples. We will practice with each other the TCT consciousness of mindful perception, reception and expression.

Objectives

This Supervision Group will equip participants to be able to:

  1. Identify three ways to help establish a secure base in treatment.
  2. Describe two ways to regulate emotional reactivity in both couple members.
  3. Detect the healthiest aspects of each couple member.
  4. Utilize two methods for couple members to process emotional experience.
  5. Design healing a portrayal to treat relational trauma.
  6. Define why affirmation of the self is important.
  7. Explain how clients can melt defense of intellectualization.

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  1. Find shared matching values in couple members.
  2. Describe how to process warded-off emotional experience.
  3. Conduct meta-therapeutic processing when couples experience reparative experiences.
  4. Define the value of the core emotion of surprise in treatment.
  5. Integrate core affect through slowing down.
  6. Locate two ways to tailor treatment to a couple member’s attachment style.
  7. Select opportunities to help couple members to feel and show more positivity.
  8. Utilize openings to soften defenses.
  9. Define three early signs of dorsal vagal response.
  10. Demonstrate knowledge of two ways to regulate dorsal vagal response.
  11. Specify how the frequency of dorsal vagal response can be reduced in treatment.
  12. Distinguish methods for engaging avoidantly attached patients in treatment.
  13. Detect an example of a tough case in which an unexpected breakthrough occurred.
  14. Explain how a meditative state of mindfulness helps in treatment.
  15. Conduct a role play of meta-therapeutic processing.
  16. Explain the value of increased awareness in couple members. (*Iwakabe, S., Edlin, J., Fosha, D., Gretton, H., Joseph, A. J., Nunnink, S. E., Nakamura, K., & Thoma, N. C., 2020)
  17. Identify transformance striving in a session. (*Iwakabe, S., Edlin, J., Fosha, D., Gretton, H., Joseph, A. J., Nunnink, S. E., Nakamura, K., & Thoma, N. C., 2020)
 
 

Announcing two new TCT Small Supervision Groups on Zoom for 2023-2024:

#1: Marin TCT Supervision Group

Friday series from 1:15 PM to 5:15 PM

9/15/23, 10/13/23, 11/10/23, 12/8/23, 1/12/24, 2/9/24, 3/8/24, 4/5/24, 5/3/24 and 5/31/24

The cost for this long-term TCT practitioners group of six is $100 per session lasting 3.75 hours.  Ten sessions total 37.5 CE.

AGENDA:

 1:15: to 1:30 Opening meditation, (*Neff and Germer, 2012), orientation and opening introduction to the session

1:30 to 2:10 Check-in and discussion inviting description of blocks and breakthroughs in using Transformative Couples Therapy

2:10 to 3:00 First video-taped clinical session of Transformative Couples Therapy presented by a participant for supervision

3:00 to 3:15 Break

3:15 to 4:00 Second video-taped clinical session of Transformative Couples Therapy presented by a participant for supervision

4:00 to 4:45 Third video-taped clinical session of Transformative Couples Therapy presented by a participant for supervision

4:45 to 5:10 Group consultation inviting questions, feedback and comments from the group members

5:10 to 5:15 Closing  

Course #2: Wednesday series started May 2nd, 2023 for 8 monthly sessions

From 8 AM PT to 10:00 AM PT: 5/2/23, 6/7/23 then a summer break until 8/30/23, 9/27/23 and 11/8/23, 12/6/23, 1/3/24 and 1/31/24

This ongoing group is limited to 4 therapists. This course is oriented to an intermediate to advanced level. Target audience: Psychologists, Social Workers, MFTs, Counselors, and Psychiatrists.

Eight two-hour sessions totaling 16 CE are under review for this course.

Cost: $150 for each two-hour TCT Group Supervision Session.

Payment may be made by monthly subscription of $150 per month with the understanding that the series lasts for eight sessions. Payment in full for the eight sessions is $1,150 with a $50 reduction.​

AGENDA:

 8:00: to 8:30 AM Opening channels of experience meditation, and reflections as we check in.

8:30 to 9:10 AM First video-taped clinical session of Transformative Couples Therapy® presented by a participant for supervision/consultation

9:15 to 9:55 AM Second video-taped clinical session of Transformative Couples Therapy presented by a participant for supervision

9:55 to 10:00 AM Questions, feedback and comments from the group members and closing.   

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT:

There is no conflict of interest or external commercial support for this program. 

CANCELATION POLICY:
Withdrawal from the course can be done at any time with a full refund of the remaining paid sessions.

GRIEVANCES:

Questions or concerns may be communicated to David Mars, Ph.D. by email at davidmarsphd@gmail.com or by phone call to 415-234-3821​

 
 

Meet the Course Leader:​

David Mars, Ph.D. MFT
Developer of Transformative Couples Therapy®
Director of the Center for Transformative Therapy

DavidMars.jpg

Throughout his career, Dr. David Mars has been developing methods of optimizing moment-to-moment tracking of internal experience in individual and couple therapy. He also cultivated awareness of the expressions of the heart, breathing, muscles, and nervous system through two decades of integrating biofeedback and video-feedback into couple treatment.  In 2007 he began developing Transformative Couples Therapy® (TCT). He leads webinars nationally and internationally on TCT. 

David is the founder of the Center for Transformative Therapy. He was an Adjunct Faculty member at the California Institute for Integral Studies, where he integrated AEDP into the courses he taught. David was a senior faculty member at the AEDP Institute from 2008 to 2019, where he developed and taught AEDP for Couples. Since 2019 the name of this couple work has been returned to its original name of Transformative Couples Therapy®, which he has taught either in person or on Zoom in the US, Brazil, Canada, Sweden, the Netherlands, Israel, Ireland, India, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

“I just had a first session with a couple who have 20 years of experience in intense fighting. Thanks to this work I was inspired to confidently interrupt their familiar ways of talking to each other to very good effect and they were able to do something different for the first time.”

Additional information:

  1. These courses are designed for intermediate to advanced learners.

  2. Our cancelation is policy is that you may end your enrollment at any time and receive a refund for the remaining sessions of the course.

  3. Grievances, questions or concerns may be communicated to David Mars, Ph.D. by email at davidmarsphd@gmail.com or by phone call to 415-234-3821​.