Couples Counselling in Family Therapy

Couples Counselling in Family Therapy is a nine-week specialist programme addressing the distinctive clinical situation of working with a dyad in the room. Couple work is technically one of the most demanding forms of clinical practice: the therapist is required to track three emotional realities simultaneously (hers, his and the couple's shared unconscious life) and to maintain multi-partiality when each partner actively solicits alliance.

The programme draws on three complementary traditions. From the structural-systemic tradition we take the attention to patterns, rules and boundaries in the couple system. From Emotionally Focused Therapy (Greenberg, Johnson) we take the attachment-based formulation of negative cycles and the sequence of de-escalation, restructuring and consolidation. From the psychoanalytic couple tradition (Teruel, Ruszczynski, Morgan) we take the concept of the shared couple unconscious, the use of projective identification as a unit of observation, and the three-person dynamics that erupt around affairs and triangulation.

The early weeks of the programme address assessment: the joint interview, individual interviews, the elicitation of relationship history, the identification of the negative cycle, and the contracting process. Special attention is paid to high-conflict couples, the assessment of violence and control (with clear safeguarding protocols), and the ethical complications of working with couples where one or both partners have undisclosed affairs.

The treatment modules cover de-escalation of conflict, repair of attachment injuries, work with impasse, and the particular clinical challenges of affairs, stepfamily dynamics and long-standing emotional withdrawal. Each module combines didactic teaching, demonstration footage and supervised role-play. Participants bring case material to the weekly supervision group from week three onwards.

Assessment is through weekly reflective contributions, a mid-programme written formulation of a couple, and a final case presentation combining video extract and written commentary. The IPAS Certificate in Couples Counselling is signed by the President of the Council and is verifiable online.