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"You don’t have to be interesting. You have to be interested."

- John Gottman, Ph.D.

Training Description

In a small-group setting, you will have the opportunity to practice and refine your use of Gottman Method therapy and receive personalized guidance in developing a roadmap for making sound clinical decisions.

The Level 3 Training content represents the true resistances and co-morbidities we face as therapists and how we can transform them into effective healing methods for the couple.

The workshop is structured to help create a safe and secure environment so participants can learn and practice while feeling free of criticism and negative judgment.

What will I learn in Level 2?

Building on the knowledge obtained from Level 1 Training and Level 2 Training, you will master how to effectively use the Oral History Interview during a couple’s assessment and understand its implications. You will learn how to clearly explain to a couple their strengths and challenges in terms of the Sound Relationship House, and how to help partners identify their own “Four Horsemen” and understand the antidotes.

You will learn how to select and utilize appropriate tools to help a couple deepen their Friendship System. You will learn how to clarify a couple’s conflicts in terms of solvable, perpetual, and grid-locked problems, and use the “Dreams Within Conflict” technique to help a couple feel hopeful and to achieve break-through with their perpetual conflict.

You will learn how to successfully intervene when one or both partners are flooding, help a couple reach solutions using the Compromise Ovals intervention, and sensitively intervene when co-morbidities are present. Click here for the Level 3 preparation checklist.

Who is this training for?

This training is for psychologists, social workers, Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs), professional counselors, addiction counselors, and other mental health professionals. Completion of Level 1 Training and Level 2 Training is required, as well as a master’s degree, doctoral degree, or current enrollment in a graduate program within a mental health-related field is required. Therapy experience is highly recommended, but not required.

What is included in the price?

Included in the registration price is a clinical training manual, which contains the core Gottman Method Couples Therapy assessments and interventions. You will be awarded a Certificate of Completion with an assessment score of 80% or better from The Gottman Institute.

  • 500+ page digital Level 2 Clinical Training Manual

  • Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level 2 Training Certificate of Completion

  • Up to 20 CE Hours

  • Eligibility to continue to Level 3 Training

Training Objectives

At the completion of this training, you will be able to:

  • Describe the three qualities every therapist needs.

  • Explain the basics of observation including why it’s important to recognize Emotions on the Human Face, Tension in the Voice, the Importance of Words and the use of the SPAFF coding system.

  • Describe the seven levels of the Sound Relationship House theory.

  • Describe how to recognize Bids and Turning Towards.

  • Explain and demonstrate how to conduct an Oral History Interview.

  • Assess a couple’s “Friendship Profile,” “Conflict Profile,” and “Shared Meanings Profile.”

  • Explain and demonstrate how to use the 3 profiles to choose appropriate interventions for the couple.

  • Describe the use of the core assessments with couples, including the Locke-Wallace, Weiss-Cerretto, Gottman Sound Relationship House Questionnaires, Gottman 19 Areas Checklist, EAQ, SCL-90, Detour Scales, CAGE, b-Mast, and Supplemental Assessments.

  • Formulate a treatment plan and present it to the couple including using the Sound Relationship House model.

  • Develop interventions that couples can use as antidotes to the “Four Horsemen.”

  • Help couples to physiologically soothe when flooded.

  • Select and implement interventions to help deal with conflict.

  • Apply different modes of changing the “Attack/Defend System” in a couple’s interaction.

  • Assist couples to establish dialogue about their gridlocked conflicts.

  • Select and implement interventions to help couples deepen their “Friendship System” with Rituals of Connection.

  • Select and implement interventions to help couples create a shared system of values and meaning.

  • Use and describe the Stress-Reducing Conversation to minimize relapse.

  • Identify and formulate a plan for different co-morbidities common to couples using Gottman Method Couples Therapy Assessment and Intervention.

  • Describe how to apply Gottman Method Couples Therapy to a couple who has experienced an affair.

  • Describe when it is appropriate and inappropriate to use Gottman Method Couples Therapy with a couple dealing with substance abuse.

  • Describe the differences between situational and characterological domestic violence and when it is appropriate and inappropriate to use Gottman Method Couples Therapy with a couple dealing with domestic violence.

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