Reconcilable Differences NBCC approved.
Course Description
Target Audience: Social workers, counselor, and other mental health professionals.
Course Content Level: Advanced
Number of CE Hours: 8
Type of CE hours: Clinical
Delivery format: Reading based asynchronous distance learning.
Course completion requirements:
How to Obtain Continuing Education Credit
Please follow the steps below to obtain the necessary contact hours of home study continuing
education credit:
1. Read course objectives.
2. Study the course text:
3. The questions for the final examination are attached here. Answer these questions by marking
your Scantron card:
Write your name on every Scantron card in the space provided. Also write the exam title
in the space marked “Subject”.
True/false examination Mark the Scantron card as follows: Use A for true answers, B for
false answers. Disregard C, D and E.
Multiple-choice questions Choose the letter of the correct answer and mark the Scantron
card accordingly.
Marking the Scantron card Use No. 2 pencil only. Make dark marks. Erase completely to
change.
4. Complete the licensure information on the examination sheet.
5. Return the scantron card, examination sheet and student evaluation of the course.
You’ll need 70% correct score on the post-test for successful completion of the course.
6. Retain a copy of the answers for your record.
Homestead Schools, Inc. is solely responsible for the quality and content of this CE
program and for the selection of its instructor/author, and receives no outside financial
support in the preparation, presentation or implementation of its CE activities.
The sponsor has no affiliation with companies whose products or services are mentioned
in this course material; they are mentioned only for their educational and
informational value. The sponsor’s sole source of revenue is the tuition paid by
participants like you in its CE program.
Instructor Credentials: N/A
ACE Provider Approval Statement: Homestead Schools, Inc., 1070, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Assoiciation of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses for continuing education credit.
ACE provider approval period: 4/2/2023-4/2/2026. Social workers completing this course receive 8 Clinical continuing education credits.
ADA Accomodations: Homestead Schools, Inc. ensures that its facilities accommodate and are accessible according to the standards of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Cancellation/Refund Policy: Should you need to cancel your order or if you are not satisfied with the quality of our course material, you can return the course (before a certificate is issued) within 90 days and receive a prompt and full refund (less shipping and handling.)
Course last updated: December, 2024
Course Outline
Chapter 1: Three Sides to Every Story
Chapter 2: Relationship Problems as Faults
Chapter 3: Relationship Problems as Incompatibilities
Chapter 4: Incompatibilities Over Love and Power
Chapter 5: Confusing Incompatibilities
Chapter 6: Relationship Problems as Vulnerabilities
Chapter 7: Relationship Problems as Solutions
Chapter 8: Acceptance and Change
Chapter 9: Acceptance Through Understanding
Chapter 10: Acceptance Through Compassion
Chapter 11: Acceptance Through Tolerant Distance
Chapter 12: The Dilemmas of Deliberate Change
Chapter 13: Accepting The Foibles of Rules
Chapter 14: Using Your Own Story to Make Genuine Change
Chapter 15: How Change and Intimacy Can Emerge From Defeat
Chapter 16: Violence, Verbal Abuse, and Infidelity
Chapter 17: Couple and Individual Therapy
Learning Objectives
Upon completing this course you’ll be able to:
- Describe the integrative couple therapy approach to counseling.
- List four common triggers for argument.
- Describe how our past affects both the present and the future.
- Explain relationship problems as they arise from incompatibilities.
- Describe the two central dimensions–closeness and power–that are central to all relationships.
- Explain how conflict within one person causes conflict between two people.
- Describe how ambivalence in partners causes confusion in the relationship.
- Describe how dramatic incidents of neglect and the more common, everyday instances of neglect and provocation can cause conflict in a relationship.
- Describe the issues and conflicts raised by power and control.
- Describe how major life stressors and daily stressors affect our vulnerabilities.
- Discuss how ineffective solutions in a relationship can create even bigger problems.
- Distinguish between the content of conflict and the process of conflict.
- Describe how conflicts in a relationship are scaled, positions become polarized and couples become alienated.
- Discuss the anatomy of an argument and show how toxic cures make the problem worse.
- Describe how efforts to reach out for family and friends in times of relationship problems can actually cause more problems.
- Distinguish between acceptance and change.
- Discuss how acceptance and change can help end conflicts in a relationship.
- Weave and tell a story about a couple’s relationship problems that captures the essence of the conflict.
- Discuss how things that are left unsaid in a relationship can escalate conflicts and hard feelings.
- Explain how couples can recover more quickly and more fully if they can discuss the conflict without reengaging in it.
- Distinguish between compassion and tolerance.
- Describe the importance of being able to step back from your conflict, detaching yourself from your emotions.
- Explain when the emotional distance is achievable and even desirable.
- Explain why behavioral changes are easier to make than emotional changes.
- Identify the five crucial conditions that an ultimatum should meet in order for the outcome to be positive.
- Identify five circumstances under which it’s easy for a partner to effect a change.
- List four actions of yours that would make it difficult for your partner to change.
- Describe the importance of communication in acceptance and change.
- Expose the limits and inadequacies of “rules of good communication.”
- Assess the benefits, the risks, and the difficulties of implementing a particular advice to avoid the creation of a reactive problem.
- Describe the pros and cons of “expressing feelings” in terms of psychological and physical benefits.
- Express feelings using “I” statements instead of “You.”
- Describe “active listening” and the roles played by the listener and the speaker.
- Discuss the process of negotiating reasonable compromises to relationship problems.
- Extract emotional messages buried in a conversation between two partners.
- Describe how awareness of emotions can help avert conflicts in a relationship.
- Identify three guidelines for hindsight awareness that may allow a couple to recover more quickly from their arguments.
- Explain how to change your relationship you first have to change yourself.
- Explain how one can stop complaining and criticizing, and take constructive action.
- Describe why it is often important to confront your partner to assert your needs even if doing so may hurt his or her feelings temporarily.
- Outline the strategies to minimize the damage when things are getting out of hand.
- Discuss three categories of action in relationships that should not be tolerated.
- Discuss the prevalence of violence, destruction and physical coercion in married or cohabiting couples.
- Define verbal abuse and distinguish between abusive and non-abusive criticisms.
- Make suggestions that would discourage verbal abuse.
- Describe the impact of infidelity on a relationship and help clients get through the trauma of infidelity.
- Describe couple therapy and distinguish between various forms of therapy.
- Choose an effective couple therapist from among various disciplines.
Evaluation of Individual Objectives
To assess the effectiveness of the course material, we ask that you evaluate your achievement of each learning objective on a scale of A to D (A=excellent, B=good, C=fair, D=unsatisfactory). Please indicate your responses next to each learning objective and return it to us with your completed exam.
Customer Comments
“This was by far the most informative home study course material that I have read!”
– M.H.M., LSW, PA
“Very good book. I learned some new things even after 25 years as a therapist.”