Foundations of Connection: An Introduction to Couples Counseling

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March 12, 2026


9:00 AM – 5:00 PM EST


Live Virtual Training

Earn 6.5 CEUs


NASW Approved – New Hampshire Chapter

Registration Fee: $199



Intended Audience:

This training is designed for mental health clinicians, including LCSWs, LICSWs, LMFTs, LPCs, LCMHCs, psychologists, school counselors, interns, and other behavioral health professionals seeking to enhance their clinical skills in working with couples.

Description: This foundational training is designed to help mental health professionals build competence and confidence in working with couples. Participants explore the core dynamics that shape couple relationships, including attachment and bonding foundations, communication breakdowns, conflict cycles, emotional disconnection, trust repair, and intimacy. 


While evidence-informed models such as Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and the Gottman Method are referenced—including the Sound Relationship House, the Four Horsemen and their antidotes, attachment needs, and negative interaction cycles—this training is integrative and non-model-specific. Emphasis is placed on learning how to work effectively with two clients simultaneously within a relational system. 

Key areas of focus include building strong therapeutic rapport with both partners while maintaining neutrality, preventing triangulation and therapist alignment, navigating differing narratives, conducting relationship assessments, supporting emotional safety and regulation, and facilitating repair after rupture. 


Ethical considerations unique to couples counseling—confidentiality, bias, dual alliances, documentation, and referral to individual therapy with separate clinicians—are emphasized across all content areas. Cultural responsiveness, therapist attunement, and reflective practice are woven throughout. Participants leave with practical, immediately applicable skills for couples work across clinical settings. 


Training Objectives:

  • Describe foundational dynamics involved in couples counseling, including attachment, bonding, and interactional cycles. 
  • Explain how triangulation, conflict patterns, and emotional disconnection develop in couple relationships.
  • Demonstrate strategies for maintaining therapeutic balance and alliance with two clients simultaneously. 
  • Apply basic interventions to improve communication, emotional attunement, and conflict de-escalation. 
  • Identify how attachment history, trauma, and family-of-origin experiences influence couple dynamics.
  • Utilize culturally responsive and trauma-informed practices in couples counseling. 
  • Recognize ethical challenges unique to relational therapy, including confidentiality, neutrality, and therapist bias. 
  • Engage in reflective practice to strengthen therapist attunement, manage countertransference, and enhance therapeutic presence. 



Instructor: Breonna McFarland, LCMHC, LMFT, NH Approved Supervisor, AAMFT Supervisor in Training, Clinical Director

Breonna is a licensed marriage and family therapist, licensed clinical mental health counselor, licensed professional clinical counselor, is in training for AAMFT Approved Supervisor designation, and is an NH Board of Mental Health–approved supervisor. She brings deep clinical expertise and a compassionate leadership style to her role as Clinical Director at Compass of Hope Counseling in New Hampshire. With over five years of experience in specialty mental health, Breonna has worked extensively with individuals and families to help them navigate challenges, overcome barriers, and build lives aligned with their values and purpose. Her therapeutic approach is collaborative and person-centered, meeting each individual where they are to support their personal growth and healing. Breonna is passionate about helping people explore their identity, clarify their goals, and resolve the internal and external obstacles that keep them from living fully and authentically. Her leadership is grounded in empathy, integrity, and a commitment to high-quality, values-driven care—for both clients and the clinicians she supports.

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