Traditional 50-minute sessions often limit the progress couples can make—particularly when emotional flooding, conflict cycles, and unfinished conversations stall momentum. Intensive couples therapy offers a longer, uninterrupted format that allows couples to fully engage in deep clinical work, practice regulation skills in real time, and leave with a clearer path forward.
In this training, Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT, will present a structured framework for conducting effective couples intensives. You’ll learn how to determine client fit, set up the logistical and ethical foundations, facilitate change-oriented interventions, and close intensives with a plan for ongoing support.
You will gain practical, applicable skills for:
Structuring an intensive: purpose, goals, clinical indications, and contraindications
Assessing fit: identifying when intensives are appropriate and when they are not
Pre-session preparation: informed consent, scheduling, payment, and consult calls
Day One protocols: joining with couples, conducting assessments, and presenting feedback
Day Two protocols: facilitating enactments, managing dysregulation, and pacing deep work
Ethical decision-making: knowing when to pause or discontinue an intensive
Closure and follow-up: planning, referrals, and clinical handoffs
Elizabeth will walk you through four detailed case studies that illustrate common presentations, intervention strategies, and outcomes:
Alex & Priya – Chronic low-grade conflict and existential drift
Marcus & Dani – Post-baby relational strain and resentment
Linda & Charles – Later-life relationship under stress
Jordan & Ray – Coupleship in recovery under threat
These examples will show how assessment, intervention selection, enactment facilitation, and regulation skills unfold across the two-day intensive format.
Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships
All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners. For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.
This online program is worth 12 hours CPD.
| File type | File name | Number of pages | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual - 2-Day Intensive Couples Therapy Level 1 Training (1.9 MB) | 77 Pages | Available after Purchase |
Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT, CGT, is a Marriage and Family Therapist, Clinical Fellow of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT), Certified Gottman Method Couples Therapist, Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, and AAMFT Approved Supervisor. She is the author of the best-selling relationship book I Want This to Work, The Couples Therapy Flip Chart, and Til’ Stressed Do Us Part. She is the owner of a national therapy practice that provides systemic therapy to individuals, couples, and families. Elizabeth has worked with hundreds of couples since becoming a couple’s therapist. She lives in West Chester, Pennsylvania, with her husband, children, and dog.
Speaker Disclosures:
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Access never expires for this product.
For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.
Couples Intensives: What They Are, Why They Work, Who They Help
Setting Up for Success: Training, Policies, Forms, and Communication
Intensive Day One: Joining, Information Gathering, Preparing and Providing Feedback
Intensive Day Two: Setting Up and Facilitating Enactments, Pacing Deep Work Across Multiple Hours, and Handling Dysregulation in Real Time
Satisfaction Guarantee
Your satisfaction is our goal and our guarantee. Concerns should be addressed to info@pesi.co.uk or call 01235847393.
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