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Expert Training For Relationship Professionals from Leading Therapist Terry Real

Master the Powerful Method to Effectively Work With Couples and Transform Relationships

Discover the Powerful Method to Effectively Work With Couples and Transform Relationships

Request more information to learn how Relational Life Therapy will help you:

  • Quickly identify your clients’ adaptive behaviors & how they affect their relationships.
  • Expertly conduct inner child work to help heal your client’s relational trauma wounds.
  • Teach people powerful relational skills so they can better relate to others.
  • Work with both shame & grandiosity to help people cultivate healthy self-esteem.
  • Shift clients into a collaborative mindset so they can build meaningful relationships.
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What is Relational Life Therapy (RLT)?

Get fresh perspectives and interventions for your couples therapy sessions as you observe Terry Real and Desirae Ysasi work LIVE and in-depth with one couple using Relational Life Therapy.

RLT equips couples therapists and relationship professionals with the powerful tools to elegantly and confidently guide your clients into authentic connection—with themselves, others, and the planet as a whole.

Developed by master couples and family therapist Terry Real, RLT incorporates perspectives and skills from systems therapy, feminist therapy, and coaching, together with current evidence-based modalities, to provide practitioners with an innovative approach to couples work and relationship transformation that breaks many of the rules of traditional therapy.

Where is RLT most effective?

When you train in RLT, you’ll learn to use the model with your clients to support their relational healing. This may be helping them improve their relationship with themselves, their partner, or other areas where relationships are experiencing difficulty, such as with family, friends, or coworkers.

Areas where RLT is especially powerful include:

Couples therapy
Couples therapyRLT takes a radical approach to couples therapy to restore power imbalances and build empathy between partners by conducting inner child work within the couples context, before empowering partners with the skills to embrace an entirely new way of relating.
Inner child healing
Inner child healingRLT supports individuals to heal their relationship with the different parts of themselves. Deep inner child work helps people understand their attachment styles and adaptive behaviors so they can improve their relationships with others.
Building healthy self-esteem
Building healthy self-esteemRLT’s unique take on self-esteem works with both issues of shame and over-confidence (grandiosity) to teach clients how to cultivate a sense of internal worth, not better or less than anyone else.
Coaching
CoachingRLT equips clients with the lifelong relational skills they need to build and sustain healthier, more joyful relationships in every area of their lives.

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“I found my home in RLT…

I've done all kinds of trainings over the years but never found a model that truly fit for me. I had become "eclectic" in my approach, never really mastering any one approach. I longed for a model that encouraged me to myself—open, authentic, and most importantly, effective. I found my home in RLT.

My practice was already very successful, but since RLT certification, it's skyrocketed. I had to close my practice to new clients. It's also allowed me to be more selective about the clients that I work with. And I'm re-energized by the work: I used to be worn out working with couples, but now I love it. Success and making a difference is a powerful antidote to burnout!”
Sig TaylorMSW, RSW, RMFT

“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 MézesMSc, RP, Toronto, Canada

“I have seen clients that have been stuck for years/decades begin to show growth…

The gift of RLT work for the therapist is that you cannot provide this work for your clients without diving into yourself and one’s own personal growth. Which then trickles (or is a waterfall) into our own personal life and relationships that gives me permission to grow, hold myself accountable, see my children’s actions and perspectives change while we all challenge to love ourselves at the same time. On a professional level, I have seen clients that have been stuck for years/decades begin to show growth and move towards their authentic self with pride, dignity and confidence that they’ve never experienced before. Life Changing….”
Stephanie LottMA, LMFT, California
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Who Is Terry Real?

Terry Real, creator of Relational Life Therapy

Terry Real, LICSW, is an internationally recognized family therapist, New York Times bestselling author, and sought-after speaker. 

A former senior faculty member of the Family Institute of Cambridge in Massachusetts and a retired Clinical Fellow of the Meadows Institute in Arizona, Terry is renowned for his ability to save couples on the brink of divorce using the progressive approach he created, Relational Life Therapy. RLT equips people with the powerful relational skills they need to cultivate meaningful connections—to themselves, each other, and the planet as a whole.

Via his esteemed training school, the Relational Life Institute, Terry has trained thousands of relationship professionals in his RLT method to date. His original insights on couples therapy, relationships, and men’s issues have been featured in outlets from Psychotherapy Networker and Forbes to The Today Show and The New York Times.

Esther Perel, psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author

“When I need advice, I call Terry Real. His decades of clinical experience, research, and wisdom are invaluable to my patients, colleagues, and friends.”

Richard  C. Schwartz, Founder of Internal Family Systems

“Terry helps reawaken couples who seem trapped in a long-term stalemate and allows them to move toward growth and fuller Selfhood.”

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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