Register Today!!!
Level 1 Clinical Training - Gottman Method Couples Therapy
Bridging the Couples Chasm
presented by Dr. Mike McNulty
Thursday, June 25 & Friday June 26, 2026
North Shore Conference Center, Doubletree Hilton, 9599 Skokie Blvd., Skokie, IL 60077
Early bird 1 (prior to May 1, 2026): $430
Early bird 2 (prior to June 10, 2026): $460
Standard rate (between June 10 - June 25, 2026): $490.00
12 CE's available for healthcare professionals who attend with their partners through National Marriage Seminars for a $40 fee after the workshop.
Click here to register: Registration link
Level 1 Workshop Outline and Objectives
DAY ONE
8:30 am - 8:50 am: Registration Check-In
9:00 am - 5:00 pm: Workshop
(Lunch on your own, 1 hr)
The Research - What Makes Relationships Succeed or Fail?
- What is different about Gottman Method Couples Therapy
- What is dysfunctional about relationships when they are ailing
- The “Masters” and Disasters” of relationships: Exploding some common myths
- Negative and positive sentiment overrides
- Friendship, Intimacy, Positive Affect System
- The Shared Meaning System
- The Sound Relationship House Theory
The Assessment Sessions
Session 1 - Assessing the Couple Together
- Couple’s Narrative
- Oral History Interview
- Videotape: A 10 minute Conflict Interaction
- Ending Session 1 - Preparing Couple for Individual Sessions - No secrets
- Assessment: Written Questionnaires
Session 2 - Individual Sessions
Session 3 - The Therapeutic Contract: Discussing and Deciding about Goals.
Summary of Strengths and Areas that Need Improvement.
Assessment and film.
Day One Conclusion - Q and A
DAY TWO
9:00am - 5:00 pm: Workshop
(Lunch on your own 1 hr.)
Intervention
- Assumptions of the Therapy
- Overview of the Therapy
- Goals of the Therapy
Conflict Management
- Rapoport Intervention and film
- Ending the Four Horsemen and film
- Dreams Within Conflict and film
- Building the Basic Skills (Softened Start-up, Accepting Influence, Repair and De-escalation, Physiological Soothing, Compromise)
- Aftermath of a Fight and film
Building Friendship and Shared Meaning
- Build Love Maps and film
- Turn Towards: The Stress-Reducing Conversation and film
- Build Rituals of Connection and film
- Create Shared Meaning and film
Process of the Therapy
- Structure of a Typical Session
- What the Therapist Can Say
- The Domino Theory of Emotion
Summary
- What’s Next: Additional Training
- Workshop Conclusion - Q and A
Workshop Objectives:
- Participants will be able to:
- Summarize the research that allows prediction of future relationship stability with 94% accuracy
- Describe the seven levels of the Sound Relationship House theory
- Conduct a couple's therapy assessment using elements of the couple's narrative, the Oral History Interview, written questionnaires, observations of conflict, and individual interviews
- Describe two interventions for each: to help strengthen a couple's management of conflict; to enhance a couple's friendship system; and to explore a couple's system of shared meaning.
Who Should Attend?
Participants working in the following fields will benefit from our training:
- Mental health providers
- Allied professionals and clergy
- Students and interns
- Family clinic staff
- Professors/teachers of couples therapy
- Researchers in the social sciences
- Employee assistance professionals
Click here to register: Registration link
