My guest, Dr Kerryann Cook, PhD, has over 30 years experience with both individual and couple counselling as a psychologist and also as a lecturer training students in couple counselling. In short, she really knows what she’s talking about when it comes to what makes relationship work and what to watch out for. Her #1 piece of advice is early intervention – when things get bumpy, don’t wait! We discuss:

• Dr Kerryann’s model of relationships, “The Relationship Map” and its 5 elements
• Understanding your attachment style, and that of your partner’s, to get what you need from your relationship
• The joy of the “honeymoon phase”
• What’s really going on, and wrong, in the “power struggle phase”
• The best time to take action for couple success
• How to have a thriving relationship - even if 70% of couple issues are in fact unresolvable
• “Dealbreakers”
• What would happen if couple’s got an annual relationship “tune-up”?
• Focus on the good
• The pursuer-withdrawer dynamic
• What is really behind the phrase “We just grew apart”?
• What happens in high quality couple counselling
• What to look for when choosing a counsellor
• The power of couple coaching and couple relationship coaching and so much more… In fact, Dr Kerryann shared so much valuable information about counselling that this episode could also have been called episode “Couple Counselling Masterclass”

And I thought you might want to know that after February 2020, Dr Kerryann Cook will be retiring from the University of New England. She won’t be stopping though. As well as coaching couples, she will also be teaching professionals – including counsellors and psychologists – her method of relationship coaching, “The Relationship Map”. If you have any questions, comments or would like to find out more about my work in the world, head to theseparationfix.com or follow me on instagram instagram.com/the.separation.fix