Treating Stressed Out Couples: Interventions to Help Partners Navigate Stress and Improve Their Relationship
As a couples therapist, you’ve likely worked with clients who are either withdrawn or too dysregulated to engage in productive conversations. Sessions may start with frazzled, angry, or numb partners, and just as progress begins, emotions escalate or shut down entirely.
Outside of therapy, these couples are often overwhelmed—juggling parenting, work demands, caregiving, finances, and health concerns. The weight of these stressors seeps into their relationships, making it even harder to communicate and connect.
Traditional interventions like active listening and compromise may fall flat, leav...Read moreing couples stuck in session and struggling at home. Over time, they may lose faith in therapy altogether.
This training will help you recognize the role of stress in these dynamics and equip you with practical strategies to keep sessions on track—so you can feel effective again and help couples rebuild connection. Less...
Learning Objectives
- Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to assess the role and impact of stress when clients present with dysregulation in session.
- Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to develop strategies to help both partners take accountability for the role they play in their own stress.
- Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to demonstrate use of a three-part system for helping couples manage stress within and outside the relationship.
Target Audience
Learning Levels
- Beginner
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
in-person or virtually!
4025 Chestnut St 1st Floor, Philadelphia, PA, 19104
01:00 PM EDT - 04:00 PM EDT
Click Here to Register
About the speaker
Elizabeth Earnshaw, LMFT
CE Information - Earn 3 CE Credit Hours
CE Approvals
Virtual
American Psychological Association
American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists
Council for Relationships # 11-111A. (Expires 6/30/2025)
Completion of this program does not ensure or guarantee AASECT Certification. For further information please contact ce@aasect.org.
CE Process Info
CFR is approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists and other mental health professionals whose state licensing boards recognize CE credit provided by APA-approved sponsors. The following entities accept continuing education credits provided by APA-approved sponsors: The Pennsylvania State Board of Social Workers, Marriage and Family Therapists, and Professional Counselors; the New Jersey State Board of Marriage and Family Examiners; the Delaware State Board of Professional Counselors of Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Professionals; the Delaware State Board of Social Work Examiners. Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by their licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend "live" (in real-time) to earn CE credits.
Before the event, you will receive an email from CE-Go with access to the virtual event. After the event, you will receive access to your evaluation and continuing education certificate via a personalized "attendee dashboard" link, hosted on the CE-Go website. This link and access to the virtual event will be sent to the email account you used to register for the event.
Upon accessing the CE-Go "attendee dashboard", you will be able to:
- Complete evaluation forms for the event
- Download your continuing education certificate in a PDF format
If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE-Go platform, please contact CE-Go at 888-498-5578 or by email at support@ce-go.com Please Note: Emails for this event will come from "support@ce-go.com".
If you have any continuing education related questions, please contact your event organizer.
Please make sure to check your spam/junk folder in case those emails get "stuck". We'd also suggest "Allowlisting" support@ce-go.com. This tells your email client that you know this sender and trust them, which will keep emails from this contact at the top of your inbox and out of the junk folder.
Disclosure
DISCLOSURE OF RELEVANT CONFLICTS OF INTERESTCouncil for Relationships adheres to APA's Standards and Criteria for Approval of Sponsors of Continuing Education for Psychologists. Potential conflict of interest, commercial support, or commercial interest applies to sponsoring organizations, the presenter, and the content of the presentation. Sponsors should advise participants of the potential biases inherent in accepting inducements that might affect the selection of texts, the use of particular tests, and/or sponsorship of CE courses.
The following relevant conflicts of interest have been disclosed by this workshop's sponsoring organization, presenter(s), and the content of the presentation:
There are no conflicts of interests with the sponsoring organization.
The presenter has disclosed the following:
Elizabeth Earnshaw is the founder of A Better Life Therapy and the author of I Want This to Work, 'Til Stress Do Us Part, and The Couples Therapy Flip Chart. These resources may be referenced during the presentation for educational purposes. Ms. Earnshaw may receive financial benefit from the sale of these publications and tools. This relationship constitutes a potential conflict of interest and is disclosed in accordance with APA and AASECT continuing education requirements. No commercial support has influenced the content of this presentation, and all material is presented without promotion or endorsement of any specific product or service.