What you’ll get:

•  90-minute clinical training: From Protection to Connection: Relational Integrity in Neurodivergent Couples Work.
  A structured, clinically applicable framework for understanding conflict as protection - and working with it in real time 
• 1.5 AASECT Continuing Education Credits (upon completion of post-test + evaluation)
• A Symbolic Emotional Tools video
• Relationship Rhythm & Integrity Pillars
• The Rhythms of Shared Connection Model
• Relational Integrity Sample Goals (for the therapist)
• Relational Integrity Couples Work Interventions (for the therapist) 

✅ The Relational Integrity Framework
Learn how to assess and intervene across the four domains:

• Identity (dignity, non-pathologizing)
• Coherence (internal clarity, pacing)
• Relational Care (attunement, responsiveness)
• Accountability (repair without shame collapse)

✅ Protection → Connection Clinical Map
A step-by-step way to track:

• what each partner is protecting
• where capacity is breaking down
• how to intervene without forcing connection

✅ Real-Time Intervention Strategies
Concrete tools to:

• slow escalation
• restore internal clarity
• support co-regulation across difference
• guide repair without overwhelm

✅ Rhythm-Based Understanding of Couples
Learn how to translate differences in:

• regulation (how we stabilize)
• processing (how we reach clarity and meaning)
• expression (how our experience is communicated)
  so they stop being misread as lack of care 

✅ Misinterpretation Loop Framework
Identify and interrupt the cycle where:
difference → interpretation/meaning → emotional reaction → protection → misinterpretation/disconnection

✅ Clinical Language + Scripts
Use language that:

• reduces defensiveness
• validates both partners
• supports mutual understanding without collapsing into one side

✅ Integration of Major Clinical Frameworks
Includes applications of:

• Relational-cultural theory
• Neurodiversity paradigm
• Polyvagal theory
• Consent and anti-coersion based frameworks
• Differentiation + family systems
• Mentalization epistemic humility

Learning objectives

By the end of this training, participants will be able to:

1. Conceptualize conflict in couples as protection rather than dysfunction, and identify what each partner is protecting under stress.
2. Differentiate between relational differences and capacity (state), and explain how each contributes to misattunement and escalation.
3. Apply the four domains of relational integrity (identity, coherence, relational care, accountability) to assess breakdowns in connection.
4. Identify and interrupt the misinterpretation loop (difference → meaning → reaction → protection) that sustains relational conflict.
5. Implement regulation- and pacing-based interventions that support co-regulation, consent, and repair without requiring self-abandonment or sameness.