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Has Your Therapist Really Heard Your Story?

A sunset sky fades from orange to deep purple over a calm ocean. Bold cream text reads: “Did your therapist really hear you?” with a thinking face emoji placed beside the words. The design feels warm, reflective, and inviting, evoking curiosity and self-reflection.

When you think back on therapy you’ve had, or maybe therapy you’re in right now, what stands out?

Many people tell me they loved their therapist’s kindness, or they felt safe, seen, and heard for the first time in years. Others share a very different experience: sessions felt surface-level, not connected, or the real issues – trauma, heartbreak, betrayal, or childhood wounds – never seemed to get airtime.

💭 So here’s our challenge to you:
What did you most want from therapy, and did you get it? Be brave, and say it.

  • Did you wish your therapist had asked about your past?
  • Did you feel your trauma was addressed – or avoided?
  • Did you want more practical tools?
  • Or simply someone to sit with you and really listen?
  • Something else?

For Couples

If you’ve been in couples therapy, the answers can be even more layered:

  • Did you want the therapist to take your side – or to truly stay neutral?
  • Did you feel they understood the depth of your pain when conflict flared?
  • Did the sessions get stuck in communication skills, or did they help you reach the real wounds beneath the fights?
  • Is there more?
  • Did you and your partner walk out closer… or further apart?

So many couples tell me:
“We just wanted hope.”
“We wanted to feel safe again.”
“We wanted to know if love could be rebuilt.”

Why Your Answers Matter

I train and supervise therapists across Australia and internationally. Time and again, therapists ask: “What do clients actually want from us?”

It’s one thing to study models and techniques. It’s another to hear directly from the people therapy is meant to help – you.

Your words, even a single sentence – could change how therapists are taught, how they listen, and how they show up for the next person who sits across from them.

Share Your Thoughts (Anonymously if You Wish)

👉 Pop your response in the comments below. If you’d prefer, you can write “Anonymous” instead of your name.

I’ll gather these insights (without identifying details) and share them with therapists in training, so your voice can help shape the future of therapy.

✨ Whether you’ve had years of therapy, just a few sessions, or you’re considering it for the first time, your perspective is invaluable.

So I’ll ask again. And this time, I dare and care you to answer:
What did you most want from therapy – as an individual or as a couple? And did it feel like you got it?

📌 Please note: Comments are for reflection and learning, not a substitute for professional support. If you need urgent help, reach out to your GP, a counsellor, or Lifeline (13 11 14 in Australia).

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Trauma-Informed Couples Therapy: Essential Skills for Therapists

3 needs every relationship therapist needs for trauma informed training workshop in Sydney with international presenter rare appearance

Concrete tools and community for the moments when dialogue is not enough

The couple sits across from you. Her eyes fall to the floor, as do her tears. His arms fold tight across his chest, his face grim – frozen. The Imago dialogue tool you had planned now feels impossible.

This is the moment when trauma has entered the room.

Most relationship therapists know this dynamic well. You have the skills, the training, the frameworks. But sometimes the silence, the shutdown, or the sudden outburst is not about the argument at hand. They are trauma speaking.

What Therapists Really Want from Training

Relational therapists across modalities like Imago, EFT, PACT, Gottman Relationship therapy share a similar vision for trauma-informed training. Three needs appear again and again.

1. Confidence in the Therapy Room

Therapists want to know exactly what to do when trauma shows up between partners. They want more than theory. They want clear steps that integrate with their existing models.

At the workshop: You will explore what we call the 3 R’s of Trauma Informed Couples Work™ – Recognise trauma’s presence, support partners to Regulate, and Restore connection. These principles are woven through Maureen McEvoy’s integrative approach, and you will leave with practical scripts, somatic practices, and concrete interventions you can use immediately.

2. Connection with Peers

Couples’ work can feel lonely. Therapists long for a community that “gets it.” Shared wisdom. Validation that their struggles are not unique.

At the workshop, You will join colleagues from Imago, EFT, Gottman, PACT, creative arts and other modalities. It is more than a training. It is a gathering of therapists who share your vision. You will come as colleagues and leave as friends.

3. Skills that Align with Values

Therapists want approaches that honour their clients’ humanity. They want non-pathologising, strengths-based methods that are deeply respectful of client experience.

It is in the doing. You will experience these innovations by applying what you are learning as we go through the program. No long lectures, Maureen’s practical exercises will land as you embody them ready for your next couples session.

At the workshop: With more than 30 years of trauma and couples therapy experience, Maureen shows and teaches how to weave somatic, arts-based, and polyvagal methods into existing frameworks in ways that fit your values and deepen your practice.

Why this Matters Now

Trauma is not a side issue. It is often the reason couples disconnect. Dialogue tools alone are not enough. To stay at the forefront of the field, trauma-informed training is essential. Clients are already asking for it. Tomorrow’s therapists will be defined by it.

About Your Presenter

Maureen McEvoy, MA, RCC (Canada) has worked in the field of trauma for over 30 years. She is a long-standing instructor with the Justice Institute of British Columbia and provides clinical consultation to therapists and agencies. Maureen is a senior Imago Therapy faculty member. She draws from her learnings in hypnosis, Parts work, Ego State Therapy, Gottman, somatic therapy, Pat Ogden’s sensorimotor therapy, arts therapy, Stan Tatkins’ PACT, EFT, and Polyvagal theory. Colleagues say: “Maureen has a gift for making the complex feel simple and the difficult feel possible.”

The Workshop

Healing Trauma, Restoring Connection
📅 8–9 November 2025, Sydney
👩‍🏫 Presenter: Maureen McEvoy, MSW, RSW (Canada)
🟡 Sponsored by Australian Resource Therapy Institute (ARTI)
🔗 Secure your place

💡 Eligible for 12 CPD Hours PACFA, ACA, ASCH, AASW, AAPI, AIRTA, APS Members

We Can’t Wait to Meet You!

Do not wait until you are back in the therapy room wishing you had more trauma tools. Places are limited, and the Early Bird rate ends soon. Join us in Sydney for a community of peers, the confidence to meet trauma in the room, and the skills to restore connection.

👉 Secure your place today, tickets selling fast

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🎥 A Rare Conversation with Maureen McEvoy: Trauma, Dissociation, and Couples Therapy

Healing Trauma, Restoring Connection Couple Therapist training for working with relationship trauma Imago Maureen McEvoy in Sydney

By Philipa Thornton | Australian Resource Therapy Institute

A couple sits in front of you. One partner shuts down, eyes glazed. The other leans forward, voice rising in frustration. The air is heavy.

As the therapist, your chest tightens. Do you try dialogue? Do you redirect? Do you wait?

This is trauma in the room. And it’s the kind of moment that Maureen McEvoy, MA, RCC-ACS, has spent her career helping therapists navigate.

📺 Watch the interview on The Resourceful Therapist

On our YouTube channel, The Resourceful Therapist, I sat down with Maureen for a powerful conversation about trauma, dissociation, and couples therapy.

Maureen holds a Masters in Counselling Psychology and is a Registered Clinical Counsellor and Approved Clinical Supervisor in British Columbia. For over 30 years, she has guided therapists in staying grounded when trauma and dissociation collide with relationship pain. We are so grateful to have her visiting us in Sydney!

In this special feature, Maureen shares:

  • Why trauma shows up in almost every couple’s story.
  • How dissociation is often misinterpreted as stonewalling or abandonment.
  • A live mini-exercise you can use tomorrow to restore safety in session.
  • A preview of her signature 3 R’s Trauma-Informed Couples Framework™.

👉 Watch the full interview here: The Resourceful Therapist

Trauma-informed couples therapy: why it matters now

Traditional models like Imago, EFT, or Gottman all offer powerful tools. But without a trauma lens, even the best interventions can falter.

  • EFT can stall when a partner dissociates.
  • Gottman repair attempts collapse if the nervous system is flooded.
  • Imago dialogue breaks down if safety isn’t restored first.

What therapists need now is a multi-modal, trauma-informed approach — one that honours both the nervous system and the couple’s bond.

That’s exactly what Maureen brings: an integrative method that combines Imago, Gottman, somatic trauma therapies, and her 3 R’s Trauma-Informed Couples Framework™.

Dissociation in relationships: what therapists need to know

Many of us have seen it:

  • A partner “goes blank” during conflict – frozen.
  • Another escalates, desperate for a response – fight response.
  • Both feel misunderstood, abandoned, or attacked.

What looks like rejection is often a survival strategy.

What looks like anger may be fear in disguise.

As Maureen puts it: “When we understand trauma as survival, we stop pathologising and start creating safety with polyvagal tools. That’s when healing becomes possible.”

The hidden challenge: loneliness in practice

Private practice can be deeply rewarding. But it can also be lonely.

We carry the most painful stories, often with no team around us. When trauma and relational distress collide, it can feel overwhelming to hold it all by ourselves.

That’s why the Healing Trauma, Restoring Connection workshop is more than CPD. It’s a gathering of colleagues who “get it.” A rare chance to step out of isolation, learn together, and leave feeling not only more skilled, but also more supported.

Sydney CPD workshop: Healing Trauma, Restoring Connection

🧠 Healing Trauma, Restoring Connection with Maureen McEvoy, MA, RCC-ACS
📍 Crows Nest Community Centre, Sydney
📅 8–9 November 2025 | 9.00 am – 5.00 pm
🎓 12 CPD Hours (PACFA, ACA, APS, AASW, ASCH, AAPI)

Over two immersive days, you will:

  • Identify how trauma and dissociation shape couple dynamics.
  • Apply trauma-informed interventions in moments of escalation or withdrawal.
  • Integrate methods from Imago Relationship Therapy , EFT, Gottman, PACT, creative arts, and somatic approaches.
  • Strengthen your own presence and regulation in high-intensity sessions.
  • Reduce burnout while holding complex trauma stories.
  • Practise experiential tools that restore connection, not just communication.

Seats are limited to 50 therapists only to preserve intimacy and depth of experiential learning.

👉 Secure your place now: https://resourcetherapy.com.au/professional-training/master-classes/

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