An Approach to Couples Therapy Through the Lens of Nervous System Response
Date:
September 18 - October 02, 2026
An Approach to Couple’s Therapy Through the Lens of Nervous System Response
Dates: Friday, September 18th, September 25th, and October 2nd (Virtual Only)
Time: 9:30 AM – 12:45 PM
Location: Virtual
Presenter: Deborah J Fox, MSW, LICSW
Program Description:
Helping couples in therapy to repair and heal ruptures requires that their nervous system be in a “settled-enough” state. When partners are angry, defensive, or emotionally shutdown it’s because they’re feeling threatened, by something inside of them or something between them and their partner. Their nervous system signals danger, halting constructive communication and therapeutic momentum. Included in this presentation is how to use the natural workings of the autonomic nervous system to help couples engage more effectively with each other. The structure of a session and skilled, somatic interventions enable the therapeutic process to move forward. Clinicians will learn to track the “language of the body” which speaks in gestures, posture, facial expression, and tone of voice, enabling them to help couples reconnect emotionally by identifying the true sources of distress held in the implicit memory, alongside regulating their nervous system response. Equipped with these strategies, clinicians will be able to help couples repair ruptures, allowing constructive solutions to emerge and setting up the conditions for memory reconsolidation to occur. Teaching methods will be didactic presentation, experiential exercises, video clips of couple’s sessions, and case examples.
Learning Objectives:
1. Explain Stephen Porges’s concept of neuroception and how to use this both as psychoeducation and in therapeutic intervention.
2. Describe the three nervous system states according to Stephen Porges’s Polyvagal Theory.
3. Explain how the nervous system worksheet helps a couple understand the impact of their nervous system state on their ability to communicate effectively.
4. Describe how the structure of a couple’s therapy session supports nervous system regulation.
5. Explain how “mirroring” supports nervous system regulation.
6. Explain why it is important for partners to be in “enough” of a ventral vagal state of nervous system regulation in a session.
7. Describe a sequence of questions that can be used for therapeutic exploration, using the “language of the body.”
8. Name two interventions that utilize a focus on body sensations to help couples identify the vulnerable feelings that are the source of their conflict.
9. Define memory reconsolidation and the importance of accessing the implicit memory in order to facilitate a contradictory experience.