Certificate in Couple / Relationship Therapy

Course duration:
8 days

Next Zoom course intakes:
Autumn 2021 & Spring 2022

CPD Value:
50 Hours

Level:
Certificate

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Fee:
£1,300 + VAT

Course overview:

This 8-day certificate course, facilitated by Cabby Laffy, is designed for qualified counsellors, psychotherapists or psychologists who would like to become more skilled in working therapeutically with couples and other relationships. Through teaching and experiential work, including role-plays and skills practice you will gain some insights and tools to work with the dynamics of relationships, as well as common issues arising in couple therapy – such as desire, conflict, potential separation, lack of relationship vision, communication blocks, endings.

The course will include an introduction to working with sexually diverse couples, common presenting problems, such as differing sexual desire and managing conflict in relationships, a consideration of the therapeutic meaning of clients’ presenting issues, what may be achievable and a presentation of different models of working with relationships. The programme covers an introduction to psychosexual issues, with a greater emphasis on relational work.

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Aim of the course

Through teaching and experiential work, including role-plays and skills practice you will gain some insights and tools to work with the dynamics of a couple client, as well as common issues arising in couple therapy.

The “Certificate in Working with Couples and Other Relationships” is awarded by The Grove Practice as evidence of 48 hours of CPD in this field, giving confidence to the therapist about an ethical stance for their scope of practice – with evidence of having undertaken relevant training.

To give reassurance to the clients, the therapist can describe themselves as having taken relevant specialised training in couple/relationship therapy.

As with any topic, there’s always more depth and breadth to study. This CPD course is a foundation or a refresher, rather than a multi-year deeper training.

Course content:

1. Introduction to working with relationships: Expectations, for therapists and for couples. Awareness of counter transference
2. Beginnings: Assessments. Contracts. History taking.
3. The Dynamics of working in Triads: Triads, Drama Triangle. Psychosocial development.
4. Philosophies and beliefs: Theories about working with relationships. Stages in relationship and life issues.
5. Working with Difference: Sexual diversity. Shame. Transference.
6. Desire, differentiation and conflict: Sexual desire and its connection with differentiation. Managing conflict in the therapy room.
7. Communication: Teaching and modelling Communication skills. Winner’s Triangle and Assertiveness.
8. Endings: Importance of Endings. Review of what you have learnt.

This course has a biopsychosocial underpinning – whereby the body’s physiology and the client’s psychological process are considered within the sociological context.

This course has a sex-positive philosophy, in which sex has a valid place within therapeutic work.

Assessment:

Learning is absorbed by attendance and participation on the course. There is no assessment other than attendance and participation. Although a reading list is provided, there is no formal requirement for further reading – although additional reading is recommended to enhance your professional development subsequent to the course.

We also recommend that anyone undertaking couple therapy seeks supervision from a suitable qualified professional, to support this important area of work.

The award of the Certificate in Couple/Relationship Therapy will be issued upon completion of the course, provided that a minimum 80% attendance has been met and the course fee has been paid in full. If these criteria are not met, a CPD attendance letter will be provided. A digital certificate is provided as a matter of routine. Paper certificates despatched by Royal Mail are available upon request. Replacement certificates are available on request.

Faculty:

Cabby Laffy

Cabby Laffy has been a facilitator of training and workshops since 1991. She has also worked as a psychotherapist with individuals and couples, and a supervisor for individual and couple work, for over twenty-five years. She is a UKCP registered and NCP accredited psychotherapist, a COSRT accredited psychosexual therapist and supervisor, an educator and group facilitator, and a member of PCSR and PCU. Cabby’s book LoveSex: An Integrative Model for Sexual Education (Karnac 2013) presents a model for psychosexual health. Cabby is available for one to one and couple therapy, training, and supervision. www.psychosexualhealth.org.uk

Cabby has created a Homeodynamic Model for Psychosexual Health, which offers an integrative understanding of human relationships and sexuality encompassing the physical, emotional, spiritual, and our social and cultural environment. This approach includes research from neuroscience, complementary and alternative health therapies and cognitive behavioural therapy, and draws from eastern sexual healing practices as well western approaches to psychosexual therapy. The Homeodynamic Model is taught at Cabby’s Centre for Psychosexual Health (CPH) – www.psychosexualhealth.org.uk – primarily through a two year Diploma in Integrative Psychosexual Therapy. She is an experienced practitioner in her client work and training roles, with a speciality in psychosexual therapy.

Cabby and her daughter, Shana Laffy, have established Heartful Therapy to provide training courses and therapy with the aim of providing high quality and experiential training in relationship and couple therapy and using the arts as a therapeutic tool. Heartful Therapy Training offers a variety of courses, some 1-day CPD events, as well as this certificate course run in association with The Grove. www.heartfultherapy.co.uk

Shana Laffy

Shana Laffy is a qualified integrative creative arts therapist who trained with The Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education. Shana works with children and young people as well as individual clients and couples. She specialises in using the creative arts and neuroscience informed practice, with a particular interest in working with attachment and developmental trauma. Alongside her therapeutic work, Shana runs an educational consultancy and training business supporting those in Education, Social Care, as well as families and parents. Shana is a safeguarding expert and an accredited Emotion Coaching Practitioner Trainer. Please see her website www.engage-earlyyears.co.uk for more information.

Polly McAfee

Polly McAfee is is a graduate of the Diploma in Integrative Psychosexual Therapy taught by Cabby Laffy through CPH. Polly holds an M.A in Effective Learning. She has also trained with the Institute of Group Analysis, Pink Therapy, the Gestalt Centre, Barbara Carellas, Nick Totton and Spectrum Therapy. As well as teaching for CPH, she runs groups for women exploring sex and sexuality. These incorporate the breath and energy techniques of sacred sexuality as well as the educational, behavioural and therapeutic aspects of psychosexual work. Polly is passionate about people experiencing sexuality as an integral and joyful part of themselves, and about the potential of group work to assist with this journey.

The intake for Spring 2021 will be taught by Cabby Laffy and Shana Laffy.

The intake for Autumn 2021 will be taught by Cabby Laffy and Polly McAfee.

Please note that the tutor team may vary according to feasibility in relation to the number of enrolled students. The Grove fully intends for the course to be taught as planned. However, sometimes tutor availability may change according to unforeseen circumstances such as but not limited to illness or bereavement. In any such circumstances, The Grove may be required to adjust the tutor schedule at short notice.

Spring 2021 intake:

This intake is now underway.

We are accepting applications for the 2022 intake.

The 8 day course for the Certificate is taught over 4 weeks on the following Friday and Saturday dates in Spring 2021:

19 & 20 March
2 & 24 April
21 & 22 May
18 & 19 June

Times each day:
10am – 4:30pm.

Autumn 2021 intake:

The 8 day course will run over 4 weeks on the following Friday and Saturday dates in Autumn 2021, held on Zoom:

10 & 11 September
8 & 9 October
5 & 6 November
10 & 11 December
Times each day:

10am – 4:30pm.

Please contact us to register your interest or enrol.

Spring 2022 intake:

This intake is now underway.

We are accepting applications for the 2022 intake.

The 8 day course for the Certificate is taught over 4 weeks on the following Friday and Saturday dates in Spring 2022:

25 & 26 March
22 & 23 April
20 & 21 May
24 & 25 June

Times each day:
10am – 4:30pm.

Autumn 2022 intake:

The 8 day course will run over 4 weeks on the following Friday and Saturday dates in Autumn 2022, held on Zoom:

9 & 10 September
7 & 8 October
11 & 12 November
9 & 10 December

Times each day:

10am – 4:30pm.

Please contact us to register your interest or enrol.

Fees:

£1,300 + VAT = £1,560 payable in full or by instalments. A non-refundable deposit of £300 is payable to secure a place on this course. After that, the total remaining payable must be reached by 6 weeks before the final weekend of the training. The course fee includes all training materials and the CPD certificate.

After paying the deposit of £300 including VAT, the remainder of the fee can be paid by instalments as indicated on the invoice. Some reduced-fee places may be awarded depending on student circumstances, subject to availability. The course fee can also be invoiced fully or partially to an employer or funding organisation. Please contact us for details.

Application criteria

Applicants are expected to be qualified and experienced professionals in a mental health or helping profession, who are established in their practice. This will be covered in the application form. All applicants are expected to:

be qualified and experienced in their field
be full members of their professional body (such as but not limited to BACP, UKCP, BPS, AHPP, NCP, NCS, ACC)
hold professional liability insurance
have supervision arrangements in place for their client work as well as access to support for any clinical or organisation practice they undertake during the course

Professional standards

The Grove Practice is accredited by NCP (National Council for Psychotherapists) as a CPD training centre. As such, all The Grove’s courses are awarded NCP accreditation for CPD (Continuous Professional Development). This accreditation provides reassurance regarding high standards of teaching and course content.

In 2019, this course was approved by COSRT (the College of Sex and Relationship Therapists) for 48 hours of CPD (Continuous Professional Development). This CPD approval by COSRT gives quality assurance of relevance of the material to the practice of sex and relationship therapy. In 2021, we are in transition because The Grove's thematic training qualification application has been submitted and we hope this accreditation is pending.

The Grove’s courses have been successfully recognised as CPD for members of the following membership bodies: BACP, UKCP, COSRT, NCP, NCS, AHPP, BPS, among others. Organisations such as Relate and MIND and Place2B have also supported their therapists in taking training with The Grove. This is a mark of unofficial validation of our courses as worthy of being listed on the CPD logs for these members.

We are often asked what "level" this course represents. We would say that our Foundation workshops are taught at the equivalent of Level 5; our Certificate courses are taught at the equivalent of Level 6; our Diploma courses are taught at the equivalent of Level 7. These numbered Levels relate to Ofqual's nine qualification levels according to the Regulated Qualification Framework in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The Grove's understanding is that while strictly only courses which are Ofqual-regulated and awarded by a body recognised by Ofqual can state an official Level such as 4 or 5 in their title, The Grove's view is that these levels 1-9 have become an industry-wide language for estimating the academic level of the course. So we would say that our courses are Level 5 to Level 7, since they are post-qualification trainings which require theoretical evaluation, self-reflection, and interpretation of how to apply theory in mental health settings such as clinical practice. As reference points, GCSEs are Level 2, upwards to a degree course at Level 5, with post-graduate qualifications at Level 6 & 7.

Our guidance to anyone researching CPD courses is to ask any training provider stating a Level, to provide the Ofqual qualification number (which looks like this 601/8674/4). If the training provider cannot give this information for their course, then the course is unlikely to be allocated an official Level by Ofqual. In our view, any other course provider should state that their course is taught “at a level equivalent to Level x but is not a qualification regulated by Ofqual”. This approach is implemented by The Grove.