If you work with families or have one, learn about Discernment Counseling March 18!

I'm so proud and lucky to be training to work as a divorce lawyer and mediator with couples in discernment counseling. It fills a generations-old need so fundamental that people have turned to all kinds of crummy substitutes over the years with demoralizing results -- marriage counseling that turns into divorce counseling and leaves one spouse feeling that that's what it was all along; "trial separations" that do the same and escalate the divorce conflict, mediations where the spouses and mediator have five different ideas of what they're meeting for. "DC" gives a safe space where people can weigh both options without getting into actions, threats and misunderstanding that drive people apart and quickly make divorce inevitable and nasty. 

March 18th Webinar -  Discernment Counseling for Couples on the Brink with Dr. Bill Doherty!

Learn about an innovation in working with couples on the brink of divorce where one spouse is leaning out of the marriage and the other wants to save it. This is a common presentation to marriage therapists, clergy and divorce lawyers, but there have been few protocols for helping these couples. Discernment counseling is a structured way to help "mixed agenda" couples decide whether to work on preserving their marriage or move toward divorce, based on a deeper understanding of what has happened to their relationship and each person's contributions. Bill Doherty has developed discernment counseling protocols for couples therapists (five sessions) and for clergy (one session and referral), plus an "ambivalence" protocol for family-friendly divorce lawyers and mediators.

 

Objectives

1. Identify the special challenges that mixed agenda couples face when they see helping professionals.
2. Describe how couples therapist use discernment counseling to help these couples decide on the next step for their relationship.
3. Describe how clergy use their own version of discernment counseling.
4. Outline an ambivalence protocol for divorce lawyers and mediators who see mixed agenda couples.

Click Here to Register