Couples Work with an Individual (with CE)

Most clinicians assume couple therapy requires two people in the room. But in practice, many of the couples who need the work most never show up together.

Partners refuse therapy for many reasons—fear of blame, distrust of counseling, avoidance of vulnerability, or sheer resignation. When only one partner comes, it’s easy to drift into individual therapy and quietly lose the relational frame.

This training shows you how to do true couples work with one person present. You’ll learn how to attune to both partners, build an accurate model of the one who isn’t there, and help your client engage the relationship differently—without siding, judging, or collapsing into advice-giving.

Rather than reinforcing old cycles, this approach prepares clients to create new relational experiences outside the therapy room. When done well, individual work can disrupt entrenched patterns, restore agency, and open pathways toward repair—whether that leads to couples therapy, stabilization, or clarity about what comes next.

Couple therapy doesn’t begin when both partners arrive. It begins when the system starts to shift.

1 CE Hour | ONLY $35

inRelationship has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7745. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. inRelationship is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.