Teleseminar: October 7, 2013

Existential Issues In Couples Counseling

October 7, 2013
noon-1pm PDT
or via recording

Existential issues are internal conflicts arising from the ongoing, inescapable confrontation with the givens of human existence–isolation, powerlessness, responsibility, death, and the desire for meaning.

Most people defend themselves from fully acknowledging such realities. These defenses range from reasonably well-adjusted & cooperative to hostile & self-destructive. When two rigid or underdeveloped defense systems form a couple, chronic conflict and sexual difficulties often result.

Therapy can illuminate how these defenses shape the behavior and thinking that patients want to change. We can help them understand that truths like the following–rather than their presenting problems–are the issues with which they are really grappling:

· Loving involves pain and, ultimately, abandonment or separation

· No matter how satisfying sex is in middle age, it will never look or feel like it did in our youth

· Suddenly or gradually, our physical abilities will decline

· Enjoying a primary relationship requires us to accept what we once assumed was unacceptable

· Regardless of how we are treated, we are responsible for how we express our feelings

· As we get older, more and more people become sexually ineligible or uninterested in us

· We have made life choices with consequences we don’t like

· We can’t prevent the people we love from making mistakes or suffering

· Some people who have mistreated us are going to get away with it

Doing therapy can restimulate our personal losses and vulnerabilities; make us feel fraudulent because of our own imperfect lives; and painfully remind us that our power to heal others is limited. Understandably, clinicians and patients unwittingly collude to avoid facing existential struggles, leading to therapeutic errors and treatment failures.

This lively presentation examines a practical framework within which clinicians can identify, explore and resolve these common, intense, and often unaddressed challenges—even when patients hesitate to do so.

Cost: $49, which includes:
* One-hour seminar
* 30 powerpoint slides
* A recording of the entire seminar
* CE certificate (AASECT, California MFTs & LCSWs)
* Local call-in number (or you can use skype)

To register, click here
Save 20%! Register for “If It Isn’t Sex Addiction, What Is It?” & “Sexual Aspects of Health Issues” at the same time—only $119 for all three!

Want to attend, but can’t make it October 7? Register, and use the recording to “attend” on your own schedule.

Your 100% guarantee: Sign up and attend the seminar. If after 10 minutes you don’t find it valuable, hang up, send me an email, and you’ll get a full refund.

Questions?
Call: 650/856-6533
Write: Klein@SexEd.org