WORKING BRIEFLY WITH SUBSTANCE-ABUSING AND OTHER  SELF-DESTRUCTIVE COUPLE DIFFICULTIES

Working with couples plagued by substance abuse and other self-destructive habit difficulties like gambling, cyber-porn abuse, eating-distressed behaviors, and self-injury can be quite difficult for even the most skilled of therapists. Additionally, their choice self-destructive habits can eventually lead to intense conflict and sexual dysfunction problems, extra-marital affairs, psychological and physical health problems, job loss, and severe financial difficulties. Two of the biggest challenges working with these couples are when both partners are struggling with multiple self-destructive habits and their long history of involvement with social control agents representing the courts, child protection, and the healthcare larger systems.

In this “hands-on” practice-oriented workshop, participants will learn a Collaborative Strengths-Based Brief Couples Therapy approach that capitalizes on the strengths and resources of each couple partner, key resource people from their social network, and the involved helping professionals from larger systems to rapidly co-construct solutions. As a result of attending this workshop, participants will be able to:

 

• Use effective couple engagement and retention strategies
• Use self-changers’ wisdom for how to conquer substance abuse and other self-destructive habit difficulties
• Learn the Collaborative Strengths-Based Couples Therapy model
• Use systemic questions to elicit the couple’s expertise, negotiate solvable goals, and co-create compelling future realities
• Use harm-reduction goal-setting and treatment strategies
• Use mindfulness and related tools and strategies
• Design, select, and match therapeutic tools and change strategies with each couple partner’s stages of readiness to change, theories of change, and key strengths
• Externalizing intergenerational habits and destructive interactions
• Use couple-social network relapse prevention strategies to constructively manage inevitable slips and consolidate couple gains
• Foster cooperative partnerships with involved key resource people from the couple’s social network and the concerned helping professionals from larger systems
• Working with one partner as the agent of change when the other partner is reluctant to participate

 

The workshop format will combine didactic presentation, video examples, and skill-building exercises.