FREE Live training with Anna Sterk, LMFT, and Terry Real

When a Great Relationship Doesn’t Equal Great Sex

Unblocking Desire & Unlocking the Dance of Bad Sex

🗓 Wednesday, February 26, 12 – 1:30 PM ET

FREE Live training with Anna Sterk, LMFT, and Terry Real

(Please still register if you can’t attend live and we’ll email you the replay.)

FREE Live training with Anna Sterk, LMFT, and Terry Real

When a Great Relationship Doesn’t Equal Great Sex

Unblocking Desire & Unlocking the Dance of Bad Sex

🗓 Wednesday, February 26, 12 – 1:30 PM ET

Enter Your Details Below

(Please still register if you can’t attend live and we’ll email you the replay.)

Join the FREE live training to explore:

  • Does improving a couple’s relationship automatically improve their sex life?
… and does better sex automatically mean a better relationship?
  • Bringing up the topic of sex—why is it so hard? Why do some therapists hesitate to address sex unless clients do? How to overcome discomfort and address the "taboo."
  • What’s really behind sex problems?
Is it a sex problem or a transition problem? Understanding the different blocks to desire and tips on identifying them.
  • Is there ever room for objectification in love?
How can we help clients navigate the complex shift from seeing each other as domestic partners to sexual beings?
  • How do you know if there’s something deeper going on?
Understanding how each partner’s sexual “stance” shapes their dynamic.

There’ll be Q&A with Anna & Terry at the end of this 90-minute session, so we recommend staying right to the end to get the most from your time.

Register for FREE

About Your Teachers

Anna Sterk,

LMFT, Senior RLT Therapist & Educator

A certified RLT therapist since 2017, Anna Sterk (she/her), is a senior member of the Relational Life Institute Faculty. Her clinical career has been focused on systems and relationships from the beginning. She has worked in community mental health, eating disorder treatment, and private practice.

As she worked with couples and sexuality, Anna found that the way sex was discussed in trainings—and Western culture at large—didn’t match what she was seeing in her office. She drew on her history of training in feminist and cultural studies, integrated with her training as a systemic therapist, to find a way of working with couples—and sex and sexuality specifically—that really took root when she began studying with Terry Real in 2012. 

She found that RLT provided the framework, techniques, and skills that made the abstract ideas make sense and created the path that Anna’s life and work have taken since that first training. Anna is now at the forefront of shaping how RLT tools and principles can translate to sex therapy, helping transform our relationships to sex—both within ourselves and with our partners.

Terry Real,

Creator of Relational Life Therapy

Terry Real, LICSW, is an internationally recognized family therapist, sought-after speaker, and bestselling author, who has transformed how we approach relationships. 

He is the creator of Relational Life Therapy (RLT), a groundbreaking therapeutic approach that equips people with the essential relational skills to build and sustain authentic connections—to themselves, each other, and the planet as a whole. 

The author of four books, Terry’s most recent is the New York Times bestseller, Us: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship, which guides readers toward deeper intimacy and fulfillment. 

Known as “the turnaround guy,” Terry is famous for his extraordinary ability to save couples on the brink of divorce. Through his esteemed training school, the Relational Life Institute, he has trained thousands of mental health practitioners in his RLT method to date.

Terry is committed to relational empowerment, helping everyone develop the skills needed for meaningful, lasting relationships.

Hear From Your Peers

What other mental health practitioners say about Anna, Terry, and RLT.

“I also learned a lot from Anna’s own experiences and how she shows up as an RLT therapist. She demonstrated how we can personalize the work and we don’t have to show up exactly as Terry does. Good to know!

Michelle

The practical and positive approach of RLT has helped my clients see change almost immediately. By weaving past trauma and its impact on relationships and by building new skills together, my clients have expressed new deep and meaningful connections. RLT is not just a training program,it is a community that works in unity to offer ongoing support to therapists as well as clients.

Clare Mézes, MSc, RP, Toronto, Canada

Terry’s work provided foundations of “telling the truth” to clients. I did it easily with individuals but stumbled with couples. Now I LOVE working with couples. It is now always profoundly moving & instructive.

Jeanne O.

Learn How To Unblock Desire and Unlock the Dance of Bad Sex

Register for FREE

(Please still register if you can’t attend live and we’ll email you the replay.)

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CE REQUIREMENTS:

The Relational Life Institute is pleased to offer:

Working With Men

Relational Life Institute (RLI) has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7495. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. Relational Life Institute (RLI) is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs.

ACEP No. 7495

FORMAT: A LIVE Online Course facilitated by Terry Real, LICSW; and Julie Rudiger, LCSW

Continuing Education credits offered: 12  credit hours

Course Description:

Over eight live online classes, learn the skills to engage, motivate, and create breakthrough change with resistant male clients in this live, practice-focused training led by renowned couples therapist and male-psychology expert Terry Real, alongside RLT Faculty Member Julie Rudiger, LCSW. Grounded in Relational Life Therapy (RLT), the course unpacks how patriarchal conditioning and performance-based self-worth fuel disconnection, defensiveness, and shutdown, then shows you how to build trust with even the most challenging men through clear, compassionate confrontation that preserves the therapeutic alliance. You’ll learn to create effective leverage for transformation without triggering collapse, withdrawal, or escalated resistance; tailor interventions for the three common presentations—“boys, bullies, and avoiders”; and reframe masculinity so emotional expression is aligned with strength, honor, and integrity rather than weakness. Through demonstrations and actionable tools from both instructors, you’ll guide men in trauma healing and relational skill development that supports healthier partnerships and parenting. Leave with a concrete RLT roadmap you can use immediately to help clients move from resistance to responsibility and from disconnection to genuine intimacy.

Learning Objectives: At the completion of this course, participants can expect to be able to:

  • Summarize the cultural shaping of masculinity and its consequences.
  • Recognize shame and grandiosity as dual defenses tied to male self-worth.
  • Develop skills to help men shift from defensiveness to compassion.
  • Identify how shame and performance-based esteem show up in male clients.
  • Discuss culturally sensitive ways to challenge entitlement and grandiosity.
  • Identify and work with three major types of difficult men: boys, bullies, and avoiders.
  • Describe how to use leverage as a tool to create change.
  • Identify patterns of resistance in men and learn how to engage them effectively.
  • Utilize leverage to create internal or external motivation for change.
  • Illustrate empowerment to the partner or family system to create pressure that opens the door to transformation.
  • Compare and differentiate between their wounded child, adaptive child, and functional adult selves.
  • Develop an internal caregiving relationship with their inner children rather than expecting partners to repair old wounds.
  • Demonstrate full relational responsibility as an adult, especially in high-conflict, high-defensiveness relationships.

Target Audience: Social Workers, MFTs, Counselors, Substance Abuse Counselors, Nurses, and LMHCs, LMFT’s, Educators, Coaches, Chemical Dependency Counselors 

Course Content Level: The course content is appropriate for Beginner level clinicians.

Cost:   $497 or three payments of $197 each.

Course Date & Hours:   

1pm-2:30pm Eastern Time on:

September 10, 17, 24; October 1, 8, 2025 

TO REGISTER: https://relationallife.com/working-with-men

Cancellation Policy: You may cancel your registration up until September 16, 2025

Please contact support@terryreal.com if you wish to cancel.

If you need special accommodations or have questions, please contact us at support@terryreal.com 

Please contact our Support team if you have any questions support@terryreal.com 

Instructor’s Bio:

Terry Real, LICSW: Terry Real is the bestselling author of I Don’t Want to Talk About It: Overcoming the Secret Legacy of Male Depression, the straight-talking How Can I Get Through to You? Reconnecting Men and Women, The New Rules of Marriage: What You Need to Make Love Work and most recently Us: Getting Past You & Me to Build a More Loving Relationship just debuted in June 2022.  Terry founded the Relational Life Institute, offering workshops for couples, individuals, and parents as well as a professional training program for clinicians.   Terry’s work, with its rigorous commonsense approach, speaks to both men and women. A proponent of “full-throttle marriage,” Terry has been called “the most innovative voice in thinking about and treating men and their relationships in the world today.”

Julie Rudiger, LCSW has been a Licensed Clinical Social Worker for the last 30 years. In 2002, Julie opened her private practice, where she has helped hundreds of individuals and couples over the last two decades. Her professional journey took a transformative turn in 2008 when she began training with Terry Real, the founder of Relational Life Therapy (RLT). Julie has since used RLT to guide clients in discovering self-esteem, healing early wounds, and fostering deeper, more authentic relationships. A faculty member at the Relational Life Institute since 2022, Julie now trains other therapists and leads community workshops, including Men’s Groups and Relationship Skills Bootcamps. Additionally, she is trained in EMDR, ACT, DBT, Gestalt, and the Enneagram.

CONFLICT of Interest: There is no known conflict of interest or commercial support for this event.

Grievance Procedure:

If a student believes they have been discriminated against, they can submit a written complaint that includes their name, address, phone number, location, date, and a detailed description of the issue. If a student with a disability disagrees with the accommodation provided or has any other grievances, they can schedule a meeting to discuss and attempt to find a solution together. If the student is still not satisfied with the accommodation after further discussion, they can contact the Operations Director for

the Relational Life Institute (RLI), Lisa Sullivan, via phone, email, or mail. If the grievance cannot be resolved, the complainant will be advised to contact the appropriate Ethics Committee or Licensing Board. The Operations Director will keep all grievances and their resolutions confidential in locked files.

A copy of this Grievance Procedure is available upon request.

Contact information: ACEP Administrator & Operations Director for Relational Life Institute (RLI), Lisa Sullivan follows: 291 Nahanton Street, Newton, MA 02459; 617-861-3030 lisa@relationallife.com