Loving Couples, Loving Children: A Community-Based Program for Maintaining Intimacy Between Parents

Sunday, April 13. 10:00am-11:30am. Rainier Room.

Description

Explore a research-based way to restore and strengthen the emotional cradle that holds a child: the parental couple's relationship. Dr. Julie Gottman will introduce a ground-breaking program that builds skills and strengths in couples who struggle with poverty. This program focuses on creating small communities of couples who also are parents.

Group facilitators empower couples to share with one another their triumphs, their wisdom and their challenges from being partners and parents together. In this curriculum for couples, they are also given information and are taught new skills based on Dr. John Gottman's 35 years of research with couples. Workshop participants will view films that are central to this curriculum and will engage in an exercise that teaches a conflict-management skill essential to gentle and loving relationships. Dr. John Gottman will answer questions.

Presenter Bios 

Julie Gottman, PhD

Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman is a licensed Clinical Psychologist. She is the co-founder and Clinical Director of The Gottman Institute where she co-teaches weekend workshops for couples and Advanced Training Workshops for therapists. Dr. Julie Gottman is also the designer and Clinical Director for Loving Couples, Loving Children, a curriculum for couples suffering from the effects of poverty. With her husband, Dr. John Gottman, she has also co-designed a study of treatment for minor domestic violence which is being conducted by the Relationship Research Institute. She is Clinical Director for this study. In addition, she has authored or co-authored three books and has been a frequent guest on radio and TV talk shows. Dr. Julie Gottman is in private practice in Seattle, providing weekly therapy sessions to individuals and weekly or intensive marathon therapy sessions for couples. She specializes in working with distressed couples, abuse and trauma survivors, those with substance abuse problems and their partners, as well as cancer patients and their families. 

John Gottman, PhD

John Gottman is world-renowned for his work on marital stability and divorce prediction, involving the study of emotions, physiology, and communication. He was recently voted as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Therapists of the past quarter-century by the Psychotherapy Networker publication. His 30 years of breakthrough research on marriage, relationships and parenting has earned him numerous major awards. He is the author of 190 published academic articles, and author or co-author of 40 books. Dr. Gottman is the co-founder of The Gottman Institute where he currently teaches weekend workshops for couples and training workshops for clinicians. He is the Executive Director of the Relationship Research Institute, where they are developing programs for parents transitioning to parenthood and are beginning a new research project on treatment for domestic violence. Dr. Gottman is also in private practice in Seattle and sees couples for weekly and intensive marathon therapy sessions.