Some narcissists want to be adored without giving much in return. Others make outrageous demands. Couples therapists are continually challenged to remain centered and not get derailed by their defensive styles. In this workshop, we will discuss how to promote recovery and repair, how to confront and how to increase differentiation to sustain long-term change.
Cultural and religious differences provide the backdrop against which couples' issues of commitment, gender and child raising, as well as, family connectedness and cultural loyalty are played out. Mixed couples often face difficult decisions at key junctures in the life cycle. In this workshop, participants will learn to identify conflicts around culture and religion, tease out the cultural contexts of common couples' dilemmas, and help clients make informed choices about the role that group continuity, family tradition and cultural values will play in their lives.
Anxiety and depression are fast becoming the leading causes of personal disability and the single greatest destructive force in relationships. Research indicates that when one person in a relationship is depressed, the divorce rate goes up nine times. Therefore, it is vital that therapists learn to recognize typical and atypical symptoms early in therapy. It also is imperative that symptoms of relational depression are recognized. Lecture, video, written exercises and demonstration will be used.
It is said that men are afraid of intimacy. Love-avoidant men don't know what intimacy is; what they fear is subjugation - being drained, used, entrapped. These men most often have histories of enmeshment with either one or both parents. That enmeshment can be positive (e.g. the caretaker} or negative (e.g. the scapegoat), but it always leaves the person with both shame and grandiosity.
Madanes will present strategies for preventing marital violence, from minor occurrences to severe violence. Participants will have a chance to consult with Madanes about their own cases.
This workshop discusses the brain circuitry of the three primary mating emotions: lust, attraction and attachment. It traces the evolution of these emotion systems and illustrates how their neural circuitry contributes to contemporary patterns of marital harmony and discord including adultery; divorce; stalking behavior; clinical depression due to rejection in love; and other issues brought to contemporary couples therapy.
Infidelity is not necessarily about sex, but about secrets and the violation of trust. In this workshop, Dr. Spring will map out the trauma of an affair (or other intimate wounds) and help partners think through whether and how to reconcile.
Madanes will discuss some difficult cases and participants are invited to present their own cases for consultation and advice from Madanes. Emphasis will be on partner abuse, assessment and intervention, including cultural factors and community resources. A minimum of five to ten participants will have a chance to consult. The group will engage actively in exercises to demonstrate specific techniques.
The classic passive-aggressive person is a help-rejecting complainer who will not follow through with carefully crafted agreements and seems to be immune to targeted insights. They often end up with a despairing partner.