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Certificate in couples counselling
Heidi Renton will once again be delivering our certificate in couples counselling.
The course is open to qualified counsellors with a minimum of one year post-qualifying counselling experience, who wish to add working with couples to their portfolio, or who are already working with couples and want to deepen their understanding of couples' work. The certificate syllabus is experiential, underpinned by robust theory.
This 50-hour training will be running over five weekends from February to June 2024.
What to expect
Weekend 1: 17-18 Feb
Theme: Key principles of couple therapy
- What is a relationship? The nature of attraction and the role of idealisation
- The relationship is the patient
- The focus of the couple therapist: maintaining a ‘couple state of mind’
- The past in the present: using genograms; intergenerational patterns and shared sensitivities
- What individuals bring to their relationships: the internal couple and repeated patterns of relationship dynamics
- Working with the transference and countertransference
Weekend 2: 16-17 March
Theme: The functions and meanings of desire and sex in a relationship
- Development of sexual identity; cultural and societal influences
- Challenges to the sexual relationship, physical and emotional
- Fertility issues and loss
- Common sexual dysfunctions and causes: predisposing, precipitating and maintaining factors
- Betrayal and shame – pornography and sex addiction
Weekend 3: 13-14 April
Theme: Attachment theory and patterns
- Influence on couple choice; impact on the couple's relationship
- The therapist as an attachment figure; breaks and containment
- Life stages in the couple's relationship
- Working with triangulation and affairs
- Collusion and secrets in the consulting room
Weekend 4: 11-12 May
Theme: Assessment, formulation and support of the couple
- The presenting problem and ‘why now?’ for choosing couple therapy
- Depression, mental health, and the ‘allocated patient’
- Issues of violence and child protection
- Helping couples understand, address and change damaging behaviours
- Sustaining positive change
Weekend 5: 08-09 June
Theme: Endings and beginnings
- Working with disappointment, blame, conflict and loss in the consulting room
- Separation and divorce
- New relationships and repeated patterns
- Blended families
Cost
Tickets are £1475. The early bird price (£1250) is available until 30th November 2023
Book your place via Ticket Tailor.
About Heidi Renton
Course attendees will benefit from Heidi’s extensive knowledge and experience in relationship therapy. Heidi qualified for her Masters as a Psychodynamic Couple and Individual Psychotherapist at Tavistock Relationships in London and then specialised with a further qualification at the same institution, in Psychosexual and Relationship Therapy.
She has since lectured and tutored on both the Tavistock courses from which she graduated, and works there as a Senior Clinician in Assessment and Relationship Psychotherapy, alongside running her own private practice. In addition, Heidi trains and supervises NHS and IAPT counsellors on Tavistock’s Couple Therapy for Depression time-limited model.
BCS is a busy, vibrant counselling and training organisation at the heart of the community. We have over 20 years’ experience in providing highly respected, comprehensive counselling training in the psychodynamic discipline. Our courses are widely recognised and held in high regard within the counselling profession.