CC23 Workshop 03 - Loving Power: Intimacy Beyond Patriarchy - Terry Real, LICSW

Description: This talk introduces key insights from "Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship", focusing on the concept of “loving power”—a blend of assertiveness and cherishing. It examines how patriarchy and individualism contribute to relational trauma and offers strategies from Relational Life Therapy (RLT), including loving confrontation, trauma repair, and skill-building. Emphasis is placed on self-disclosure, humility, and cultivating authentic connection.

Syllabus Description: Under patriarchy – the framework we all live within – one can be connected or powerful; but not both at the same time. This workshop gives nuts and bolts technique for helping our clients discover “soft” or “loving” power. How to stand up for one’s self and cherish one’s partner, and the relationship, in the same breath. How one partner can help empower the other to come through for them, a win/win for both. 

Learn how to teach clients the 3 steps to getting what you want

– Daring to rock the boat 

– Teaching them what you want 

– Encouraging, rather than discouraging, progress

Learning Objectives:

1. How to move beyond traditional gender binaries allowing for assertion and appreciation simultaneously 
2. Learning the Three Phases of getting what you want
3. Learning a model of moving clients into mutual employment – more assertion up front, less resentment on the back end