Transformative Couples Therapy® Experiential Skills Course

Sponsored by: Transformative Couples Therapy® Institute

DATE(S): 2/24/26, 3/24/26, 4/21/26, 5/19/26, 6/16/26, 9/8/26, 10/6/26, 11/3/26
LOCATION: Live Online
PRESENTER(S): David Mars, LMFT 
 

Presenters

David Mars, Ph.D. has developed the TCT method so therapists can help couple members relate to each other from their self-at-best, often beginning in the first session. This method cultivates healthy patterns of love and respect-based awareness to create positive changes in everyday living within the marriage. With Dr. Mars’ unique process, therapists evoke in couples bodily-felt awareness of specifically what they long for. And then couples receive the guidance to grow the necessary capacities to experience growing peace, love-based inspiration and stabile safety to love and be loved in a balanced way in their lives.

In the 1980 and 1990’s he developed an innovative treatment process that utilized highly sensitive computerized biofeedback with couples to reveal their unconscious bodily responses. This created a high capacity to track moment-to-moment psychophysiology and a heightened awareness of how valuable this skills are to effectively treat couples. In addition, as an Authentic Movement group leader and practitioner for over 30 years, he developed and teaches therapists and couples mindful alternatives to negative judgment. He has developed methods to transfer the above-named skills of attunement to therapists in all of the TCT training programs.

David Mars, Ph.D., MFT has presented workshops, courses, webinars, and online supervision worldwide for over thirty years. He was a Faculty member of the AEDP Institute for eleven of those years and is the developer of AEDP for Couples (AEDPfC). All of his offerings of training, supervision, writing and innovation are now based at the Transformative Couples Therapy® Institute of which he is the director and founder.

Lisa Gardner is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and has been in practice for more than 20 years. 

Lisa works with adults and couples around many issues including: feeling blocked, life transitions, anxiety, depression, unsatisfying communication, relational and developmental trauma.  When she works with a couple, she collaborates to re-ignite or nurture the caring, access the innate healing impulses that have been forgotten or covered and approach their differences from that perspective. Lisa is drawn to experiential therapies, the ones that a have a fundamental stance of kindness to normal human struggling, and that help us strengthen who we are at our core. Her  approach is attachment based, and trauma and affective neuroscience informed.

Lisa is a TCT Certified Supervisor, Certified in Transformative Couples Therapy (TCT®), and a Faculty member at the TCT Institute.  She also has extensive training in AEDP and EFT.

 

Abraham is a Certified TCT Trainer, Supervisor, and Therapist, a Certified EFT Therapist and Supervisor Candidate, a Certified AEDP Therapist and Supervisor Candidate, and a Christian Spiritual Director. Drawing on more than 20 years of experience in pastoral ministry and clinical practice, he integrates professional expertise with deep empathy to support individuals, couples, and families through his private practice.

He holds a Master of Divinity from Singapore Bible College and a Master of Social Work in Family Practice from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Deeply committed to promoting holistic growth and emotional well-being, Abraham brings both intellectual rigour and heartfelt presence to his work. In addition to his clinical practice, he serves as a supervisor for Bachelor’s Counseling students and teaches at several seminaries in Hong Kong, where he imparts his knowledge and experience to emerging counselors.

 

Course Description

Deepen Your Expertise: The first hour of each session will dive into the foundational theory and practice of Transformative Couples Therapy®, providing you with powerful tools and techniques to help couples break through longstanding struggles.

In the second hour, you’ll witness "unlikely transformations" unfold through clinical training videos, featuring couples working through complex issues:

  • High Conflict

  • Premarital Therapy with Cross-Cultural Couples

  • Sexual and Financial Conflicts

  • Attachment Deprivation

  • Treating Unresolved Trauma

  • Preoccupied, Avoidant and Disorganized Attachment Patterns

  • Earned Secure Attachment

  • Integration of TCT and the Seven Channels of Experience® to Enhance Your Skill Set

Hands-On Application: The third hour of each session is where the magic happens. With a skillful and supportive Experiential Assistant you’ll apply what you’ve learned with a live role-play “couple”.

Impactful Methods: You'll learn techniques like accessing the Seven Channels of Experience®, facilitating healing portrayals and parts work in addition to other methods that help couples build and maintain a stable, deep and lasting felt experience of love.

 

Target Audience

Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Psychotherapists, MFT's, Social Workers, Registered Counselors, Pastoral Counselors

 

Learning Objectives

  1. Identify two ways to help establish a secure base in treatment.
  2. Describe two ways to regulate emotional reactivity in both couple members.
  3. Define how to detect the healthiest aspects of each couple member.
  4. Describe two methods for couple members to process emotional experience to completion.
  5. Define why affirmation of the value of the self and the other is important in couple treatment.
  6. Explain how couple members can learn to melt defenses of intellectualization.
  7. Describe how to process warded-off emotional experience.
  8. Describe how to conduct meta-therapeutic processing after couples have reparative experiences.
  9. Define the value of the core effect of surprise.
  10. Describe what is important about integrating core affect through slowing down.
  11. Define what is important about helping couple members develop skills to show more demonstrations of valuing in daily life.
  12. Define three early signs of dorsal vagal response.
  13. Describe two ways to regulate dorsal vagal response.
  14. Specify how the frequency of incidences of dorsal vagal response can be reduced in treatment.
  15. Distinguish three methods for engaging avoidantly attached patients in treatment.
  16. Explain why a state of mindful awareness helps both couples and therapist in treatment.
  17. Explain the value of increased awareness of bodily states in couple members.
  18. Define what transformance striving is and how to identify it.
  19. Describe the value of sensation in being aware of internal state.
  20. Define two ways a therapist can use their vision to identify tension in couple members.
  21. Define ways that awareness and skillful expression about energetic states can be helpful.
 

Agenda

All times are in Pacific Time

8:00-8:10am: Orientation and opening three-minute Channels of Experience meditation.

8:10-8:20am: Check-in and discussion of each participant’s response to the meditation and any breakthroughs or questions about in treating their couples with Transformative Couples Therapy®.

8:20-9:00am: Didactic presentation and discussion of a slide deck about the TCT method and its application by David Mars, PhD or Lisa Gardner LCSW. Information will include details on how to use the TCT Fidelity Scales to guide clinical application of the method. Presentation will include how to regulate emotional reactivity in preparation for the clinical video example and how to evoke, metaprocess and stabilize the felt experience of love.

9:10-9:50am: Presentation and discussion of captioned clinical video. During and after the video sharing, the instructor will point out the examples shown that were just introduced in the didactic portion described above. Moments that highlight the use of the seven channels of experience will be emphasized to enhance participants capacity to track bodily indicators of moment-to-moment tracking to enhance whole body attunement.

9:50-10:05am: Break

10:05-10:55am: Preparation and transition into Breakout rooms for the Experiential Exercise to apply what they have learned. Participants will choose to be either role play couple members, role play therapist or witness. With the support of the Experiential Assistant, participants gain a direct experience of applying the TCT method.

10:55-11am: Regathering, closing discussion.

 

Continuing Education Credits

22

The cost for 22 Continuing Education (CE) credits will be $40. An email from Credits Education will be sent to all participants who complete the course.

 

Registration Deadline

January 20, 2026

 
 
 

Continuing Education

Satisfactory Completion
Participants must have paid tuition fee, signed in, attended the entire seminar, completed an evaluation, and signed out in order to receive a certificate. Failure to sign in or out will result in forfeiture of credit for the entire course. No exceptions will be made. Partial credit is not available. Certificates available after satisfactory course completion at credits.education

Counselors/Marriage and Family Therapists
Credits.Education, #1032827, is approved by the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to sponsor continuing education for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs. Credits.Education maintains responsibility for this program/course and its content.  Course meets the qualifications for 22 hours of continuing education credits for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
 
All Other States: Most other states accept CAMFT approved courses for LMFTs, LCSWs, LPCCs, and LEPs.  Check with your state board.
 

Special Needs - If you require ADA accommodations please contact our office 30 days or more before the event. We cannot ensure accommodations without adequate prior notification.

Please Note: Licensing Boards change regulations often. If you have questions or concerns about this course meeting your specific board's approval, we recommend you contact your board directly to obtain a ruling.

 

Refund and Grievance Policy - Click here to see our Refund and Grievance Policy.

Attendance Policy and Certificate Delivery Information - Click here for information about receiving credits.

Cancellation Policy - You may end your enrollment at any time and receive a refund for the remaining sessions of the course. Questions or concerns may be communicated to David Mars, PhD by email at davidmarsphd@gmail.com. If you have a need for ADA accommodation, please contact davidmarsphd@gmail.com

Questions about Registration and Course Content? - Click here to contact Transformative Couples Therapy® Institute
Questions about Certificates and Accreditation? - Click here to Contact the CE Director