A507 Helping Couples Become Conscious Partners

"Conscious Partnership" is a new form of couplehood emerging from the collective unconscious, replacing contemporary marriage, which has been in decline for more than 60 years. To help couples understand and make the transition from an unconscious relationship to a conscious partnership, therapists need to become oriented to the therapeutic challenges of a new paradigm that prioritizes "what happens between people" above "what happens inside people." This Telecourse will introduce therapists to the core concepts and essential processes required to help couples create a conscious partnership and receive its profound benefits.

Meet The Instructor

Harville Hendrix, Ph.D., co-developed Imago Relationship Therapy with his wife, Helen LaKelly Hunt. He lectures and presents workshops on intimate relationships internationally. He's coauthored 10 books with his wife, 3 of which have been on the New York Times bestseller list: Getting the Love You Want; Keeping the Love You Find; and Giving the Love that Heals.

Course Contents

Session 1: The purpose and stages of intimate relationships • An overview of the therapeutic challenges of helping couples understand and cooperate with the intention of their unconscious processes

Session 2: Imago dialogue: therapy as engaged presence • An introduction to Imago Dialogue and its implementation in the therapy process

Session 3: Conscious Partnership: Meaning and description • Conscious partnership is a relationship between equals who are mutually committed to help each other heal and recover their original wholeness • Explore these concepts and discuss therapeutic interventions to help couples create safety in the service of passion

Session 4: Conscious partnership as sacred space • A discussion of how to help couples regulate their anxiety about the loss of control inherent in negative transactions and experience the empowerment of shifting their focus from the "within" to the "between"

Session 5: Steps to conscious partnership • An introduction to the process of helping couples understand and practice five essential and powerful processes on the journey to healing and wholeness, safety and passion

Session 6: Love: Its preconditions and benefits • An opportunity to experiment with using specific concepts and procedures to help couples become and maintain themselves as conscious partners

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the unconscious purpose of committed couplehood
2. Discuss the stages of intimate relationship
3. Guide couples to integrate the meaning of their struggles

Search all CE courses

Search all Audio courses