FREE: Beyond the Blowups: Transforming Couples Work with Relational Life Therapy

Feeling stuck, frustrated, or emotionally drained in couples work? You’re not alone. Many therapists describe working with couples as the most complex and emotionally demanding part of their practice, where sessions can feel like refereeing a boxing match.

This 1-hour interactive training provides a glimpse into a powerful framework that helps you get traction quickly. Based on Relational Life Therapy (RLT), developed by bestselling author of US: Getting Past You and Me to a More Loving Relationship and world-renowned therapist, Terry Real, this workshop offers you a new paradigm with practi...Read morecal, immediately usable tools to shift entrenched dynamics - without getting caught in the middle.

You’ll learn the key skill all your clients need to learn to interrupt knee-jerk responses that keep partners locked in reactivity, the 5 ways clients get in their own way, and the importance of lovingly confronting clients with the truth in a way that builds trust and accountability, and how to help couples reconnect to what they long for most - true intimacy.

Come ready to reflect, laugh, and leave with tools.

Recording:
This class will be recorded and made available within 2 hours after the live lecture. Recordings are available for 90 days after the class. Less...

Learning Objectives

Identify two key components of Relational Life Therapy that support clients in moving from reactivity to repair.
Demonstrate one practical intervention to help clients recognize and shift from automatic responses during conflict.

Target Audience

All mental health professionals welcome.

Learning Levels

Beginner, all levels are welcome

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Live Interactive Webinar

12:00 PM EDT - 01:00 PM EDT

EARN 1 CE Credit Hours
Click Here to Register

About the speakers

Katharine Petzold, LCSW-C

Certified Relational Life (RLT) Psychotherapist & Bootcamp Facilitator

Katharine Petzold is a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW-C) with 9 years of clinical experience and advanced training in relational and trauma-informed modalities. She is a Certified Facilitator of Relational Life Therapy’s (RLT) Relationship Bootcamp and leads biannual intensive workshops to help individuals, couples, and the mental health professionals who work with them, build connection, accountability, and emotional intimacy. She is also certified in Discernment Counseling, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (Level I), and holds specialized training in trauma treatment, Theraplay®, TF-CBT, and Collaborative Problem Solving. Her work is grounded in a compassionate, skills-based approach that integrates relational and neurobiological insights.

Risa Ganel, LCMFT

Certified Relational Life Therapist and Trainer for the Relational Life Institute; Entrepreneur

Risa facilitates relationship health through 2 Day Couples Intensives, Relationship Bootcamps, traditional Couples Therapy, and public speaking engagements. Her gifts blend wisdom with quiet strength and relationship science with empathic connection. She is skilled at being kind and fierce in the same breath, helping clients connect to the truth, transform conflict into connection, and establish the intimate relationships they long for.

In practice as a Couple and Family Therapist since 1994, Risa has served as Treasurer, President-Elect, and President of the Middle Atlantic Division of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (MAD-AAMFT). In 2015 she was appointed by Maryland Governor Larry Hogan to serve on the State Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists and served as Chair of the Board from 2017-2020. Currently Licensed in both Maryland and Virginia and Certified in Relational Life Therapy (RLT), Risa teaches clinicians RLT as a Trainer for the Relational Life Institute (created by world-renowned therapist and author, Terry Real), she sees couples and individuals in her private practice, Together Couples Counseling.

CE Information - Earn 1 CE Credit Hour including

1 Clinical Hour

CE Approvals

California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists

EngagedMinds Continuing Education is hereby recognized as a CAMFT-approved Continuing Education Provider. Provider number: 1032895

New York State Education Department's State Board for SW

EngagedMinds Continuing Education is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Social Work as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed social workers #SW-0676.

Association of Social Work Boards

EngagedMinds Continuing Education, #1858, formerly Erena DiGonis, LCSW, PLLC, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 8/25/2024-8/25/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 1 continuing education credits.

National Board for Certified Counselors

EngagedMinds Continuing Education has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7455. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. EngagedMinds Continuing Education is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

New York State Education Department's State Board for LMHC

EngagedMinds Continuing Education is recognized by the New York State Education
Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an
approved provider of continuing education for licensed mental health
counselors. #MHC-0284.

New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners

EngagedMinds Continuing Education is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Mental Health Practitioners as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed marriage and family therapists #MFT-0117.

New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology

Erena DiGonis, LCSW, PLLC is recognized by the New York State Education Department's State Board for Psychology as an approved provider of continuing education for licensed psychologists #PSY-0270.

CE Process Info

Each professional is responsible for the individual requirements as stipulated by his/her licensing agency. Please contact your individual licensing board/regulatory agency to review continuing education requirements for licensure renewal. Please note: You must attend "live" (in real-time) for the duration of the training to earn CE credits.

Before the event, you will receive an email from CE-Go with access to the virtual event. After the event, you will receive access to your evaluation and continuing education certificate via a personalized "attendee dashboard" link, hosted on the CE-Go website. This link and access to the virtual event will be sent to the email account you used to register for the event.

Upon accessing the CE-Go "attendee dashboard", you will be able to:

Complete evaluation forms for the event
Download your continuing education certificate in a PDF format

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the CE-Go platform, please contact CE-Go at 888-498-5578 or by email at support@ce-go.com Please Note: Emails for this event will come from "support@ce-go.com".

If you have any continuing education related questions, please contact your event organizer.

Please make sure to check your spam/junk folder in case those emails get "stuck". We'd also suggest "Allowlisting" support@ce-go.com. This tells your email client that you know this sender and trust them, which will keep emails from this contact at the top of your inbox and out of the junk folder.

Disclosure

EngagedMinds Continuing Education, Erena DiGonis, and planners have no financial disclosures or commercial bias or promote commercial interests during CE activities.