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Digital Seminar

Healing Trauma Through Transformative Dialogue

$129.99 Standard

Couples often begin therapy with the complaint, "We can't communicate." Feelings of frustration, disappointment, and despair often lie behind this common problem, along with a mistaken belief that communication techniques will easily restore love and connection. But true healing and reconnection requires something deeper: embracing differentiation. In this workshop, you’ll explore this essential developmental stage and identify the emotional capacities required for partners to relate to each other clearly—not as idealized extensions of themselves, but as separate, unique individuals. You’ll learn to help couples: 

  • Identify where they are in the developmental model 
  • Move through the challenging terrain of the differentiation process 
  • Draw on practical strategies to increase genuine understanding, respect, and appreciation  
  • Transform relational trauma into opportunities and growth 

Here's What You'll Learn

Understanding the Communication Myth 

  • Why “we can’t communicate” is rarely about technique 
  • Moving beyond surface-level fixes 

The Role of Differentiation in Couple Therapy 

  • Defining differentiation and its role in relational development 
  • Emotional capacities required for authentic connection 

Mapping the Developmental Journey 

  • Using developmental continuums in assessment and treatment 
  • Identifying where each partner is in their growth process 

Trauma’s Impact on Relational Development 

  • How unresolved trauma disrupts differentiation and connection 

Facilitating Transformative Dialogue 

  • Strategies and sample questions for emotionally charged conversations 
  • Supporting partners in building empathy, respect, and emotional presence 

Clinical Application and Integration 

  • Practical tools for helping couples grow through conflict 
  • Therapist stance  

Risks and Limitations 

  • Discussion of the accuracy and utility of the materials presented, research limitations, and the severe and common risks associated with the content of the program 

Everything You're Getting

  • 2 Hours of video content
  • Up to 2.0 CE credits
  • Certificate of completion
  • Handouts and resources

Meet Your Experts

Ellyn Bader, PhD

Toggle speaker biography

Ellyn Bader, PhD, is in private practice and is co-director of The Couples Institute in Menlo Park, California. Over the past 25 years she has conducted professional training programs in couples therapy and has trained therapists throughout the United States as well as Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. She is a past president of the International Transactional Analysis Association and a recipient of the Clark Vincent Award for an outstanding literary contribution to the field of marital therapy from the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. Dr. Bader is frequently invited to speak at national and international conferences. She and her husband, Peter Pearson, PhD, coauthored the books, In Quest of the Mythical Mate: A Developmental Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment in Couples Therapy (Brunner/Mazel) and Tell Me No Lies: How to Face the Truth and Build an Honest Marriage (St. Martin’s Press).

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Ellyn Bader is the founder and CEO of The Couples Institute, the co-creator of The Developmental Model of Couples Therapy, and receives compensation as a consultant. She receives royalties as a published author. Ellyn Bader receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Ellyn Bader is a member of the American Psychological Association, the International Transactional Analysis Association, and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists.

More taught by Ellyn Bader, PhD

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Media Type:
Digital Seminar
Product Code:
POS150450
Duration:
2 Hours
Copyright:
Oct 10, 2025
Closed Captions:
Available
Format:
Audio and Video

ADA Needs

We would be happy to accommodate your ADA needs; please call our Customer Service Department for more information at 1-800-844-8260.

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