Training, Supervision, and Certification Programs 

in Relationship Enhancement^® Therapy for Couples and Families

“I have been in private practice for thirty years. I always saw a limited number of couples until I completed my RE training. Suddenly, the number of couples I treated sky-rocketed. Since I do not advertise my practice, I get new patients only by word of mouth. The only conclusion I can draw is that the increase was due solely to how the nature of my work has changed as a result of my RE training. Indeed, as I introspect, I feel so much surer of myself as a therapist. I know how I must intervene and what will probably occur as a result. I truly believe that the time and money in my RE training were among the best investments during my professional life.” – Certified RE Couples Therapist

“The RE training in couples therapy has given me more than just another ‘therapeutic technique.’ In addition to improving my ability to help my clients, the training has also enhanced my effectiveness as a supervisor of graduate students and as a teacher in the college classroom. It has enhanced my own personal relationships as well.”   – University Professor

For over 25 years the National Institute of Relationship Enhancement® and its parent organization IDEALS have been training mental health professionals in couple and family therapies based on the Relationship Enhancement® Model. The goals of the Relationship Enhancement® Couples/Family Therapies are to help couples and families resolve current relationship problems while developing communication, conflict resolution, and relationship skills to prevent the development of future problems. The Director of Couples/Family Therapy Training at NIRE is Bernard Guerney, Jr., Ph.D., the internationally recognized researcher and clinician who originally developed the Relationship Enhancement® Model.

The Relationship Enhancement® Model

The Relationship Enhancement® (RE) Model is both a psychoeducational program and a brief therapy model that employs an innovative skills-training methodology for empowering even the most distressed couples and families to resolve current and future problems on their own. Following the principles of an educational model rooted in learning theory, it accomplishes its goals by teaching a set of practical skills that enables couples and families to uncover and communicate their deepest feelings, concerns and desires, and to create solutions to problems at their deepest levels. The ten RE skills taught are: Empathic, Expressive, Discussion/Negotiation, Problem/Conflict Resolution, Facilitation, Conflict Management, Self-Change, Helping-Others Change, Generalization and Maintenance. An additional strength of RE therapy is that it equalizes power within relationships, both between genders and across generations.

Skills Training Workshops

This and all other NIRE professional training workshops can be offered on-site and tailored to meet your organization’s or group’s distinctive needs. For more information on this potentially cost-saving alternative, please see On-Site Training Workshops.

Relationship Enhancement Therapy Workshop

The purpose of this two-day skills training workshop is to provide participants a comprehensive introduction to the theory and methodology underlying the Relationship Enhancement® Model and to teach participants how Relationship Enhancement® therapy is conducted with couples and families, beginning with the intake interview and proceeding through all the phases of RE therapy. The workshop emphasizes the building of participants’ therapeutic skills through a process that combines lecture, video, role-play demonstrations and intensively supervised skill practice.

Completion of This Workshop Is a Prerequisite for Application to NIRE’s:

• Certification Program in Relationship Enhancement® Couple Therapy
• Certification Program in Relationship Enhancement® Family Therapy

For information, please visit Certification Programs in RE Therapy, CCPT and FFT

Workshop Objectives

• Describe how to structure an intake interview so as to minimize in-session conflict and maximize commitment to positive therapeutic engagement
• Describe the three key questions to ask each member to address in the first joint session
• Describe how to explain the first home assignments at the conclusion of the first joint session
• Describe how to sequence and structure the three sessions focused on skills orientation for the couple in RE Couple Therapy
• Explain the ten Relationship Enhancement skills
• Describe how to present Conflict Management Skill as a contract between couples
• Describe the RE therapist’s role in facilitating couple or family dialogues
• Describe how to use Advanced RE Therapy techniques of Becoming and Troubleshooting to manage the RE therapy process
• Describe how to use the Identification Mode of Empathy to help couples deepen their dialogues
• Describe how to utilize individual sessions in support of the RE couple/family therapy process
• Describe the difference in how RE Family Therapy is conducted versus RE Couple Therapy
• Describe how RE Therapy addresses power imbalances among family members

Agenda

• Definition and overview of the RE Model
• 3 principal formats of RE therapy
• Supporting research
• Sources of power of the RE Model
• What makes RE therapy distinctive
• Demonstration of intake interview and RE therapist technique of “Laundering”
• Video to illustrate experiential format for RE therapy
• Demonstrations of how all 9 RE skills are taught to couples and families
• Frequent supervised practice of RE therapist skills
• Video illustrating use of therapist technique of “Trouble-shooting”
• Video illustrating the promotion of emotional catharsis
• Video illustrating use of therapist technique of “Becoming” to equalize power within a family

• Robert F. Scuka, Ph.D., M.S.W., LCSW-C