Weeks 1-10

Faculty: Robert Bartlett, Ph.D.

Weeks 11-20

Faculty: Elena Skolnick, Ph.D.

Weeks 21-30

Faculty: Ethan Graham, Ph.D.

Monique Bowen, Ph.D.

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Analyze key psychoanalytic and psychodynamic texts on ethnocultural and racial identity, class, and intersectionality to identify two ways in which unconscious and social forces shape couple dynamics.

2. Assess one’s class‑, ethnicity-, race‑, gender‑, and orientation‑based assumptions–only a few dimensions of difference related to assigned readings for this module–through guided reflection and peer discussion to name at least one activity that will enhance cultural self‑awareness in clinical work.

3. Apply at least two relevant interventions in couples therapy case scenarios presented to address patterns of division, harmony, and neglect.

Tomás Casado-Frankel, LMFT-D

1. Participants will be able to identify and explore 3 cultural, linguistic, or ethnic forces at play within the dynamic of a couple, as well as 2 unconscious loyalties the couple may have to their families of origin and heritage.

2. Participants will be able to identify and describe 3 power dynamics embedded in relationship rules (including code switching/language use) and how they get played out within the couple, bringing partners closer together and/or distancing them. 

Susan Flinn, Ph.D.

1. Candidates will be able to list at least 3 different theories about high conflict couples. ( Theories will include attachment, trauma, object-relations, systems and EFT).

2. Candidates will be able to demonstrate to the couple members how their attachment anxieties fuel their problematic dynamics.

3. Candidates will be able to design initial interventions for de-escalating high conflict behavior.

4. Candidates will be able to create additional interventions to reduce repetitive cycles of high conflict.

5. Candidates will be able to create a safer space for the couple to heal their attachment injuries and demonstrate to them how to do so.

6. Candidates will be able to plan with the couple rules to interrupt and eliminate any violence.

Shelly Goldklank, Ph.D.

1. After the first class, students will be able to list at least two constructs from psychoanalysis (e.g. transference/countertransference) and two from systems therapy (e.g. co-construction) that are integrated in the orientation of this program.
2. After the second class, students will be able to take a genogram, getting information about the family of origin of each member of the couple in such a way that the information anticipates transference/countertransference issues relevant to the presenting couple’s complaint.
3. After the third class, students should be able to diagnose which of three crucial components of couple functioning are relevant for their couple’s case.
4. After the fourth class, students should be able to analyze in a commitment difficulty in a couple.
5. After the fifth class, students should be able to analyze a power or an intimacy difficulty.
6. After the sixth class, students would be able to assess and make a plan about what to do when they are siding, unconsciously at first and collusively with the system, with one person in a couple over another.
7. After the seventh class, students should be able to present their couples’ cases giving the most relevant couple’s issues, rather than individual issues, that is, the students should begin to speak systemically as well as speaking their more familiar psychoanalytic language and conceptualization. Their descriptions should not only include complementarity and similarity, but also life cycle stage, triangulations, and horizontal manifestations of vertical (family of origin) unresolved issues.

Ethan Graham, Ph.D.

1. Candidates will be able to define key elements of countertransference and gain facility in understanding the complex ways they manifest in couples work.
2. Candidates will explore ways of using metaphor and other non-linear creative processes to meaningfully engage and impact couples beneficially in their clinical work.
3. Candidates will develop ways to harness unique aspects of their own approaches to their general clinical work and adapt them to the particular demands of treating couples.
4. Candidates will be able to describe the complexities around intentionally and implicitly disclosing different types of information to their couples and gain greater sensitivity to the usefulness and risks of doing so.

Anton Hart, Ph.D.

Students will be able to:
1. Recognize the importance of cultivating curiosity when working with couples to address issues related to diversity.
2. Conceptualize and understand a hermeneutic orientation to clinical inquiry.
3. Identify the central role of the unbidden and of relational freedom within the clinical encounter with couples.
4. Describe three central impacts of race and racism on a given couple, regardless of the particular ethnicities of the members of the couple.
5. Conceptualize diversities of sexuality and gender as requiring the same kinds of open-mindedness and sensitivity as other diversities where discrimination is often a feature.

Suzanne Iasenza, Ph.D.

Participants will be able to describe special issues when working with lesbian couples.