CEUnits – continuing education at home
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Social Workers

Working with Couples on the Brink

3.00 - CE credit hours training

$18.00 - Cost of course

This page contains important information about the course, including training details, a comprehensive course description, learning objectives, and source references. We encourage you to review each section to gain a clear understanding of the course content, educational goals, and supporting materials before beginning your training and taking the POST TEST below.

Target audience and instructional level of this course: foundational
There is no known conflict of interest or commercial support related to this CE program.

Working with Couples on the Brink

Follow the link below, read the material and then take the 18 question post test

Read the Course Material:
Working with Couples on the Brink

18 Questions

1. From "Bad Couples Therapy - Introduction": The author cites a reason/reasons why couples therapy was the only form of therapy that received low ratings in a famous national survey of therapy clients, published in 1996 by Consumers Reports.
2. From "The Beginner Therapist": The three most common mistakes made by inexperienced couples therapists, in order are: X=therapists do not recommend any changes in the couple\'s day-to-day relationship. Y=providing too little structure for the sessions. Z=giving up on the relationship because the therapist feels overwhelmed with the couple\'s problems.
3. From "The Beginner Therapist": The author asserts that treatment failures, especially those that lead to divorce, should not be accepted without a consultation or referral to a competent, experienced therapist who specializes in working with couples.
4. From "The Experienced Therapist": The author asserts that couples therapists err with stepfamily couples by applying non-stepfamily norms and expectations to them.
5. From "The Experienced Therapist": Recent research by sociologist Linda Waite has found that divorce:
6. From "The Experienced Therapist": The author describes an intervention that he calls therapist-assisted marital suicide.
7. From "The Experienced Therapist": Doherty argues that couples therapy clients would be better served if couples therapists understood their values about marriage and intimate relationships because:
8. From "Couples on the Brink-Introduction": Doherty asserts "the most life-altering matter we deal with in therapy, short of suicide, is one we don't talk about much as therapists." What is that most life-altering matter?
9. From "The Objectivity Myth": The author describes working with MaryAnn regarding deciding whether to remain married or divorce. He expresses regret that his neutral, objective stance:
10. From "When Words Carry Unintended Meaning": The author criticizes the stance of "I'm not here to save marriages. I'm here to help people" by pointing out that this represents a rigid dichotomy between the individuals and their committed relationships, as if personal well-being is something completely aside from the health and stability of family relationships.
11. From "When Words Carry Unintended Meaning": Doherty points out the commonly used phrase used by some couples therapists; "there never was a marriage". His critique(s) of this approach is/are:
12. From "Making Your Meaning Clear": Some therapists fear that if they surrender their neutral stance, they'll have to start telling people that they should stay married. To address this concern the author strives to lean toward _________________without being prescriptive, judgmental, and invading our clients' autonomy.
13. From "Making Your Meaning Clear": The author describes a "consumer" approach to marriage. This occurs when one focuses on benefits he or she is not receiving from the spouse, and not on what he or she is failing to put into the marriage.
14. From "Making Your Meaning Clear": Near the end of the case study involving Cheryl, the author addressed Cheryl's fatalism that her husband could ever change. How did he approach this?
15. From "When is Enough Enough": There are times when the author stops supporting a non-violent marriage in couples therapy.
16. From "When is Enough Enough?": The author draws a parallel between moving to Minnesota in the springtime and early marriage; and couples then facing "winter". What does he cite as the key flaw of moving on to another marriage?
17. From "Discernment Counseling": In discernment counseling the immediate decision is framed as deciding whether to stay together or divorce.
18. From "Marriage Friendly Therapists: Their Values": Marriage friendly therapists believe that restoring a marriage must not come at the expense of one of the partners. What axiom do they hold to that helps support the notion that restoring a marriage must not come at the expense of one of the partners.
Working with couples in therapy can be rewarding and challenging. This course addresses couples therapists and the challenging issue of taking a neutral or objective stance about couples marriages and marriage decisions. The sometimes subtle but impactful effects of a neutral/objective stance are explored. The author lays out various ways couples therapists can make their meaning clear on this key issue and principles for working with couples from that stance.
  • describe potential impacts of taking a neutral/objective stance toward marriage and marriage decisions.
  • describe benefits to individuals and marriages of working with couples from a non-neutral stance regarding marriage and marriage decisions.
  • describe principles and methods for working with couples from a non-neutral stance regarding marriage and marriage decisions.
William J. Doherty, Ph.D.
University of Minnesota