WHERE TO START

 Learn to teach COUPLE COMMUNICATION I & II Programs (plus CORE COMMUNICATION for individuals) for pre-marriage preparation, marriage education, or counseling. The 2-day workshop covers teaching/coaching methods for improving skills of talking, listening, resolving conflicts, and managing anger effectively. The workshop shows you how to use practical tools to help couples build a more collaborative and satisfying relationship. The content in the workshop is integrated with relevant theory and research. (For more about CORE COMMUNICATION, see www.comskills.com.)

Included with the workshop, yet held separately via web-based learning, is facilitator training for the “ThriveSphere Collaborative Marriage Reflectment” Inventory. For more details on ThriveSphere, Click here.

Who Should Attend 

The workshop is open to the following:

• Licensed Marriage & Family Therapists
• Psychologists
• Clinical Social Workers
• Certified Counselors
• Clergy
• Family Life Educators
• Pastoral Counselors
• College/University/Seminary Educators in Marriage Preparation, Marriage and Family Therapy, Pastoral Care
• Leader Couples Who Teach or Mentor Couples in Congregations

Objectives

The goal of the workshop is for participants to gain a systemic set of methods to help couples and individuals talk, listen, resolve conflicts, and manage anger more effectively.
By attending the workshop, participants will:

• Identify/experience competencies for coaching communication skills and processes with couples and individuals.
• Explain major maps and frameworks underlying the communication skills and processes.
• Practice and apply communication skills, processes, and coaching methods in an interaction (using skills mats as tools).
• Identify the major theories supporting the skills, processes, and methods for teaching.
• Experience the major exercises of COUPLE COMMUNICATION I & II and CORE.
• Choose a course design for working with couples and individuals in a particular setting — counseling practice, congregation, educational institution, or community center.
• Identify guidelines for making learning agreements (contracts) with prospective participant couples.

Workshop Learning Methods

The instructor workshop incorporates all COUPLE COMMUNICATION learning modes – presentations, demonstrations, skills practice using skills mats, inventories, and application/transfer exercises. Special attention is focused on how to coach and give feedback effectively to couples. As in the COUPLE COMMUNICATION Program itself, you practice and coach with real issues of your own choosing (appropriate for the setting). In addition, because it is instructor training, you use simulated issues and situations for certain exercises.

Each workshop participant uses a COUPLE COMMUNICATION (CC) Instructor Manual, a CC I Couple Packet, a CC II Instructor Agenda, a CC II Couple Packet, and a CORE COMMUNICATION workbook. For a description of the Couple items and other instructor materials, click here.

Day Two

Demonstration – Inside and Outside the Skills Zone
Exercise – How you leave the Skills Zone
Presentation – Staying Skilled: Leading & Following, Hot & Cold Responses, Stop & Shift