Family Counselling, Marriage, and Couples Therapy Course

Lesson 1 • Professional Identity and Scope of Practice

Clarifies the therapist's role, ethical boundaries, and scope within family and couples work. Prepares students for responsible professional conduct.

Lesson 2 • Core Theoretical Models Overview

Surveys structural, strategic, experiential, and narrative models. Enables students to distinguish each model's assumptions and clinical focus.

Lesson 3 • Key Concepts in Relational Systems

Defines systems theory, homeostasis, feedback loops, and boundaries. Students apply these concepts to analyze family functioning.

Lesson 1 • Relational Patterns and Dysfunctional Cycles

Identifies recurring interactional cycles that maintain distress in couples and families. Students map negative patterns to inform intervention targets.

Lesson 2 • Attachment Theory and Bonding

Covers Bowlby and Ainsworth's attachment framework and its adult relational extensions. Students identify attachment styles in couples and family members.

Lesson 3 • Lifespan Development in Relational Context

Reviews developmental milestones from childhood through late adulthood within family systems. Links developmental tasks to relational stress points.

Lesson 4 • Family Life Cycle Stages

Applies Carter and McGoldrick's family life cycle model to clinical assessment. Students recognize normative and non-normative transitions.

Lesson 1 • Standardized Assessment Tools

Introduces validated instruments for measuring relationship satisfaction, communication, and functioning. Students select and interpret tools appropriate to presenting concerns.

Lesson 2 • Genogram Construction and Analysis

Teaches three-generation genogram mapping of family structure, relationships, and patterns. Students use genograms to surface intergenerational themes.

Lesson 3 • Intake and Relational History Gathering

Structures the initial session to collect presenting concerns, history, and goals. Establishes rapport while gathering clinically relevant information.

Lesson 4 • Risk Assessment in Relational Contexts

Addresses screening for domestic violence, suicidality, substance use, and child safety concerns. Students apply safety protocols within a relational framework.

Lesson 1 • Active Listening and Reflective Skills

Develops empathic listening, reflection, and validation tailored to relational sessions. Students practice skills that de-escalate conflict and promote openness.

Lesson 2 • Questioning Techniques in Family Therapy

Covers circular, reflexive, and hypothetical questioning to expand relational awareness. Students use questions to shift perspectives and generate new meaning.

Lesson 3 • Managing Conflict and High-Affect Sessions

Equips therapists to de-escalate hostility, manage emotional flooding, and maintain safety. Students apply containment strategies without shutting down authentic expression.

Lesson 4 • Enactment and In-Session Interaction

Guides therapists to direct live interactions between clients to observe and reshape patterns. Enactment transforms the session into a laboratory for change.

Lesson 1 • Premarital and Relationship Education

Covers structured premarital programs and psychoeducational approaches to relationship enrichment. Students design skill-building sessions for couples at various stages.

Lesson 2 • Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples

Covers Johnson's EFT stages, attachment-based interventions, and restructuring bonding events. Students practice evocative responding and enactment within the EFT framework.

Lesson 3 • Discernment Counseling and Ambivalence

Addresses couples where one or both partners are ambivalent about commitment. Students guide discernment without pushing toward a predetermined outcome.

Lesson 4 • Gottman Method Couples Therapy

Applies Gottman's Sound Relationship House theory and research-based interventions. Students use assessment data to target the Four Horsemen and build friendship.

Lesson 1 • Working with Triangles and Coalitions

Addresses detouring, cross-generational coalitions, and triangulation in family systems. Students intervene to restore appropriate generational boundaries.

Lesson 2 • Milan Systemic Approach

Introduces hypothesizing, circularity, and neutrality from the Milan team's model. Students use positive connotation and ritual prescription to shift family beliefs.

Lesson 3 • Problem-Solving and Brief Therapy

Applies MRI brief therapy and solution-focused principles to resolve presenting problems efficiently. Students identify minimal interventions with maximum systemic impact.

Lesson 4 • Structural Family Therapy Techniques

Teaches boundary making, unbalancing, and restructuring to modify family organization. Students map and intervene on dysfunctional structural patterns.

Lesson 1 • Narrative Therapy Foundations

Covers White and Epston's narrative model, including dominant stories and problem saturation. Students understand how cultural narratives constrain relational identity.

Lesson 2 • Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Covers de Shazer and Berg's SFBT techniques including miracle question and scaling. Students build solution-focused sessions that amplify client competence.

Lesson 3 • Collaborative Language Systems Approach

Applies Anderson and Goolishian's not-knowing stance and dialogical conversation. Students practice genuine curiosity and shared inquiry with client systems.

Lesson 4 • Externalization and Re-authoring

Teaches externalization conversations that separate persons from problems. Students guide clients to re-author preferred identities and relationship stories.

Lesson 1 • Grief, Loss, and Family Transitions

Addresses bereavement, divorce, chronic illness, and other major losses within family systems. Students facilitate adaptive mourning and family reorganization.

Lesson 2 • Affirming Therapy with LGBTQ+ Clients

Provides culturally affirming frameworks for same-sex couples, gender-diverse individuals, and chosen families. Students apply minority stress theory to clinical conceptualization.

Lesson 3 • Therapy with Blended and Stepfamilies

Addresses loyalty conflicts, role ambiguity, and boundary challenges unique to stepfamily systems. Students adapt structural interventions to non-traditional family configurations.

Lesson 4 • Trauma-Informed Couples and Family Therapy

Integrates trauma-informed principles into relational treatment for PTSD, complex trauma, and betrayal. Students sequence trauma processing within a relational safety framework.