Keith Miller – Integrate Mindfulness with Couples Therapy: Practical Tools to Help Couples in Crisis

Keith Miller – Integrate Mindfulness with Couples Therapy: Practical Tools to Help Couples in CrisisDescriptionStrategies to tame criticism, contempt, defensiveness and stonewalling with couplesUse mindfulness to deescalate and get your clients to relaxLive demonstrations incorporating mindfulness with strategies from EFT, Gottman Therapy and IMAGODo you want to be more effective with couples in your practice? Would you like to know how to get couples in crisis to relax, build trust, and deescalate more easily?Mindfulness is known for being a powerful way to relieve stress, but most couples in distress don’t visit a therapist to learn how to meditate. This seminar shows you how to use mindfulness strategically (without meditation) to disarm criticism and negativity in a relationship without scaring away your couples. As a direct result of applying the techniques of mindfulness taught in this seminar, your clients can experience the pleasure of discovering new capacities within themselves and hope in the midst of struggle in their relationship.Watch this recording and learn the core skills of mindfulness that most readily translate into a clear conceptual framework for therapy interventions with couples. You will be introduced to easy to learn elements from the most popular couples therapy treatments today and offer practical steps to blend mindfulness with strategies from Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), The Gottman Method couples therapy, and IMAGO Relationship Therapy.Keith Miller’s engaging, interactive presentation includes demonstrations and video. You’ll leave with a clear understanding of how and when to use mindfulness techniques that bring relief and healing to couples.HandoutsManual (4.53 MB) 49 Pages Available after Purchase 5 Steps of the You-Turn (0.09 MB) 2 Pages Available after PurchaseOutlineThe Perfect Partners: Mindfulness and Couples TherapyFive core principles of mindfulness in action: video case reviewBrain, love, and how mindfulness heals bothReduce contempt, criticism, stonewalling and defensivenessSelf-compassion and authentic selflessnessDifferentiation/integration between partners“Sacred” space, creativity, playFive Key Skills to Mindfulness Couples TherapyAttachment and DifferentiationNatural multiplicity (parts) to make sense of “irrational” feelingsCourageous leadership from the centerRespect the stress responseThe “inside-out” therapistHow to Use Mindfulness with CouplesThree indicators for using meditative (explicit) mindfulnessConversational vs. strategic mindfulnessMindLESS mindfulness and how to respond when mindfulness flopsExperiential Exercise #1: Listening to your inner family of partsMindfulness Techniques for CouplesTracking the cycleYou-turnCourageous communicationRole playingAwareness and compassion for stressSelf-soothingState Awareness Techniques: Welcoming ComplexityDifferentiating parts from the wholeActive observers of experience without automatic respondingSix qualities of mindful awarenessGuided imageryIntegrating Strategies from Couples Therapy Models with MindfulnessImago Relationship TherapyDemonstration: Using couples dialogue technique with mindfulnessEmotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)Demonstration: Mindfulness with primary and secondary emotionsGottman Method Couples TherapyDemonstration: Friendship-building exercise with mindfulnessEssential Attitudes of the Mindful Couples Therapist“Three R’s:” Respect, Restore and ResourceAccepts leadership role of mediator with polaritiesMonitors self for stress and fear reactions to coupleRelaxes self-judgment and fearExperiential Exercise #2: Using the 3 R’s when you’re frustrated with the coupleFacultyKeith MillerKeith Miller, LICSW, is the director of Keith Miller & Associates, a large private practice specializing in couples therapy in Washington, DC. A certified Imago Relationship Therapist and certified Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapist, Keith is the author of Love Under Repair: How to Save Your Marriage and Survive Couples Therapy (2015). Keith is frequent guest on television and radio, he enjoys presenting complex topics with humor and down-to-earth familiarity. He writes a blog called Love Good and is author of numerous articles that aim to make it easier for couples to succeed at marriage and committed partnership. Keith is passionate about lowering the stigma couples face for going to therapy and is candid about how his own marriage of 15 years was saved by the kinds of couples therapy interventions he explains in this seminar. He holds a Masters in Social Work from Virginia Commonwealth University and practiced psychiatric community mental health many years. Keith’s undergraduate degree in religion and spirituality deeply shaped his belief in the interconnectedness of life and the possibility of transformation.