An Integrated Approach to Unusual, Challenging Dilemmas With Couples: Advanced Considerations

Even highly trained and experienced couple therapists have come to realize that contemporary couples frequently present situations in which most clinicians have had no prior training, nor are they covered in the extant literature. Indeed, there are few orientations or training possibilities that cover the most difficult issues. This webinar is designed to explore a sampling of dilemmas and potential solutions from an integrated perspective. This presentation outlines unusual and challenging dilemmas and offers a framework for developing a professional approach to questions that even the most experienced therapists have not been trained to deal with. Clinical vignettes are presented, and participants engage in developing solutions that both artfully and systematically enable clients to find solutions that meet their needs.

• Specify clinical and ethical guidelines to assist you in resolving unusual dilemmas with couples.
• Determine a method of resolving conflicts between a couple’s divergent ethical/moral positions.
• Uphold the obligation to protect one member of a couple from verbal or physical abuse without alienating their partner.
• Develop a method to integrate personal, professional, and ethical values within an integrative theoretical framework.

Terence Patterson, EdD, ABPP; Jerrold Lee Shapiro, PhD, ABMP (ret.), CGP (Ret.)