Working with couples
A comprehensive and engaging course in relationship and couple counselling for experienced therapists who want to deepen their skills and confidence in working with couples.
This course is designed for trained, experienced therapists (typically unsuitable for those with under three years’ counselling experience) who want to add depth, theory, and practical skills in couple work to their existing therapy practice.
Whilst not qualifying the participant to be an agency trained and placement completed Couple Therapist, this is a Couple Counselling course unique to the North East in that it is affordable and cutting-edge in relationship counselling and covers psychodynamic, systemic and developmental perspectives without the need for agency placement or strict modality adherence, giving the participants the skills and knowledge they may require to commence the journey into counselling couples (under appropriate supervision).
Couple counselling brings a very different approach to most counselling. This course takes an in-depth look at the dynamics that arise in couple relationships. It recognises that many couples bring long-standing relational patterns and family role expectations that can be direct, emotionally charged, and involve the expression of conflict.
The course models and reflects these realities and includes robust, sometimes challenging material and discussion, delivered within a reflective and ethically held learning environment, to support delegates in deepening their understanding of the wide range of dynamics that can appear in couple relationships
Tutor: Graeme Armstrong
As primary tutor, Graeme Armstrong has worked as a therapist since 1998, in private practice and previously at Relate as both a couple counsellor and a supervisor. He has trained to Post Graduate Diploma level in Couple Therapy with psychodynamic and systemic models as core approaches, and to Post Graduate Diploma Level in Systemic Therapy.
In 2012, he was awarded the Post Graduate Diploma with Distinction in Studies in Mindfulness, enabling him to create a distinct and cutting-edge approach to relationship therapy. He has delivered over 20,000 hours of relationship counselling over this time.
The course text is delivered via 6 PowerPoints; each PPT is text-heavy, forming a manual for each module so participants can use the PPTs as therapeutic resources. In addition, the tutor, via Jesmond Therapy Centre, will provide a Google Drive link to a library of articles, books and academic papers to supplement and deepen therapeutic knowledge over time.
There will be time for participant reflection/discussion, and of course, there will be role play.
This is a 6-module course, delivered over weekends (3 x 6-hour Saturdays and Sundays) throughout 2026 and providing 36 CPD hours.
Dates are:
- Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th October 2026
- Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th November 2026
- Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th December 2026
Hours each day in the Centre are 9.30 am – 4.30 pm (1 hour breaks).
- Pay only £692.00 (Normal Price £865.00)
- Enter Code ‘20OFF’ at checkout
- Summer Promotion expires on 12th September 2026