2025 WAMFT April Webinar

Dr. Harvey Joanning is an Emeritus Professor, Founder and Former Director, Marriage and Family Therapy Doctoral Program, a Helen LeBaron Hilton Teaching Award Recipient, Iowa State University.  He is currently an Adjunct Professor and Co-Director of the Neurobiology of Relationships Study, Department of Psychology, University of South Alabama.  He is past recipient of the Outstanding Postgraduate Research Contribution Award, and a Fellow in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.  He is also a member of the American Psychological Association.  He is licensed as a Psychologist and Marriage and Family Therapist in Iowa; and as a Marriage and Family Therapist in Alabama.  Dr. Joanning is also an instructor for the Institute for Natural Resources, a non-profit continuing education program for health and mental health profession in the United States and Canada.  He has made over 150 professional conference presentations in North American and Europe.

The Neurobiology and Treatment of Couples

The presentation will focus on the Neurobiology and Treatment of Couples.  Primary emotion systems in the brain and endocrine systems that drive each stage of relationship development: Romance, Attraction, and Attachment, will be described.  Strategies and interventions based on neuroscience will be detailed for assisting couples at each stage of relationship development.  Particular emphasis will be given to dealing with couples in distressed relationships.  How these neuropsychological strategies add to “talk therapy” will be detailed.  The presentation will also include video of a neurobiologically informed therapy session with a couple.  Strategies for working with couples that include attention to primary positive and negative emotion brain systems, and hormones that promote or inhibit relationships will be demonstrated.  Integrating such interventions with the work of the Gottman’s, Sue Johnson, and Brent Atkinson will be discussed.  Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions about the interventions used.  The presenter will also describe advanced brain focused interventions being developed to augment talk therapy with couples.

Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to identify primary emotion systems in the brain.
2. Participants will be able to identify hormones that drive intimate human behavior.
3. Participants will be able to better assist distressed couples to improve their relationships.
4. Participants will be able to integrate brain focused interventions into current models of couple therapy.

Continuing Education Units

You can receive up to 4.0 Ethics CEs for this webinar series. Click Here for information on CEs. Approved for LMFTs, LPCs, and LCSWs in Wisconsin.

Non-Members

Non-members wishing to register for events will need to create a prospective member account. This will provide you with an AAMFT account but you will not have to pay dues. This way you can register for any event with us in the future!