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Digital Seminar

Treating Stressed Out Couples: 22 Essential Interventions to Help Partners Set Healthy Boundaries, Overcome Resentment, & Thrive


Faculty:
Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT
Duration:
6 Hours 22 Minutes
Copyright:
29 Aug, 2025
Product Code:
POS150237
Media Type:
Digital Seminar
Access:
Never expires.


Description

Are you finding it difficult to engage with couples who arrive at therapy sessions feeling frazzled, angry, or emotionally distant?

Despite your best efforts for meaningful conversations about their issues, the sessions quickly escalate into conflict or shut down entirely, even resulting in one partner leaving the room …

Situations like this can leave you feeling ineffective and questioning your approach. Plus, your clients are more frustrated than ever …

So, what do you do?

Watch renowned couples therapist, relational expert, and author Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT (@lizlistens) as she delves deeper into understanding the root causes of stress between couples – and how this stress rears its ugly head in the therapy room.

Earnshaw will equip you with 22 proven interventions designed to help couples regulate their emotions, communicate more constructively, and reconnect emotionally both inside and outside the therapy room.

Purchase today to transform your ability to guide couples through their challenges, creating a safe and productive environment where they can openly explore their feelings and rebuild their relationship.

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.



CPD

PESI Australia, in collaboration with PESI in the USA, offers quality online continuing professional development events from the leaders in the field at a standard recognized by professional associations including psychology, social work, occupational therapy, alcohol and drug professionals, counselling and psychotherapy. On completion of the training, a Professional Development Certificate is issued after the individual has answered and submitted a quiz and course evaluation. This program is worth 6.5 hours CPD for points calculation by your association.



Handouts

Faculty

Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT's Profile

Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT Related seminars and products


Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT, is a Marriage and Family Therapist, Clinical Fellow of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, and AAMFT Approved Supervisor. She is the author of the best-selling relationship book I Want This to Work, The Couples Therapy Flip Chart, and Til’ Stressed Do Us Part. She is the owner of a national therapy practice that provides systemic therapy to individuals, couples, and families. Elizabeth has worked with hundreds of couples since becoming a couple’s therapist. She lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with her husband, children, and dog.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Elizabeth Earnshaw is the co-founder of The Rory Project and is the founder and Clinical Director of A Better Life Therapy, LLC. She receives royalties as a published author. Elizabeth Earnshaw receives a speaking honorarium, recording and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Elizabeth Earnshaw is a fellow of AAMFT.


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. Identify the role and impact of stress when clients present with dysregulation in session.
  2. Determine the impact of stress on relational functioning within partnered relationships.
  3. Evaluate Diffuse Psychological Arousal (DPA) to de-escalate, regulate, and repair relational ruptures.
  4. Utilize tools for co-regulation, verbal negotiation, and conversation outlines to improve clinical outcomes with couples.
  5. Develop strategies to help both partners take accountability for the role they play in their own stress.
  6. Utilize a three-part system for helping couples manage stress within and outside the relationship.

Outline

Couples Under (Mismanaged) Stress
The Impact of Stress on Relational Functioning and Happiness
  • Types and origins of stress in modern partnered relationships
  • Identifying and navigating the mental load
  • Neurological underpinnings of stress
  • 3-part stress cycle
  • Diffuse Physiological Arousal (DPA)
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks
In-Session Tools for Flooded, Heated Couples
Decreasing the Emotional Temperature in the Room
  • How to recognize when an individual is flooded
  • When to step in, when to step back
  • Tools for turning down the temperature:
    • Stop Action
    • BPM Tracking
    • Deflating the Balloon
    • Doubling (The Dan Wile)
    • Cross Questioning
    • Relaxation, Mindfulness, Breathing, and Breaks
  • Recovery, repair, and personal responsibility
  • Tools for increasing closeness and attunement:
    • Psychoeducation
    • Acceptance
    • The Stress-Reducing Conversation
    • Negotiation
    • Remembering “We”
    • Coregulation
    • Creating a Break Plan
Couples that De-Stress Together …
Lifestyle Change for Long-Term Relational Happiness
  • Helping couples identify the stress they “create”
  • The 3-part system for managing stress – individually and together
  • Radical Responsibility
  • Tools to help couples change their lifestyle:
    • Completing the Stress Cycle
    • Awareness of Tasks + Redistribution
    • North Star Values
    • Meaningful Time Together
    • The Weekly Meeting
The Therapist in the Room
Staying Cool Despite the Heat
  • Self-disclosure and boundaries
  • Navigate countertransference
  • When the problem is bigger than stress levels
  • Therapist tools:
    • Mindfulness
    • Appropriate Self-Disclosure
    • Thinking on Your Toes
    • De-triangulating

Target Audience

  • Counsellors
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Social Workers
  • Psychologists
  • Physicians
  • Other mental health professionals

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