Becoming an Agent of Safety in Couples' Therapy: The Transformative Power of the Therapist’s Presence - Live

Becoming an Agent of Safety in Couples’ Therapy: The Transformative Power of the Therapist’s Presence – Live

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Continuing Education Credit

2 APA CE credits are available for an additional $30. Participants who select the CE option must attend the full program and complete all required evaluation and documentation requirements to receive credit.

Price range: $25.00 through $105.00

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DATE

Monday, September 14, 2026
TIME

9am to 11am Eastern Time
LOCATIONZoom
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Becoming an Agent of Safety in Couples Therapy—Live

The Transformative Power of the Therapist’s Presence

 

Presented by Maya Kollman, PhD

What does it mean to create safety in couples therapy, and how can the therapist become an agent of growth?

This live online post-licensure training for mental health professionals takes place September 14, 2026, from 9–11 a.m. Eastern Time and offers 2 hours of continuing education credit.

Drawing on research related to therapist effects, therapeutic alliance, empathy, self-regulation, and client feedback, Maya Kollman explores how the therapist’s presence influences relational safety and the therapeutic process. Through our expectations, attention, language, nonverbal communication, emotional regulation, and clinical choices, therapists help shape what is noticed, invited, reinforced, or overlooked.

Participants will examine the therapist’s influence—and its limits—including how to remain regulated during emotionally charged interactions, balance empathy with appropriate boundaries, and distinguish relational safety from comfort, conflict avoidance, or therapist control.

Through reflection, discussion, clinical examples, and video, participants will explore ways to invite client feedback, strengthen self-observation, support the therapeutic alliance, and encourage couples to take greater ownership of their relational growth.

Teachings are appropriate for healthcare professionals as well as the general public. Healthcare professionals will be able to incorporate the tools and practices offered in this program in ways beneficial to clients or patients.

Learning Objectives

At the conclusion of this presentation, participants will be able to:

  1. Identify at least three ways the therapist’s expectations, self-regulation, verbal communication, and nonverbal presence may influence relational safety and the therapeutic process.
  2. Differentiate relational safety from comfort, conflict avoidance, therapist control, or the absence of emotional intensity.
  3. Apply a structured process of self-observation, client feedback, or session review to identify therapist strengths, assumptions, reactivity, and opportunities for growth.
  4. Demonstrate at least two ways to invite couples into a collaborative, co-created therapeutic process that encourages ownership, draws upon their relational wisdom, and respects their autonomy.

What We’ll Explore

  • What relational safety means in couples therapy
  • Therapist influence—and the limits of that influence
  • How expectations, language, and nonverbal communication shape the therapeutic process
  • Therapist self-regulation during emotionally charged interactions
  • Balancing empathy, appropriate boundaries, and clinical leadership
  • Inviting client feedback and supporting couples’ autonomy and ownership
  • Using self-observation and recorded sessions to strengthen clinical practice

Who Should Attend

This presentation is designed for psychotherapists, counselors, social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, interns, and other helping professionals who work with couples or relational dynamics.

Clinicians from all theoretical orientations and levels of experience are welcome.

About Maya Kollman

Maya Kollman, PhD, MA, is a Master Trainer, Clinical Instructor, Workshop Presenter, and Certified Imago Relationship Therapist. For more than three decades, she has helped shape and teach the theory and practice of Imago Relationship Therapy in collaboration with its co-founder, Harville Hendrix, PhD. She has trained therapists, workshop presenters, and clinical instructors in both foundational and advanced Imago work and has led more than 300 weekend workshops for couples.

Maya brings extensive experience as a couples therapist, educator, trainer, and curriculum developer. Earlier in her career, she taught psychology, human sexuality, and women’s studies at Trenton State University and Rutgers University. She holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology and earned her PhD in Imago Relationship Therapy in 2023. Known for her warmth, insight, and ability to recognize untapped potential, Maya invites therapists and couples into deeper connection, greater ownership, and lasting relational growth.

Information on Continuing Education Credits (CEs) for Health Professionals

CE credits for psychologists are provided by the Spiritual Competency Academy (SCA) which is sponsoring this program. The Spiritual Competency Academy is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Spiritual Competency Academy maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

The California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts CE credits for LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFT license renewal for programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association.

LCSW, LPCC, LEP, and LMFTs, and other mental health professionals from states other than California need to check with their state licensing boards as to whether or not they accept programs offered by approved sponsors of CE by the American Psychological Association.

For questions about your certificate or the content, logistics, or other support issues regarding this course, please contact Imago Center of Washington DC at info@imagocenterdc.com. For questions about whether APA CE is valid for you, contact your licensing board directly. For general questions about APA CE, contact SCA at ce@spiritualcompetencyacademy.com.

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Join Maya Kollman, PhD, MA, as she shares at the Imago Center DC’s monthly speaker series!

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