Now more than ever, the world needs you. If you are drawn to being a healer, if you have always wanted to be a therapist, or if you are doing clinical work now, you are hearing the call. The planet needs good therapists.
Since the pandemic, we have been in a crisis of mental health. There have been rising rates of suicide, increased depression, high levels of anxiety (2), and more divorce than in the past ten years (1).
More people are doing online telehealth than ever before. In fact, rates of telesessions went from roughly 10% of all therapy to 90% during quarantine. Many people say they are going to stick to online treatment, saying it worked fine, and in fact, saved them money and time to meet with their therapist by Zoom or some online platform. They didn’t need to get a babysitter or take time off from work to get to their therapist’s office. They could include their partner, who might normally not have time to meet in a couples session. The therapist seemed attentive, present and the counseling was just as effective as an in-office hour.
For therapists, the desire to help has never been stronger. We are front-line workers, seeing the damage that constant stress can wreak on relationships and home life. Couples are struggling. Long stretches of enforced domesticity, high rates of job loss, financial instability, and the anxiety of the pandemic have affected all of us. For those who struggled the most, we, the healers of the emotional world, have seen the benefit of counseling as we move into the re-entry phase of post-pandemic life.
But therapists are suffering too. Burnout, secondary traumatization, overwork, and isolation have taken their toll. Most of the therapists that I see in my supervision groups are worried. They are either taking on too many clients or they are worried that they had to give up their practice to care for family members. Now they are looking ahead and wondering if they should go back to an office or continue to work from home. Should they expand their skill set or get some mental health counseling for themselves.
The most rewarding and important part of being a therapist is knowing you are making a difference in people’s lives. This happens when you have the confidence to know that you have the skills and the interventions to really help.
If you are working with couples, you can feel especially frustrated and wonder how to work with people to take them from COVID-19 shutdown back into the world, into a new world, one of caution and concern, through the social anxiety of a post-pandemic life, and one that focuses on healing their relationship issues that surfaced during the shutdown.
You may need specific training for this. It takes real skills to work with couples. You might have gotten training in the past, but traditional education in couples therapy rarely if ever includes human sexuality and its impacts on relationships. And right now, sexual relationships have been the most affected by the pandemic.
I became a sexologist and a certified Sex Therapist because I believe that when you help people create a more rewarding and satisfying sex life, the rest of their relationship falls into place. They feel more excited about their life and their relationship lasts longer and they can take more risks out in the world.
I created the Integrative Couples Therapy program to train therapists to work with couples to heal their relationship by integrating several modalities of good, proven relationship therapy a sexuality counseling framework. I realized that therapists needed this specific training to help couples today.
What does all this mean for you?
You may have found yourself in sessions that look like this:
- A couple rebuilds their emotional connection through couples therapy sessions only to come back months later ready to give up
- Your clients work through their anger and frustration after an affair, but now realize they have never felt any real sexual desire for each other
- A couple works through their resentment and they feel closer than ever, but their sex life is nowhere to be found
Your experience as a therapist isn’t unusual. It’s not uncommon to face these problems in psychotherapy sessions with couples. The issue isn’t that you are doing anything wrong. In fact, you might be doing a great job. But you might be missing a key issue – you have to work on both the relational and the sexual issues together.
My integrative approach to therapy empowers therapists to resolve and avoid these situations. The Integrative Couples Therapy program is based on the collective experience of our expert faculty and addresses the psychological, emotional, and sexual needs of all clients.
Our special July 2022 module is a 4-day certificate training focused on Integrative Couples Therapy and :
- Defines and teaches integrative couples therapy approaches
- Outlines how to create sex and relationship therapy interventions
- Uses integrative protocols and lets you practice the skills you need
- Creates unique tools for couples and individuals to open up about sexuality
The certificate in Integrative Couples Therapy gives you a solid foundation and is a stepping stone to the full certification as a Certified Sex and Couples Therapist.
I am so excited about the upcoming training. I look forward to seeing you there.
For more about the Certificate in Integrative Couples Therapy go to Integrative Couples Therapy Training.
Bibliography
- Divorce Rates and COVID-19. (2020, October 20). National Law Review. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from https://www.natlawreview.com/article/divorce-rates-and-covid-19
- The Implications of COVID-19 for Mental Health and Substance Use. (2021, February 10). Kaiser Family Foundation. Retrieved June 15, 2021, from https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/the-implications-of-covid-19-for-mental-health-and-substance-use/
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