About the Training
Step into relational work
A rigorous, inclusive specialist training
A rigorous, inclusive 4-day specialist training for qualified counsellors and psychotherapists ready to work with couples and relationships.
Individual counselling skills are essential — but working with couples is a fundamentally different clinical task. This training equips you with the theory, practical skills, and reflective framework to hold two people in the room, navigate competing needs, and support real relational change.
Grounded in attachment theory, systemic thinking, and psychodynamic concepts — and delivered with Headstrong’s trademark commitment to anti-oppressive, inclusive practice.
Our approach: every session is experiential and grounded — we don’t just teach models, we help you internalise them through skills practice, case discussion, and facilitated reflection. Couples exist within social contexts, and our training takes seriously the impact of race, culture, class, gender, sexuality, and neurodivergence on relational dynamics.
The 4-Day Curriculum
Day 1 · Foundations of Couples Work
What makes couples counselling distinct from individual work · Attachment theory applied to adult partnerships · The internal couple: what each person brings to the relationship · Intake, assessment, and contracting with two clients · Introduction to systemic and relational frameworks.
Day 2 · Working in the Room
Systemic thinking: circular causality and relational patterns · Managing split agendas, alliances, and neutrality · Transference and countertransference in the triad · Projection, projective identification, and couple fit · Skills practice through role play and facilitated exercises.
Day 3 · Complex Presentations
Affairs, betrayal trauma, and rebuilding trust · Conflict, escalation, and de-escalation in the room · Separation and divorce counselling · Domestic abuse: risk assessment and ethical decision-making · Safeguarding responsibilities in couples work.
Day 4 · Professional Practice
Diversity in relationships: LGBTQ+, cultural, religious, and relational structures · Non-normative relationships and inclusive frameworks · Supervision needs specific to couples work · Self-of-therapist: reflexivity and personal impact · Consolidation, skills review, and next steps.