How to become a couple’s therapist and specialize professionally

How to specialize in couple therapy once you have finished your degree in psychology?

Couples therapy is one of the most interesting fields of work in which a psychologist can specialize.

Not only does it allow for intervention in an area of life that is extremely important for many people, but it also contributes to adopting a vision of the therapeutic process that goes beyond the individual. That is to say, it starts from a conception of psychological well-being in which each person is cognitively and emotionally linked to his or her context, and above all to loved ones.

How to train to become a couple therapist?

When it comes to specializing to dedicate yourself professionally (mainly, or in a combined way with other forms of psychological intervention) to couple therapy, consider these criteria to be met by the Masters and postgraduate courses you choose from you are going to choose from. They will give you an idea of the quality of these training programs.

1. Offers the possibility of an internship

Couples therapy is clearly an applied activity: theory is useless if we do not know how to apply it and contrast it with reality.. Moreover, love relationships are fundamentally changing and dynamic phenomena, so we cannot pretend to approach them in a linear way, first checking what the books say and then executing the instructions described. It is necessary to gain fluency in real time learning contexts, in a therapeutic context with patients.

Therefore, to become a couple therapist it is essential to go through training programs that give the option of practicing with real couples, not only through imagination and hypothetical situations.

2. It is taught by professionals in this discipline

Partly because of what we have seen above, the possibility of receiving the supervision and knowledge of psychologists with extensive experience in couple therapy is very beneficial for those who want to learn. In this way, even the theoretical component of this training will have a practice-oriented element.

Couples therapy practitioners go beyond the manuals, and offer advice on the small details of couple They offer advice on the small details of day-to-day life, both what happens in the counseling sessions and what happens between them: planning, bureaucracy, time management, etc.

3. It goes beyond the pathological

Although the concept of therapy is often used in the clinical context, we must not lose sight of the fact that, in practice, the problems addressed in couple therapy are not caused by disorders.

For this reason, a postgraduate or Master's degree in couple therapy should be based on social psychology, and not so much on clinical and health psychology, unless it is designed to address the problems of couples.unless it is designed to be extremely specialized in a specific area of love relationships (or in a part of the population already diagnosed with mental disorders).

4. It takes sexuality into account

Human sexuality is deeply implicated in the vast majority of couple relationships, either as a source of emotional problems or as a source of emotional problems.Whether as a source of emotional problems or as a factor of maintenance of these problems, if they have originated outside the bedroom. Therefore, becoming a couple's therapist involves broadening your knowledge and experience in this aspect of intimate life.

5. Provides training in the therapeutic relationship

The ability to carry out a good therapeutic relationship is crucial. Therefore, these courses and Masters should include practical advice of this type, allowing the therapeutic process to flow and couples who come for professional help to commit to the evolution of these sessions.

Where to specialize?

If you are interested in training to become a couple therapist in the area of Murcia, a very good option is the Master's Degree in Sexology and Couple Therapy by Instituto de la Parejaavailable in blended, face-to-face and online formats.

This option to become a professional, designed and promoted by the reference entity in Murcia regarding couple therapy, allows you to learn during a 10-month course about everything related to love relationships, sexuality and sex therapy, cases of dependency, situations of gender violence, paraphilias, and much more.

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