Summary:
For over 27 years Focus Marital Therapy (FMT) has been developed as a key integrative intervention approach to work with willing Christian marriages in crisis. In this workshop, psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, and ministry leaders will examine the FMT model and method used by Focus on the Family in their Hope Restored Marriage Intensive Programs that has now served over 16,000 couples from around the world. While developed using an intensive treatment format, the underlying principles and tools can be easily adapted to most treatment settings and modalities. The training will include an introduction to FMT’s seven core principles. Additionally, various intervention strategies will be presented that help couples identify dysfunction relational patterns, acquire new ways to experience success and hope for their future, and enable the therapist to feel empowered and effective when counseling couples in distress.
Learning Objectives:
Describe a simple visual depiction of a Healthy Marriage for clients, including a clear illustration of appropriate boundaries and relational responsibilities, and contrast that picture to an image of a typical, normal marriage.
Outline the Reactive Cycle tool to help couples in marital distress map out their personalized version of this cycle that underlies marital conflict, be able to understand and develop the essential components of an ideal relational environment to effectively promote a deep, intimate marital connection and bond that simultaneously supports each individual becoming the best version of themselves within their relationship.
Apply three key tools, such as Heart Talk, Steps to a Win-Win, and the Care Cycle, with clients in the right moments to equip couples to manage most relational challenges.