Couples Therapy Case Consultation Group
December 1st, 2025
Step Into Confident Leadership With Your Couples
Whether you have been working with couples for 3 years or for 30 years, this training program can help strengthen your couples therapy skills so that you can confidently take powerful leadership in your sessions.
This unique training program offers a variety of powerful teachings to help shift your toughest couples. Using video demonstrations, role plays and experiential exercises, and handouts, you can begin to feel like a confident, powerful leader in your sessions.
Graduate school did not prepare us to help couples. When I first started seeing couples 20+ years ago, I wasn’t equipped. The couples’ “fight of the week” was driving our sessions, rather than my own clear blueprint as to what help that particular couple really needs. To say I felt inadequate was an understatement. But the more couples therapy training I received (The Developmental Model), the more couples I met with, the more confident I became, the more I took charge of my sessions, the more couples started saying to me, “you are our 3rd couples therapist, and you are the only one who is helping us.”
I have now been training couples’ therapists locally and nationally, as well as teaching workshops to couples, for over a decade; a testament to the power of learning how to navigate the world of couples – a demographic that stands apart from any other.
“I highly recommend Michelle’s Training Group! I learned so much and it continues to influence the way I work. I liked the lecture followed by case study videos — it made everything easy to understand and take back to the office. I recommend this class for anyone who works with couples or thinking about it. It’s well worth the investment!” – Kent Campbell, MFT
Benefits of joining the Couples Therapy Training Group:
- This will be a rich opportunity see your couples through the lens of the Developmental Model of Couples Therapy (Bader/Pearson of The Couples Institute)– a model designed to get the root, facilitating the satisfying, lasting growth that couples are truly seeking.
- It doesn’t matter whether you have been in practice for 3 or 30 years – this 9-Week Couples Therapy Training Program teaches you key concepts, tools and clinical interventions that create effective and real change. Imagine feeling more confident as an effective leader in the room, knowing exactly how to structure your sessions for optimum success, and moving your couples forward with incisive assistance!
- Each week offers a powerful lesson designed to get to the root of couples’ struggles. And because we meet weekly, you will receive tools quickly. In addition, you will have first-dibs in my ongoing couples consultation group after this training ends, to continue getting support with applying these tools and more in your sessions. Say goodbye to not knowing what to do in your sessions!
- Attending the weekly sessions live is ideal so that you can be an active participant and ask questions for optimal learning. But if you need to miss a training, you will receive the recording!
- 13.5 CE available to LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, CAMFT CE Provider Approval #65866. These 13.5 CEs are available for an additional $10.
“I am a much better and more capable couples therapist as a result of Michelle’s great teaching. I had a good overview when I started, but not a sense of exactly how to put it all into practice. Michelle was great at giving all of us the deeper level knowledge and skill development to practice the model well.” – Richard Litvak, Santa Cruz, CA
Through teaching, group discussion, demonstrated techniques, case studies, small group experiential exercises, role plays / transcripts and video demonstrations, we will explore the following:
Week 1: Do you wonder what to do when your couples repeatedly “forget” the homework or aren’t making progress, yet continue to show up to the sessions? Couples often have an inner conflict between making progress and regressive behaviors, which keeps them stuck. Learn a powerful technique based in Gestalt therapy, designed to provide powerful insights for both partners and yourself, as well as effective and fresh interventions. The best part? It gets you out of the middle.
Week 2: Do you feel intimidated or lost with the many nuancies that come with navigating affairs? This week we will explore how to support couples through the crisis of an affair, what to assess for and specific ways both partners can work together to build trust. This is sure to be a rich discussion!
Week 3: Do you feel ineffective when couples blame each other for problems, and pull you in the middle to fix their partner? In these cases, reflective listening as an intervention doesn’t work. This week you will learn how to skillfully guide couples away from blame, criticism, hostility, regressive behaviors and resentment, and toward self-accountability.
Week 4: Do you feel lost when in the presence of passive or avoidant couples, when there is confusion about goals or not doing the homework? You will learn about confrontation and discover how to shift the work to the couple, with targeted inverventions where couples need it the most.
Week 5: Have you en couples blame each other for problems, and pull you in the middle to fix their partner? In these cases, reflective listening as an intervention doesn’t work. This week you will learn how to skillfully guide couples away from blame, criticism, hostility, regressive behaviors and resentment, and toward self-accountability.had clients who avoid vulnerability, freeze up in converations or strive keep peace at all costs to the detriment of their relationship? These are just some of the patterns that can be understood via the Enneagram system. This week you will learn the foundation of this powerful system, so that you can begin to add this framework to your toolbox.
Week 6: Do you feel lost when in the presence of passive or avoidant couples, when there is confusion about goals or not doing the homework? You will learn about confrontation and discover how to shift the work to the couple, with targeted inverventions where couples need it the most.
Week 7: Have you had clients who avoid vulnerability, freeze up in converations or strive keep peace at all costs to the detriment of their relationship? These are just some of the patterns that can be understood via the Enneagram system. This week you will learn the foundation of this powerful system, so that you can begin to add this framework to your toolbox.
Week 8: Do you feel frustrated when couples interupt eachother? Just taking turns speaking and using “I-messages” alone does not get to the root of these communication problems. Learn a powerful, structured format designed to be an assessment tool, and intervention as well as managing reactivity.
Week 9: Incorporating essential guidelines to ensure success, we will expand upon our session from last week as well as adding components of effective negotiation and conflict-resolution. We will also add small-groupwonder what to do when your couples repeatedly “forget” the homework or aren’t making progress, yet continue to show up to the sessions? Couples often have an inner conflict between making progress and regressive behaviors, which keeps them stuck. Learn a powerful technique based in Gestalt therapy, designed to provide powerful insights for role plays to sharpen your skills in a supportive environment.
…And much more!
“I highly recommend this course with Michelle, who is experienced and knowledgeable.Though I am not generally a fan of online trainings, the course offered the right balance of education, Q&A, practice, and applicable tools to maintain interest. I also valued the consistency of meetings over a course of weeks, which allowed re-review of material and ability to practice what was learned between training sessions. Whether working with couples, individuals in a relationship, or family members, this course can be beneficial and applicable.” – Kira Olson, LMFT, LPCC
It’s convenient
Learn in a small group with therapists dedicated to quality care, integrating developmental, differentiation, and neuroscientific approaches to help your toughest couples—all online. This cost-effective training takes little time yet can transform your work with couples. The training provides:
- Handouts and questionnaires for your practice
- Powerful assessments and interventions that you can use immediately with your couples
I look forward to supporting your effectiveness as a couples therapist!
What past attendees are saying
“I wanted to thank you Michelle for helping me to feel calm and confident in supporting both members of the couple, and just overall feeling like I can handle what is thrown my way. I really appreciate it!” – Laura
“This course is great! Michelle knows how to work with couples and shows her experience through her teaching. You will feel supported and have plenty of opportunity to ask questions. The education, plus demonstrations and connecting with peers, are amazing and supportive pieces to this training.” – Jaquline A.
“If you are interested in an excellent overview working with couples, consider taking Michelle’s training. She provides a good balance of theoretical material with lots of practical handouts to use in your own sessions with clients. The course includes break-out opportunities as well as valuable video clips of couples to demonstrate important principles.” – E. Kutik, MFT
“Michelle is a highly skilled teacher. Her style is clear, informative and well paced. I particularly like the way she models excellent communication skills by encouraging audience participation. On many occasions I have heard other couples therapists attribute their confidence in teaching this process to the clarity and detail of Michelle’s trainings.” – Nancy St. John, Marriage & Relationship Counselor, Ireland
“Michelle is a vibrant, compassionate and very knowledgeable therapist. In addition to her many years of experience, she offers couples and individuals so many opportunities to grow stronger, happier, and more authentically themselves.” – Gail Gabriel, MFT, Walnut Creek, CA
“I appreciated Michelle’s presentation, style, engagement, material, blend of theoretical concepts and concrete skills taught during the course. I really enjoyed the course and found it truly valuable.” – Jacob Donnelly, LCSW (https://jacoblcsw.com/)
Meet Your Instructor
Michelle Joy, M.A., MFT has been affiliated with The Couples Institute in Menlo Park, CA since 2002. A graduate of the Developmental Model of Couples Therapy – Advanced Level, she teaches advanced classes, provides consultations, and offers communication workshops for partners. She has presented nationally for PESI.com and CAMFT, and also teaches in Dr. Ellyn Bader’s online course, reaching therapists worldwide.
Important Details
💳 Registration Fee
The registration fee is non-refundable. However, you may apply your payment toward a future training by Michelle.
🔒 Confidentiality
For the privacy of both clients and therapists, sessions are not recorded.
👥 Small Group Format
Enrollment is limited to ensure personalized attention, rich discussion, and in-depth case support.
Training & Workshops
Support Group for Women Healing After a Controlling Relationship
March 4th, 2026
Enneagram Workshop for Couples’ Therapists
March 27th, 2026
9-Week Couples Therapy Training Group
April 7th, 2026
Couples Communication Workshop
April 10th, 2026
Book Your Consultation
More Resources
Registration
Mental health professionals who would like to learn the Enneagram and how to implement the system in the therapeutic process.
CE Information
This course meets the qualifications for 13.5 hours of continuing education credit for LMFT’s, LCSW’s, LPCC’s and LEP’s as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
CE Provider Information: Michelle Joy, MFT (Provider #65866) is approved by the California association of marriage and family therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFT’s, LCSW’s, LPCC’s and LEP’s. Michelle Joy, MFT maintains responsibility for the program and all its content.
Accommodations: To request accommodations for special needs, please email the Program Administrator at [email protected].
Grievances: To obtain the grievance policy or to report a grievance, please email [email protected] or call 650-485-1504.
Certificates: Course completion certificates will be awarded at the end of the course upon submission of a completed evaluation form and, if applicable, a post-test.
