Couples on Fire: Delving into a Self-Psychological Approach to Couple Therapy and Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT) for High Conflict Couples
Saturday, November 1, 2025 In-person Program
9:00am-4:00pm (EST) (5.5 CEs)
Scottish Rite Masonic Museum and Library
33 Marrett Road, Lexington, MA
Presenters: Michelle Avigan, PhD and Carla Leone PhD
Case Presenter: Julia Rydin, LICSW
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High conflict couples are one of the reasons many clinicians shy away from doing couple therapy! When tensions rise and couples turn on each other, therapists too can become frustrated and overwhelmed. In this in-person program, PCFINE welcomes two expert clinicians and teachers, Michelle Avigan, PhD and Carla Leone, PhD, to teach about their respective specialties in models of couple therapy particularly well suited to the challenges of high conflict couples.
Dr. Avigan will offer audience members a deeper understanding of the distress that high conflict couples bring into therapy by brining to life the foundational principles of Sue Johnson's Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT). She will explain how EFCT, grounded in adult attachment theory, can assist therapists--and ultimately couples themselves-- in conceptualizing the anger and reactivity that often surface during sessions. Dr. Avigan will demonstrate key EFCT interventions to help manage anger and shift the focus from specific conflictual content to underlying patterns and processes, aligning with the therapeutic goals of the EFCT model.
Dr. Leone will provide a foundation in the key concepts of a contemporary self-psychological approach to couple therapy, elucidating them through their particular relevance for working with high conflict couples. These concepts include the centrality of the sense of self, selfobject experience and needs, and the "forward edge" of even such problematic behavior as rage and aggression. By demonstrating the clinical practices associated with the model, including equal empathic immersion, close attention to narcissistic vulnerability, as well as some more directive techniques, she will provide a road map and link it to the model's concept of cure.
Both presenters will anchor their teaching in numerous clinical examples including those from video clips from Showtime’s TV docudrama series, “Couples Therapy,” and from an in-depth case presentation. Julia Rydin, LICSW, will provide the case presentation which will then inform live role plays. The role plays will offer a window into the ways Drs. Avigan and Leone would use their respective models to work with the same couple at a moment of high conflict. There will be ample opportunity for the presenters to discuss their respective approaches with each other, for the audience to ask questions and join in the conversation!
Carla Leone, PhD, is the Director of the certificate program in Integrative Psychoanalytic Couple Therapy, a couple therapy training program offered virtually by the Institute for Clinical Social Work in Chicago, where she is on the faculty. she is also Adjunct Faculty at the Chicago Psychoanalytic Institute and the founder and director of a group private practice in the Chicago suburbs, where she works with individuals, couples and families. she is President of the International Association for Psychoanalytic Self Psychology (IAPSP), and has previously served the organization in numerous roles.
Michelle Avigan, PhD, is a clinical psychologist. She is in private practice at Needham Psychotherapy Associates where she works exclusively with couples. She has trained extensively in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and was a founding member and past Co-Director of the New England EFT Community, now EFTMassachusetts. She has been certified as an EFT Couples Therapist and Supervisor by the International Center for Excellence in Emotionally Therapy (ICEEFT) and loves teaching the model.
Julia Rydin, LICSW, is a psychotherapist in private practice in Back Bay. She is a candidate in adult psychoanalysis at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute (BPSI) and has completed post-graduate training in working psychodynamically with adults and couples through PCFINE and the Psychotherapy Institute of Back Bay (PIBB), where she currently serves as the Associate Clinical Director.
Learning Objectives:
At the conclusion of this program, the participants will be able to:
1.Explain the goal of couple therapy from the perspective of self psychology
2.List three key concepts of self psychology-informed couple therapy and explain how to apply these to the treatment of high conflict couples
3.Explain the goal of couple therapy from the perspective of Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT) and explain how an EFCT therapist understands distress in relationship partners
4.List three interventions used by an EFCT therapist in working with highly escalated partners
5.Describe how each model addresses the therapist's own reactions in working with high conflict couples
6.List some of the ways the two models overlap and some that differentiate one from the other.
