Gottman Method Level 3 Training – May 2025
Practicum Training
A 3-day clinical training – May 14-16, 2025
8:30am – 5:00pm
In-person Event
Receive up to 20 CE hours
Location: 3000 NE Stucki Avenue, Suite 230, Hillsboro, OR
Lunch will be on our own.
Retake Price: $650 (Verification Required by Gottman Institute)
There is no better way to learn how to apply Gottman Method Couples Therapy than the Level 3 Training. At this Gottman Practicum training, the richness, flexibility, and sophistication of the Gottman method comes to light. In this three day workshop, you will watch videos of complex couples, review cases and treatment planning, participate in role-plays, and learn from watching, doing and discussing with peers as well as your trainer, Sabrina Walters LMFT, who has been practicing this method for over 13 years and is a Master Trainer for The Gottman Institute.
Your fee for each training includes lifetime access to the online course taught by Drs. John and Julie Gottman, access to the pdf version of the handbook for each training and live training and consultation with Gottman Master trainer Sabrina Walters LMFT who will help elaborate and drive home the important concepts and interventions through lectures and demonstrations and will facilitate role plays and interactive discussions about cases and clinical dilemmas. Sabrina also offers ongoing consultation groups and opportunities for follow-up learning after you take professional training with her.
Now is the best time to get your in-depth training in Gottman method couples therapy. If you wish to pursue certification in this model, Sabrina will discuss the process during each training and is also available as a consultant to help you get certified.
A 3-day clinical training ~ May 14-16, 2025
Time: 8:30am – 5:00pm
Location: 3000 NE Stucki Avenue, Suite 230, Hillsboro, OR
Lunch will be on our own
Receive up to 20 CE hours
Workshop Description:
In a small-group setting, you will have the opportunity to practice and refine your use of Gottman Method therapy and receive personalized guidance in developing a roadmap for making sound clinical decisions.
The Level 3 Training content represents the true resistances and co-morbidities we face as therapists and how we can transform them into effective healing methods for the couple.
The workshop is structured to help create a safe and secure environment so participants can learn and practice while feeling free of criticism and negative judgment.
What will I learn in Level 3?
Building on the knowledge obtained from Level 1 Training and Level 2 Training, you will master how to effectively use the Oral History Interview during a couple’s assessment and understand its implications. You will learn how to clearly explain to a couple their strengths and challenges in terms of the Sound Relationship House, and how to help partners identify their own “Four Horsemen” and understand the antidotes.
You will learn how to select and utilize appropriate tools to help a couple deepen their Friendship System. You will learn how to clarify a couple’s conflicts in terms of solvable, perpetual, and grid-locked problems, and use the “Dreams Within Conflict” technique to help a couple feel hopeful and to achieve break-through with their perpetual conflict.
You will learn how to successfully intervene when one or both partners are flooding, help a couple reach solutions using the Compromise Ovals intervention, and sensitively intervene when co-morbidities are present. Click here for the Level 3 preparation checklist.
Training Objectives:
At the completion of this training, you will be able to:
- Choose an intervention that is appropriate for the clients at the moment.
- Recognize the Four Horseman when one member of a couple exhibits that behavior.
- Stop the couple’s dyadic interaction when one member exhibits one of the four horseman. Describe the Four Horseman to the couple.
- Explain the antidote to the relevant horseman clearly and accurately.
- Coach the person with an alternative way to express him- or herself using an appropriate antidote.
- Re-direct the couple to resume communication in a dyadic way. Continue to monitor for the four horsemen and intervene if they reemerge.
- Identify when one or both partners are physiologically flooded (and not just upset) and stop the interaction between the couple.
- Provide a brief explanation of flooding in clear, sensitive language.
- Intervene by guiding one or both partners through a relaxation technique before continuing.
- Explain the Dreams Within Conflict process and goals clearly.
- Instruct couple on the Dreams Within Conflict intervention.
- Assist one partner to ask the other partner questions about the dream or deeper meaning imbedded in their specific gridlocked issue.
- Provide The Dream Catcher Questions handout and coach one partner to ask the other questions from the handout to increase understanding of their partner’s underlying dreams or deeper meaning embedded in the specific gridlocked issue; help the couple hold to the questions to go deeper vs. getting into their own point of view.
- Introduce the concept of softened start-ups and explain why it helps (i.e., it is easier for their partner to hear and understand their point).
- Explain research showing that the first three minutes of a discussion predicts whether that discussion will go well and whether their overall relationship will go well.
- Explain importance of expressing needs in positive terms and instruct the partner to restate their point without criticism and then direct them to resume dyadic interaction.
- Stop couple’s interaction when one or both partners are not accepting influence.
- Explain the need for accepting influence (which may include reference to research). This includes finding a way to understand and honor some aspect of their partner’s position, with a focus on yielding and accepting influence rather than on persuading.
- Stop couple and instruct in the concept of offering and accepting repairs and why it is useful.
- Provide the Repair Checklist and explains it use.
- Ask appropriate Gottman Oral History questions and stay on track with sensitivity to couple’s issues and building rapport.
- Conduct Oral History interview with appropriate timing.
- Conduct Oral History interview with sensitivity to issues of co-morbidity.
Who is this training for?
This training is for psychologists, social workers, Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs), professional counselors, addiction counselors, and other mental health professionals. Completion of Level 1 Training and Level 2 Training is required, as well as a master’s degree, doctoral degree, or current enrollment in a graduate program within a mental health-related field is required. Therapy experience is highly recommended, but not required.
What is included in the price?
- 200+ page digital Level 3 Clinical Training Manual, which contains the core Gottman Method Couples Therapy assessments and interventions. (Physical copy of the manual available for purchase- $100).
- Certificate of Completion for Gottman Method Couples Therapy Level 3 Training upon completion of the event.
- Eligible for up to 20 CE hours. Certificates are available through National Marriage Seminars, following course completion.
- Eligible to continue on to the Certification Track.
Video Participation
Case Discussion in Certification Practicum
Participants are asked to bring a short (approximately ten minutes) video segment (on DVD or USB thumb drive) of difficult and challenging couples to the Level 3 Training. The therapist’s work with the couple will not be critiqued. In fact, the video does not even need to show the therapist, just seeing the couple is all that is needed.
The purpose will be to use these couples to illustrate how the Gottman Method can be applied to these tough cases. The trainer(s) will describe how they would treat these couples and then participants from the audience will volunteer to role play these couples with the trainer(s) demonstrating using a variety of interventions with these couples. Participants will then have the opportunity to practice using these interventions in a supportive small group setting with other participants’ role playing the couples from the videos.
Bringing a video tape isn’t required, but it will help make the training more meaningful for everyone. If you cannot bring a taped segment, it would help to bring a brief written description of a challenging couple for the same purpose. This is for Case Discussion within the context of Certification Practicum ONLY and is not related to the videotaped interventions submitted for final Certification Review.
We are not able to support the following video formats: Mini DVD’s, “High-8,” alternate or nonstandard international formats, such as “Super-8.”
Presenter:
Sabrina Walters, M.A., LMFT, LPC
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Sabrina is a Gottman Certified Therapist & Trainer and she holds a Masters of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy from George Fox University and a Bachelors of Science in Music from Linfield College. Major coursework includes human growth and development, family and couples counseling, multicultural counseling, drug and alcohol counseling, spirituality, Gottman Couples Therapy, and the Core Values Index™. She has been practicing therapy since 2004 and continues to enjoy helping couples and individuals thrive in their lives.
Sabrina is passionate about the development of skills and practices in others and fulfills this passion in training counselors and coaches in the use of the Core Values Index™. She also trains therapists for the Gottman Institute and presents to couples the Art and Science of Love created by the Gottman’s. She has a served as an adjunct professor in the Masters in Counseling program at George Fox University. Recently, Sabrina and several team members have been certified in EMDR, which is an evidence based approach for trauma.
Sabrina and Eric have been married since 1982 and enjoy spending time with their 3 boys, their wives and their 6 grandchildren. They have fond memories together of raising their children partly in Poland, which gives them a unique perspective of traveling, living abroad and how culture can impact a marriage. Sabrina and Eric consistently make time to go out on dates and continue fostering a healthy marriage, you’re likely to spot them dining at a local gluten-free restaurant.
Refund Policy
14 Days Prior To The First Day Of Event = Full refund, minus a $50.00 processing fee.
7 Days Prior To The First Day Of Event = 50% refund, minus a $50.00 processing fee.
Within 6 Days Of The First Day of Event = No refund, but contact us if you would like to reschedule. For rescheduled registrations, the maximum refund for cancellation is 50%, minus a $50.00 processing fee, until 14 days prior to the first day of the rescheduled event. Within 14 days of rescheduled event, no refunds or additional rescheduling will be allowed.
Continuing Education (CEs) for all trainings with Sabrina Walters, LPC, LMFT, and Certified Gottman Consultant are received via National Marriage Seminars and will be $40. You will receive a link via email to the CE application after course completion. After payment and completion of the appropriate information with National Marriage Seminars, they will email you a certificate within 48 hours.
