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.

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

Tag: attachment and trauma

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