Northside Training

Can you work with couples if you've only trained in individual therapy?

A couple asks if you'll see them together. You've got the clinical hours. You've got the relational skills. But your training was in individual work - and you aren't sure.

Working with couples isn't just individual therapy with two people in the room. The dynamic between them is the client - and without a framework for working with that dynamic, even experienced practitioners can find themselves drawn into alliances, managing conflict rather than working with it, or defaulting to what they know.

None of that means you need years of specialist training before you take a referral. But it does mean the jump from individual to couples work is more complex than might first appear.

If you're considering working with couples, it's worth looking for training that takes the jump seriously - not a full retraining, but enough to know what you're working with when two people sit down in front of you.