FREE course for Couples Therapists
Couples therapy that doesn't leave you winging it.
A free three-module mini course for therapists who want a steadier, clearer way to work with couples. From the prep before they walk in, through the intake, to what you actually do when the fight erupts in the room.
If you’ve finished a couples session and walked out wondering what just happened, you’re not doing it wrong. You’re doing the work with tools that were built for something else.
This mini course is a place to start.
What's Inside
Three short video modules. Roughly an hour of content in total.
Work through them in an evening or pace them across a week.
You’ll get a workbook with reflection prompts for each one.
Module 1
Setting up for the first session.
What happens before the couple even walks through your door. How to structure the first session, explain your process so it holds under pressure, set up consent and confidentiality in a way that actually works and how to avoid becoming the referee of their fights.
Module 2
The intake that isn’t an interrogation.
The questions you actually need answers to. How to balance information gathering with building connection, what to listen for in tone rather than content and how to handle it when one partner is taking up all the space.
Module 3
When conflict erupts in the room.
What to do when voices rise, someone storms out, or both people flood at once. How to interrupt a destructive cycle without shutting the work down. Plus the piece most training skips, which is how to notice and manage your own nervous system when it’s all getting heated.
Who This Is For?
You’ve worked with individuals for a while. Maybe you’ve had a couple or two in your diary and noticed how different that room feels.
This mini course is for you if:
- You’ve had couples in your practice and walked out of sessions wondering how it went sideways
- You were trained as an individual therapist and couples work feels like a different language
- You’re curious about adding couples to your practice and want to know what you’re walking into
- You’re already seeing couples and want a short, honest refresher
It’s not going to make you a couples therapist. Nothing free could. It will give you a grounded starting point, three clear skills and an honest read on whether this work is for you. Both answers are useful.
A Bit About Me
I’m Marie Vakakis. I’m an Accredited Mental Health Social Worker and Couple and Family Therapist based in Melbourne. I run a private practice called The Therapy Hub and I’ve been working with couples and families for close to a decade.
I built this mini course because there are good therapists out there doing couples work without the frameworks they need, and it’s costing the couples who sit across from them. I’ve been on the receiving end of bad couples therapy. I’ve also been on the receiving end of really great couples therapy. The difference wasn’t empathy or intelligence. It was training.
I also host two podcasts, This Complex Life and The Therapist Couch, if you want a sense of how I think about this work before you give me your email.
What Happens After?
This is a taster. Three modules is not enough to build a couples therapy practice on and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
If you work through the mini course and want to keep going, my Couples Therapy Foundations Masterclass Series picks up where this leaves off. You can take the full series or choose individual workshops depending on where you’re stuck.
You don’t need to decide any of that now. Get the free course, watch the modules, see how it sits with you.
Send me the free course
Three modules. One workbook. Delivered straight to your email.