What are some of the techniques/interventions you use to help couples deal with their reactivity when they are working with you in session? What if anything have you taken away from the course to help modulate reactivity when you work with couples?
In a session with a couple I would do the following:
grounding / breathing to get them centred, followed by having them facing each other and having eye contact with each other and holding hands and acknowledging each other’s presence.
Find out what their intentions are.
Guide them in the appreciation Dialogue exercise, Caring behaviour exercise, One minute hugs, flooding of positivity exercise if needed.
This course has been very informative and helpful in understanding relationships and the choices we make.
An eye opener to me was how we choose our partners from the relationships in our childhood with our parents. We look to our partner to full-fill our unmet needs.
Each class had great points that I held on to, like the understanding of the brain and how we hold on to past memories and our brain remembers the emotion attached to event, and reactions. This makes it hard to let go and teach the brain a new way of handling situations, but it is not possible.
I loved the material from the past weeks class, bringing back the romance in the relationship. Play is a very important part of that and we as adults tend to do very little of that.