Join Real Life: Continuous Education for Relationship Professionals

Enhance Your Expertise and Expand Your Practice with Terry Real (CEs are not offered)

1. Learn

directly from Terry to elevate your couples work.

2. Grow

your practice with specialist business training.

3. Connect

with a community
of like-minded colleagues.

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  • 14 day money-back guarantee

The group has accelerated my understanding, practice and confidence as a therapist. I have gained a huge amount particularly from working with Terry on cases I have presented and from listening to fellow RLT therapists work.”

— Victoria Shalet, RLT Practitioner, London UK

Terry Real

A Letter From Terry Real

Welcome to Real Life!

As new cases and challenges arise in your practice, navigating them alone is overwhelming. Real Life is a safe place to turn in those moments when you wonder, “What do I do now?”

Consider this community your lifeline—an encouraging network to call upon for fresh perspectives and creative solutions. 

In our live calls, you’ll come together with senior RLT therapists and educators, like-minded peers, and myself. Each month, we dive deep into a particular aspect of your work with couples—topics from recent months include working with two blatant and protecting yourself from burnout. You’ll also have the opportunity to receive input on your cases from the faculty and me.

Our Real Life community is designed to accelerate your professional growth, helping you strengthen your skills and deliver improved outcomes for your clients. 

Not only that, we also recognize the importance of providing you with all the support you need to build a thriving therapy business. This is why we host a monthly business call to help you establish a new practice or grow an existing one. 

Real Life is the only place I share my latest thinking on the most effective strategies for transforming relationships. It’s where you can seek my advice and guidance on your specific cases as you grow your skills as a couples therapist or coach. 

When you join Real Life, you unlock the supportive connection, continuous learning, and business knowledge you need to build a thriving couples therapy practice.

What Will Real Life Do for You?

 As a Real Life member, you will grow your skills as a relationship professional, receive input on your difficult cases, and access training on the business side of your practice.

LIVE Learning with Terry Real
LIVE Learning with Terry RealReal Life is the closest access you can get to Terry Real and get his answers to your questions and support on your clinical cases. Via two LIVE calls each month, you’ll access Terry’s latest thinking on specific aspects of working with couples to enhance your skills and improve client outcomes.
Receive Support on Challenging Cases
Receive Support on Challenging Cases Twice a month, the RLT faculty—senior RLT therapists and educators —will host live calls around the month’s theme to offer further insights. You can seek their advice on your challenges and specific clinical cases in a supportive, non-judgmental environment.
Evolve Your Couples Therapy Skills
Evolve Your Couples Therapy Skills As a Real Life member, you’ll be at the forefront of new developments in the RLT approach. You’ll join an exclusive group of practitioners who first benefit from new perspectives, as we take an in-depth look at a particular aspect of your couples work each month.
Support in Growing Your Practice
Support in Growing Your PracticeReceive expert advice and support from Terry’s wider RLT team on the business side of therapy. Whether you wish to establish a new practice or grow an existing one, we’re on hand to help with one dedicated 60-minute business call a month.
Meet Your CE Requirements
Meet Your CE Requirements 24 CE credits are available every year as a Real Life member. Enhance your professional growth in a way that you know aligns with your values, mission, and interests as you dive deep into the nuances of Relational Life Therapy.
Connect with Like-Minded Peers
Connect with Like-Minded PeersLearning is more enjoyable when you’re with a community of peers who share your values. In Real Life, you’ll come together with colleagues in the couples therapy field who share your passion for healing relationships.

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How is Real Life Structured?

Our community comes together for five live 60-minute calls each month. Four of these calls are where you explore the month’s topic in-depth, centered around a particular aspect or challenge of your work with couples. Each call consists of dedicated teaching time from either Terry or the RLT faculty and also Q&A.

 

Terry hosts two calls each month. The first is open for all Real Life members to ask questions. The second takes a more advanced look at the monthly topic through the lens of those highly experienced in the RLT model. All members can watch the call live and access the recording; however, questions and case consultations will be exclusively from advanced RLT practitioners (those who have completed RLT Level 3 or are Certified RLT therapists).

 

Our fifth call provides training on the business side of your practice, delivered by Terry’s wider team.

An Overview of Everything You Get
  • 2 LIVE monthly calls with Terry Real
  • 2 LIVE monthly calls with RLT faculty
  • 1 LIVE monthly therapy business call
  • Client handouts
  • Call recordings from the previous 12 months
  • Access to a private membership site

Plus Receive These Bonuses

Terry On-Demand: Ever-Growing Library of Advice Videos From Terry Real

Search the library of short recorded videos from Terry to receive his advice on pressing and challenging topics outside of your regular calls. You’ll find answers to challenges such as what to do when you take the wrong side or have an overly compliant client.

We currently have 37 videos for you to search and we’re adding more each month—these will include standout responses to questions from the Real Life calls, so a great resource to check if you’re short on time. 

What’s in the library:

Special Expert Interviews
Ed Tronick, PhD, infant observational researcher
  • Mother / Infant Relationships Are Messy – And So Are Yours: What Infant Observational Research Can Teach Couples Therapists
Carol Gilligan, American feminist, ethicist, psychologist, and author
  • From Boys to Men – Trauma and the Culture of Masculinity
  • Re-Imagining Adam & Eve: New Directions for Intimacy

Dick Schwartz, PhD, founder of Internal Family Systems (IFS)

  • Working the Many Parts of Men: From Anger to Self Compassion

Esther Perel, relationship, sex, and intimacy therapist

  • Modern Infidelity
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Our Upcoming Discussion Topics

A look at what we’ll be exploring together in the coming months.

January 2025

February 2025

March 2025

April 2025

What’s New in RLT?
This month, we’ll review updates in RLT from the past year, including new concepts introduced in 2024. We’ll also check-in with students and reflect on what they’ve accomplished and added to their practices this year.
Empathy
This month explores empathy as the foundation for Phase 1: Data Gathering. We’ll examine how detachment from outcome allows for empathy between practitioner and client. We’ll also cover what it means to “resonate with the point of emotional urgency,” and how to support the development of empathy between partners.
The Difference That Makes the Difference: How To Know Where To Intervene?
In March, we’ll discuss why RLT isn’t 50/50—and why it works. We’ll also address the Point of Inflection and why it matters, how to decide where to put your focus in interventions, and how to use the therapeutic tactics of Taking Sides and Blocking and Repositioning effectively.
Family Therapy PT 1: How To Think Systemically?
We’ll delve into the background of systems thinking, from Palo Alto and Milan to Boston and beyond. We’ll examine the impact of Feminist Family Therapy and the importance of other systems-based models on RLT. Additionally, we’ll discuss the differences between intervening at the systemic level versus the individual level, and the use of a non-pathologizing stance which fundamentally shapes RLT thinking and work.
September 2023: The 5 Winning Strategies
We’ll discuss the strategies that empower couples to succeed in the critical tasks of getting, giving, and having. We will explore how we can help clients sustain their connection, including how to equip them with the skills to get what they need in their relationship, give what they can to the relationship, and cherish, grow, and honor all that they have.
October 2023: Cherishing
Relationships can survive negative reactions (with repair) but they thrive on positive interactions. We’ll explore how we can support clients in making each other feel cherished to sustain their connection. We’ll look at the five domains of relational intimacy and how to work with our clients to keep those domains alive.
November 2023: Transmission/Reception Work
Encouraging couples to open up to the other’s efforts and receive positive changes in behavior is a common challenge which we will explore. How to speak and listen effectively are basic relational skills often lacking in couples. We’ll discuss how we guide our clients in learning the different roles of transmitters (speakers) and receivers (listeners). We’ll consider communication frameworks such as how to make a sincere apology and communicate hurt feelings.
December 2023: Does Competence Trump Gender/Race etc.?
One of the most common questions we hear from women and minorities as they learn to practice RLT is whether they can achieve the same kind of cooperation as a white man when they are waking up clients and joining through the truth. This phase of RLT requires a willingness to confront blatant clients on their dysfunctional behavior in an empathic way. We will explore the barriers that all therapists face in doing this work and engage in conversation, particularly with women and minorities, around their concerns.
January 2023: Open Mic
This entire month is dedicated to addressing your pressing topics, burning questions, and biggest challenges. Whether it’s an especially difficult case or an aspect of RLT you’d like more guidance on, this is an open door to ask Terry and the RLT faculty for their insights.
February 2023: Sex and RLT
Sex is a topic that many clients—and therapists—often find challenging to bring up. We’ll explore how we can be fully prepared to have this discussion with grace, knowledge, and confidence. We’ll consider how we can help our clients with insights without our own biases and assumptions affecting us.

Join the Hundreds of Mental Health Professionals Who Have Strengthened Their Client Outcomes & Practices With Real Life…

“As a relative newcomer to RLT, the group has accelerated my understanding, practice and confidence as a therapist. I have gained a huge amount particularly from working with Terry on cases I have presented and from listening to fellow RLT therapists work. I very much enjoy the sense of belonging to a larger community, especially given that I’m in the UK.”

— Victoria Shalet, MBACP (London, UK)

“Being from a state/city that has very limited RLT therapists the consult group has given me the opportunity to talk with others of like experience and views of couples work. For many years being part of a group that speaks the same language has been very, very professionally enriching.”

— Mercy Dennis, MA, LMFT (Alaska)

“Listening to Terry teach is enlightening and I always gain clarity about concerns that I have about a case that I am working with. I also really like Terry’s uncanny ability to get to the deeper layers of the ‘person of the therapist’ to crystallize my therapeutic approach with clients.”

— Clare Mezes, MSC, RP, RMFT (Ontario, Canada)

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Membership Plans

Choose the plan that best suits your needs.

Annual Plan

$ 499per year
(38% saving)
  •  
Join Annual Plan

Monthly Plan

$ 67per month
  • 2 LIVE monthly calls with Terry Real 2 LIVE monthly calls with RLT faculty 1 LIVE monthly therapy business call Client handouts Call recordings from the previous 12 months Access to a private membership site
Join Monthly Plan

Monthly Plan

$ 67per month
  • 2 LIVE monthly calls with Terry Real 2 LIVE monthly calls with RLT faculty 1 LIVE monthly therapy business call Client handouts Call recordings from the previous 12 months Access to a private membership site
Join Monthly Plan

Annual Plan

$ 499per year
(38% saving)
  •  
Join Annual Plan

Our Promise to You

We’re confident you’ll love Real Life, but we offer a money-back guarantee for your peace of mind. If you join on the annual plan and are not completely satisfied, please contact us at support@terryreal.com within 14 days of purchase and we’ll issue you a full refund, no questions asked. If you join on the monthly plan, you can cancel any time.  

Frequently Asked Questions

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About Terry Real

Terry Real, creator of Relational Life Therapy

Terry Real is an internationally recognized family therapist, 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 mental health practitioners in his RLT method to date.
His original insights on couples therapy, relationships, and men’s issues have been featured in outlets from Oprah and Vogue to The Today Show and CNN. His latest book is the New York Times bestseller, US: Getting Past You and Me to Build a More Loving Relationship.

 

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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