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Digital Seminar

Healing Relationships in Individual Therapy

When Only One Partner Is in the Room

Faculty:
Ellyn Bader, PhD
Duration:
2 Hours 51 Minutes
Copyright:
22 Mar, 2026
Product Code:
NOS096733
Media Type:
Digital Seminar
Access:
Never expires.

Choose a price item

Description

Roughly one in three clients comes to individual therapy seeking help with stress in their romantic relationship. Often their partner never even sets foot in your office! So how do you work with these clients’ pain, depression, disillusionment, and convictions that their partner is
the problem without that partner present to give you a fuller picture of their conflict? In this workshop, you’ll learn how to avoid one of the biggest risks when working with just one partner: hearing and validating only one side of the story. The answer lies in being incisive in uncovering what your client is doing that is undermining the love they want. Through a live clinical demonstration, you’ll learn how to illuminate the invisible developmental forces shaping your clients’ struggles, and you'll receive tools designed to promote growth in your individual client and enable them to spark growth in their relationship as well. You’ll also discover how to:

  • Identify where and why your client is truly stuck
  • Help clients take accountability without triggering shame
  • Create meaningful shifts that reduce hopelessness and blame
  • Use a structured assessment to uncover hidden relational dynamics
  • Describe the gift of differentiation and guide clients to set goals that inspire growth and action
     

CPD

Faculty

Ellyn Bader, PhD's Profile

Ellyn Bader, PhD Related seminars and products

The Couples Institute


Ellyn Bader, PhD, is a psychologist, codirector of The Couples Institute in Menlo Park, California, and co-creator of The Developmental Model of Couples Therapy. She’s one of the early founders of couples therapy, as well as a recognized thought leader and trailblazer in relationship therapy. She coauthored the award-winning textbook In Quest of the Mythical Mate and Tell Me No Lies: How to Face the Truth and Build a Loving Marriage with her husband, Dr. Peter Pearson. She’s been featured on Nightline, Good Morning America, and NPR, as well as in O Magazine, Cosmopolitan, and the Wall Street Journal.


Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Ellyn Bader is the director of The Couples Institute and receives compensation as a consultant. She receives royalties as a published author. Ellyn Bader receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Ellyn Bader is a member of the American Psychological Association, the International Transactional Analysis Association, and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.


Additional Info

Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)

Access never expires for this product.

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.


Objectives

  1. Describe common clinical dynamics that arise in individual therapy when clients focus primarily on their partner’s behavior rather than their own.
  2. Define the developmental stages in couple relationships and the emotional capacities required for growth at each stage.
  3. Identify therapeutic strategies that promote personal accountability and emotional development in clients struggling with their romantic relationship.

Outline

  • Clients in relational distress
  • Common dynamics that arise in the therapy room
  • What draws therapists into support roles
  • Recognizing therapeutic stuckness and enabling
  • Couples Developmental Stages and the emotional capacities needed in each
  • Case presentation and deconstruction
  • How to use the individual assessment questionnaire
  • Tools that promote growth with individuals who are depressed, angry or disillusioned with their partners
  • Risks and Limitations

Target Audience

  • Counsellors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Psychotherapists
  • Therapists
  • Marriage & Family Therapists
  • Addiction Counsellors
  • Physicians
  • Other Mental Health Professionals

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