Love Cycles and Fear Cycles: The Heart and Soul of Couples Therapy On-Demand CE Webinar for therapists, counselors, psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists

 

Love Cycles and Fear Cycles: The Heart and Soul of Couples Therapy - 5 hours


To access the discount form for registering for multiple workshops or participants, please click here.

  • CE Hours Included: 5 (please see below for details)
  • Format: On-Demand Webinar (“Asynchronous”, Non-Interactive) ~ At your leisure this recorded video is to be viewed at your own pace. You may pause, rewind, and fast forward at any point during the videos. You are in complete control of how you view this workshop. It also comes with a PowerPoint and references. There is a quiz at the end to ensure viewing and required by all CE approval organizations.
  • Investment: $120 (provides lifetime access!)
  • Presented by: David Woodsfellow, Ph.D. (see bio below)
  • Date of Recording: July 10, 2026
  • Instruction Level: Advanced
  • Target Audience: Psychologists, Counselors, Social Workers, Marriage & Family Therapists, Athletic Trainers, Pastoral Counselors
  • This workshop is not yet available; by pre-registering, you will receive immediate access when it becomes available in July.

Learning Objectives:

After completing this workshop in its entirety, you will be able to:

  • Construct a diagram of a couple’s Fear Cycle
  • Develop an explanation of a couple’s Fear Cycle using their language
  • Appraise interventions to interrupt that Fear Cycle
  • Construct a diagram of a couple’s Love Cycle
  • Develop an explanation of a couple’s Love Cycle using their language
  • Appraise interventions to promote this Love Cycle
  • Write two common factors in all successful couples therapy

Workshop Description:

Did you ever treat a couple that was “stuck” in a vicious cycle? Do you think you may have another “stuck” couple someday?
The essence of couples therapy is helping people get out of their stuck fear cycle so they can return to their love cycle. Research has shown that successful couples therapy involves (1) thinking systemically and (2) disrupting dysfunctional patterns. This workshop will help you do both. It will give you a visual diagram to help clarify your systemic thinking about fear cycles and love cycles. It will also give you many interventions to help couples disrupt their fear cycles and rebuild their love cycles.

Workshop Agenda:

  • Introduction & Orientation — 15 minutes
    • Workshop roadmap, Q&A logistics, and pacing
    • Common factors in couples therapy
    • Diversity
  • Part 1 Systemic Thinking — 75 minutes
    • Systemic thinking and changing negative cycles
    • Love cycles
    • Classic cycles to expect
  • Part 2 — Understanding Cycles – 75 minutes
    • Demonstration of diagramming a couple’s fear cycle
    • The “four-word” method for assessing any couple’s fear cycle
    • “Homes” and “hearts”: Adding the past and the future to the model
    • Replaying childhood
    • What they really want
  • Part 3 — Changing Cycles – 60 minutes
    • Demonstration of working with a negative cycle
    • Changing cycles: the wrong way and the right way
    • Awareness and insight
    • What you CAN change
    • Behavior change
    • Emotion tolerance
    • Self-control
    • Reframing
    • Compassion for their vulnerability, their childhood, their dreams
  • Part 4 — Limitations and Comparisons —60 min
    • Some things are NOT cycles
    • How universal is this model?
    • Heterosexism? Culturally limited?
    • Comparisons to
    • Hendrix’s power struggle
    • Gottman’s dreams in gridlock
    • Johnson’s negative cycles
    • Real’s “the more the more.”
  • Closing Q&A and Wrap‑Up — 15 min
    • Top takeaways: Fear cycles and love cycles
    • Opportunities for further learning

Presented by: David Woodsfellow, Ph.D.

Dr. David Woodsfellow is a licensed psychologist whose practice is 100% couples therapy. He has been seeing couples -- only couples, no individuals -- since 1999 and has been teaching other therapists about couples therapy for well over 20 years. His workshops are highly engaging and immediately usable.
Dr. Woodsfellow received his B.A. from Harvard, his M.Ed. from Antioch New England, his M.A. from UC Santa Barbara, and his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Georgia State University. He did his clinical psychology internship at the Neuropsychiatric Institute of UCLA Medical School. Dr. Woodsfellow has been personally trained by Drs. Harville Hendrix, John Gray, John Gottman, Sue Johnson, and Mr. Terry Real. He holds a Master Certification in Relationship Empowerment Therapy and has previously been a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist. He has taken Advanced Training in Gottman-Method Relationship Therapy and Emotionally-Focused Therapy.

5 "Asynchronous" CE Hours Included - Details by License Type Below:

  • PSYCHOLOGISTS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company maintains responsibility for this program and its content. For more detailed information on the current CE ruling in Georgia, or if you are licensed in another state or country, please click here.
  • COUNSELORS: The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company has been approved by the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) as an Approved Continuing Education Provider (ACEP), ACEP No. 7153. Programs that do not qualify for NBCC credit are clearly identified. The Knowledge Tree, A Summit Professional Education Company is solely responsible for all aspects of the programs. Please click here for more detailed information.
  • SOCIAL WORKERS: The Knowledge Tree, a Summit Professional Education Company, provider #2470, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 1/14/2026-1/14/2027. Social workers completing this course receive 5 clinical continuing education credits. Please click here for more detailed information.
  • MARRIAGE & FAMILY THERAPISTS: TKT has applied for approval for this workshop through the Georgia Association for Marriage & Family Therapy (GAMFT). If you are licensed in another state or country, please click here for more detailed information.

Registration: To register for individual workshops, you may use our online payment option, or to pay by check you may print and complete the Registration Form and mail or fax it to our office. The registration form is available on our website: www.theknowledgetree.org. Registration is permitted until the time the workshop begins, unless otherwise specified.

Multiple Workshop Special: There is a 10% Discount with registration for two workshops. There is a 15% Discount with registrations for three or four workshops. There is a 20% Discount with registration for five or more workshops.

Refund/Cancellation Policy: If you can no longer attend a workshop you have registered for, you can either receive a credit for another workshop or receive a refund if you are within the refund policy period. Refunds will be given for cancellations received at least five days prior to the workshop. More information about refund/cancellation can be found here.

Attendance Policy: 100% attendance, completion of a course evaluation and passing a post-test with a score of 70% or higher (you will have 2 retake opportunities) is required at any asynchronous CE program in order to receive credit for that CE program. No partial credit is given. Certificates of completion will be available in each attendee’s account once these completion requirements have been met.

ADA Requests: We will make every effort to accommodate any reasonable ADA request. Please call or email us at least two weeks prior to the event. Payment and registration are required to fulfill an ADA request.

No Conflict Policy: Neither The Knowledge Tree nor its speakers have received any commercial support for this program or its contents and will not receive any commercial support prior to or during this program. 

System Requirements: Live Interactive Webinars are facilitated via Zoom. System requirements for the Zoom platform are linked at our FAQ page.

We are an approved vendor for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for easy reimbursement of educational expenses for VA employees.


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The Knowledge Tree, a Summit Professional Education Company, offers courses that provide continuing education hours as required by many national, state and local licensing boards and holds Approved Continuing Education Provider/Sponsor status with professional organizations including APA and NBCC. Each licensee should check our detailed CE information page and ensure courses taken meet their specific state board requirements.