Why Today’s Couples Therapists Need Trauma-Informed Training

Couples therapist Trauma infomred training with Maureen McEvoy, Sydney November 8/9 Imago workshop presenter from Canada Healing Trauma Restoring Connection sponsored by the Australia Resource Therapy Institute.

Every couple’s therapist knows the moment.

The couple across from you begins to spiral. One partner escalates, the other shuts down. The session feels stuck. You reach for your skills, but nothing seems to land.

If you’ve ever left the room doubting yourself – “Did I miss something? Why couldn’t I shift them?” You’re not alone. Therapists across Australia and beyond are encountering the same challenges.

And it isn’t because you’re not skilled. It’s because couples today are bringing something bigger into therapy: trauma histories, attachment injuries, ADHD and nervous system dysregulation.

Why talk therapy isn’t always enough

Traditional approaches to couples work focus on communication skills, conflict resolution, and attachment repair. These are valuable, but they can stall when trauma is active in the room.

Sessions loop in circles without resolution.
Partners escalate beyond the therapist’s containment.
Shutdowns leave the couple, and therapist in silence.
Therapists burn out, carrying their clients’ trauma home.

Without trauma-informed tools, even experienced clinicians feel under-resourced.

The answer: trauma-informed couples therapy

That’s why we are hosting:

Healing Trauma, Restoring Connection – Trauma-Informed Couples Therapy Training

📍 8–9 November 2025 | Crows Nest Community Centre, Sydney

🎓 12 CPD Hours elegible (PACFA, ACA, APS, AASW, ACA AAPI)

🟡 Sponsored by Australian Resource Therapy Institute (ARTI)

This two-day intensive brings Maureen McEvoy, MA, RCC (Canada), International Imago Faculty to Australia for her only 2025 training. Maureen is an internationally respected therapist and trainer known for integrating trauma work with relational models in ways that are practical, safe, and deeply human.

What you’ll gain

Across two days, you’ll learn to:

✅ Integrate Imago, EFT, Gottman, and PACT approaches with Bruce Perry’s neurodevelopmental insights.

✅ Apply somatic and creative arts methods for in-session regulation and repair.

✅ Recognise when trauma is disrupting couples dynamics — and how to respond effectively.

✅ Strengthen your therapist presence so you leave sessions grounded, not depleted. ✅ Connect with a professional community who share your challenges.

You will walk away with practical interventions you can use immediately in your practice.

🏆 Scholarship Competition – #WhichCrewRU

To celebrate this rare event, we’re offering:

Five full-fee scholarships (value $1,250 AUD each)
Five half-fee scholarships

How to enter:

Pick the therapist “crew member” you most identify with (Foggy Fran, Not-Enough Nellie, Burnout Baxter, etc).
Write up to 100 words on why and how you’ll apply this training in your practice.
Email your entry to philipa@resourcetherapy.com.au by 15 October 2025.

Then share your reflection on social media using #WhichCrewRU to join the conversation.

ARTi Scholarship 10 therapist Crew #whichCrewRU for the two day couples therapist trauma informed training with Imago faculty member Maureen McEvoy MA RCC of Canada — ARTi Scholarship 10 therapist Crew #whichCrewRU for the two-day couples therapist trauma-informed training with Imago program presenter Maureen McEvoy, MA, RCC of Canada

Who this training is for

Q: Who should attend?

A: Couples therapists, psychologists, counsellors, and mental-health professionals seeking to expand their trauma-informed skill set.

Q: I’m early in my career — is it still for me?

A: Yes. Newer therapists will gain foundational trauma-informed skills. Experienced therapists will discover fresh tools and integration strategies.

Q: What if I mainly practise one model (Imago, EFT, Gottman, Art Therapy, Somatic Therapy)?

A: This training shows you how to integrate modalities through a trauma-informed lens. It doesn’t replace your current approach — it strengthens it.

Why is this training different?

Rare: The only trauma-informed couples therapy training of its kind in Australia, in 2025.
International expertise: Learn directly from Maureen McEvoy, MA, RCC (Canada), International Imago Workshop presenter
Recognised: Eligible for 12 CPD hours across major professional bodies.
Practical: Tools and interventions you can take into sessions straight away.
Community: Step out of isolation and into a supportive network of colleagues.

Event details at a glance

Detail Information

Who Couples therapists, counsellors, psychologists, and mental-health professionals

What Two-day trauma-informed professional training workshop

Trainer Maureen McEvoy, MA, RCC (Canada), International Imago Faculty

When 8–9 November 2025

Where Crows Nest Community Centre, Sydney

Fees September Saver: $995 until 30 Sept · Standard: $1,100 from 1 Oct

CPD 12 hours recognised by APS, PACFA, AASW, AAPI ACASecure your place

⚡ September Saver: $995 until 30 Sept

👉 Register now: resourcetherapy.com.au/professional -training/master-classes/

Seats are capped to ensure an interactive learning environment. Don’t miss your chance to be in the room.

Key take-home

Couples therapy is changing. Clients are bringing deeper trauma, faster escalation, and greater disconnection into our rooms. Without trauma-informed frameworks, therapists risk feeling stuck, isolated, or burnt out.

This special workshop program equips you with the tools, presence, and community you need to guide couples from reactivity to reconnection.

December 2, 2025December 1, 2025

How Memory Reconsolidation Works in Resource Therapy

advanced parts therapy informed memory reconsolidation

Have you ever wondered why some sessions lead to deep, lasting shifts while others just produce better coping, you are already thinking about memory reconsolidation. This is the brain’s natural process for updating emotional learning – and it sits at the heart of effective, evidence-informed trauma therapy.

For therapists using parts-based, trauma-informed approaches such as Resource Therapy, understanding memory reconsolidation can help us work more precisely and confidently with the “emotional brain”.

What is memory reconsolidation in therapy?

Memory reconsolidation is the process by which an existing emotional memory becomes open to change. When a significant emotional memory is reactivated, there is a brief neurobiological window in which that learning becomes “plastic” again. If – and only if – a mismatching, corrective experience is introduced during this window, the old learning can be revised rather than simply layered over with new coping strategies (Ecker, Ticic, & Hulley, 2012; Lane, Ryan, Nadel, & Greenberg, 2015).

Clients often describe the result in simple language: “It’s strange – the old reaction just isn’t there in the same way.” For trauma, attachment wounds, and long-standing shame, this is profoundly hopeful.

How Resource Therapy uses memory reconsolidation

Resource Therapy (RT) is a parts-based, trauma-informed model that maps beautifully onto memory reconsolidation. Instead of treating the client as a single, unified self, RT works with Resource States – the inner “parts” or “crew members” who each hold specific emotional learnings from earlier experiences.

In practice, a reconsolidation-informed RT advanced parts session often involves four stages:

Bringing the State “on deck”
The first step is helping the relevant Resource State come fully into conscious awareness, with its feelings, beliefs, images, and body sensations. The old story – “I’m not wanted”, “It’s not safe to need anyone”, “The only way to be loved is to be perfect” – needs to be alive in the room.
Bridging to the Initial Sensitising Event (ISE)
Next, we follow that State back to the Initial Sensitising Event where its core learning formed. Using RT’s structured treatment actions, we locate the scene where the State drew its painful conclusion about self, others, or the world.
Creating a mismatch experience
At the ISE, we then create a new emotional experience that directly contradicts the old learning. The hurt State may finally feel protected instead of abandoned, validated instead of shamed, or comforted instead of terrified. This is more than talking about safety – the child-state actually feels accompanied, defended, and believed.
Consolidating new learning with other Parts
Finally, we help other, better-able parts step forward so that, in similar situations in present-day life, a different part can take the wheel. The client begins to notice: “I respond differently now.” This is emotional rewiring rather than short-term coping.

What are the Key principles of memory reconsolidation?

Although the neurobiology is complex, the clinical principles are straightforward:

Reactivate the emotional memory – the original learning must be vividly present.
Elicit a mismatch experience – the client needs a felt experience that clearly contradicts the old belief.
Allow new learning to consolidate – we slow down, stay with the shift, and let the nervous system absorb this new reality.
Integrate into everyday life – we notice and reinforce new patterns as they show up in relationships, work, and self-care.

Used thoughtfully and ethically, these principles mean we are not only teaching clients to cope. We are helping the brain update its deepest emotional scripts.

What this means for your practice

For many clinicians, “evidence-informed” means more than quoting a study or adding a brain diagram to our slides. It is about aligning what we do in the room with what we know about how change actually happens carefully, collaboratively, and within our scope of practice.

As you consider your professional development for the year ahead, you might like to ask: where in my work am I offering true emotional rewiring, and where am I mainly helping clients manage?

If you are curious about parts-based, memory-re consolidation-aligned ways of working, Resource Therapy offers a clear, humane framework for doing just that. Training with Master clinicians Chris and Philipa (President of Resource Therapy International) at the Australia Resource Therapy Institute in 2026 is one pathway to deepen this work.

References

Ecker, B., Ticic, R., & Hulley, L. (2012). Unlocking the emotional brain: Eliminating symptoms at their roots using memory reconsolidation. New York, NY: Routledge.

Emmerson, G. (2014). Resource Therapy: The complete guide. Melbourne, Australia: Resource Therapy International.

Lane, R. D., Ryan, L., Nadel, L., & Greenberg, L. (2015). Memory reconsolidation, emotional arousal, and the process of change in psychotherapy: New insights from brain science. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 69, 47–59.

December 1, 2025December 1, 2025

Celebrating 11 Years – Last Day for Early Bird: Advanced Parts Work Bali + Online

Advanced Parts work Resource Therapy Book Gordon Emmerson

Today is the final day for the early bird rate for our 2026 Hybrid Clinical Resource Therapy Program – an advanced parts work training for psychologists and therapists who want deeper, faster, trauma-informed results with complex clients.

As we celebrate 11 years of the Australia Resource Therapy Institute, Chris and I are opening this cohort to a small group of clinicians who are ready to go beyond “tools and tips” and learn a complete, parts-based clinical framework grounded in Professor Gordon Emmerson, PhD’s Resource Therapy.

This ADVANCED PARTS WORK is suitable for:
• Psychologists and clinical registrars
• Mental health social workers and counsellors
• Therapists working with complex trauma, dissociation, attachment wounds, chronic anxiety, depression, and addictions

Why this training stands out (our positioning):
• A clear, evidence-informed model – not a grab-bag of techniques
• Direct, on-deck work with parts (Resource States) using 15 defined Treatment Actions
• Integrates attachment, memory reconsolidation, and nervous system work in a way that is practical, ethical, and client-centred

Hybrid 2026 program structure:
• ONLINE FOUNDATIONS (live, interactive on Zoom)
– Block 1: 22–24 February 2026
– Block 2: 22–24 March 2026

• BALI CLINICAL INTENSIVE – ADVANCED PARTS WORK IN PRACTICE
– 10–12 June and 15–17 June 2026
– Focus on live demos, supervised practice, complex case formulation, and bringing RT into your existing modality (EMDR, EFT, Imago, CBT, DBT, schema, AC,T and more)

What will you walk away with?
• A complete, step-by-step parts-based roadmap for assessment and treatment
• Confidence to work with “too much” emotion, stuck trauma responses and dissociative presentations
• Scripts, language, and session structures you can use immediately in private practice or public settings
• A Clinical Resource Therapist certification (on successful completion and assessment)

EARLY BIRD CLOSES 1 DECEMBER.

After today, the full fee applies, and places are limited so we can keep the training experiential, safe, and well supervised.

If you are curious, drawn to parts work, or already doing EMDR, schema, IFS-style work, this program will give you a powerful, structured way to deepen what you do – without burning out.

Reply to this message, email me at philipa@resourcetherapy.com.au, or visit resourcetherapy.com.au to secure your early bird place.

Warmly,
Philipa Thornton
President – Resource Therapy International
Co-Director – Australia Resource Therapy Institute

October 17, 2025October 17, 2025

When Talk Isn’t Enough: How Parts Work Heals Couples After Trauma

TraumahealingTherapisttrainingworkshopwithinternationalguestinpersonSydney

When trauma enters the couple dynamic, talk therapy alone often isn’t enough. Integrating parts work, such as Resource Therapy alongside Imago, EFT, Gottman, PACT, art therapy, and somatic therapy, helps therapists reach beneath conflict to the wounded parts of each partner, restoring safety, connection, and repair.

Why Isn’t Talk Therapy Enough?

Even the most experienced couples therapist knows the moment when dialogue breaks down, when one partner shuts down, the other escalates, and connection feels out of reach. Beneath these reactions often lie unhealed trauma and protective parts that keep both partners stuck in familiar patterns of pain.

Traditional communication techniques, while valuable, cannot always touch the raw emotional injuries that live in the body and nervous system. As neuroscientist Daniel Siegel (2012) reminds us, “Integration is health.” Without integrating the fragmented self – those younger, reactive, or overwhelmed parts – relationships remain in a state of survival mode.

This is where parts work offers profound leverage.

How Parts Work Transforms the Couple Space

Approaches such as Resource Therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Ego State Therapy recognise that we all have multiple “selves” or Resource States with their own memories, emotions, and strategies for safety.

In couples therapy, these states interact across the relationship. One partner’s Vaded in Fear part might activate the other’s Retro Avoidant protector. The cycle continues until each state can be compassionately met, heard, and healed.

As Maureen McEvoy, MA, RCC (Canada), says:

“When trauma shows up in couples therapy, we can’t stay at the level of communication skills. We need to help each partner recognise and regulate the parts that get triggered in the dance.”

By giving these parts a voice through dialogue, imagination, somatic awareness, and creative interventions, therapists create a bridge between the internal world and the relational field. The result is genuine repair, not just behavioural change.

Integrating Attachment, Neuroscience, and Somatic Work

Research across attachment theory and neuroscience supports this integration.

Bowlby (1988) showed that early attachment ruptures shape adult intimacy.
Porges (2011) explained, through the polyvagal theory, how safety and connection depend on the regulation of the nervous system.
van der Kolk (2014) demonstrated that trauma is stored not only in memory but also in the body, requiring somatic processing.

Somatic and art therapies help externalise, and re-regulate these implicit memories.

Through drawing, movement, or guided imagery, clients can express what words cannot.

When integrated with parts-based awareness and relational attunement, these creative modalities become powerful vehicles for healing.

Inside the Workshop: Healing Trauma, Restoring Connection

🗓 8–9 November 2025

📍 Sydney – Crows Nest Community Centre

🎓 12 CPD hours (PACFA, ACA, AASW, ASCH, AAPI, APS)

👩🏫 Presenter: Maureen McEvoy, MA, RCC (Canada)

🟡 Sponsored by Australian Resource Therapy Institute (ARTI)

In this two-day exclusive training, Maureen McEvoy, an internationally respected trauma and Imago couples specialist of Canada, guides therapists through experiential, embodied learning. Participants will:

Understand the what, why and how of trauma-informed couples work
Practise mapping reactive and protective parts between partners
Learn somatic regulation and co-regulation strategies
Explore integration methods from Imago, Gottman, EFT, PACT, Art therapy, Somatic Therapy and parts work
Build confidence in managing high-intensity emotional sessions

Every exercise is grounded in safety, compassion, and practical skill-building. Numbers are strictly limited to ensure personalised attention and rich peer learning.

You will leave not only inspired but equipped to use these approaches immediately in your own practice. Plus the added benefit of refreshing our energy, learning and community connection cup.

Imago Case Consultation Day – 10 November 2025

For those wanting to extend their learning, Maureen McEvoy, in association with the Australian Imago Relationship Therapy Association (AIRTA), will offer an Imago Case Consultation Day on Monday, 10 November 2025.

This optional day provides an opportunity for Imago therapists to:

Present their own cases for group consultation – videos welcome
Receive direct feedback and supervision from Maureen
Deepen understanding of Imago theory in complex trauma cases
Explore how parts work and attachment models can complement the Imago dialogue

Why This Matters for Therapists

Working with couples in the relational space can be some of the most rewarding and confronting clinical work we do. When we can recognise the inner worlds operating beneath conflict, we move from blame to understanding, from fear to connection.

Parts work reminds us that no partner is the enemy; the true problem lies in the protective adaptations of wounded parts trying to stay safe. Healing begins when both partners can witness and integrate these inner dynamics with curiosity rather than defence.

Join Us in Sydney

Join us in Sydney this November to experience how trauma-informed parts work can transform your couples’ sessions.

👉 Secure your place today: Healing Trauma Nov 8/9

Maureen, and I can’t wait to meet you there!

References

Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent–child attachment and healthy human development. New York, Basic Books.

Emmerson, G., & Essing, C. (2025). Therapist Gold: Treating fear-based trauma and attachment trauma. Melbourne, Australia: Old Golden Point Press.

Porges, S. W. (2011). The polyvagal theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

Siegel, D. J. (2012). The pocket guide to interpersonal neurobiology: An integrative handbook of the mind. New York: W. W. Norton & Company.

van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. New York: Viking.