Foundational Training in Dialogue Therapy

Intimate and other relationships in the 21st century present unique demands in regard to equality, authenticity, reciprocity, and accurate witnessing. All adults who are in equal relationships – spouses, partners, siblings, grown children and parents, friends, co-workers – are stressed by the demands of equity and equality. Leaders, teachers, and managers are also stressed. People in all walks of life want to be seen and heard accurately, instead of being misperceived, due to bias, indifference or stereotypes.

Many people avoid conflicts in these circumstances because they can become so painful and unrewarding as to be emotionally threatening and dangerous. Without effective and respectful conflict, however, decisions and negotiations cannot take place. In intimate relationships, destructiveconflict or avoidance of conflict also undermines trust. Transformative and respectful conflict between equals restores trust, and between intimate partners or grown children and their parents, it allows for the deepening of love.

The skills and knowledge needed to sustain trust, in an atmosphere of attunement and equality, go beyond the parameters of “better communication” or secure attachment bonds, often the focus of couple counseling. They require an ability to be mindful, insightful, and self-reflective, even in the midst of emotional activation (triggering). Negotiating differences of desires, styles, opinions, beliefs, and preferences, while remaining emotionally open to transformation, requires methods beyond what most popular psychologies offer.

Dialogue Therapy is a time-limited, short-term structured couple therapy that addresses these 21st-century demands. Drawing on psychoanalysis, mindfulness, and techniques of psychodrama, Dialogue Therapy is designed to transform emotional entanglement (projective identification), active and passive aggression, and hostile by-products of unconscious desires and needs.