Aperture Awareness: Superpower for Couples (1.5 hours/ no CEUs)

Presented by Kathryn Ford, MD There are no CEUs available with this recording. About the Presentation The goal is for participants to learn the concept of emotional aperture, how to teach the present moment experience of aperture awareness and how to use this for relationship enhancement. The neurological basis for aperture will be discussed and participants will learn practical exercises for use with couples. Present moment awareness, in particular aperture awareness, is the most important skill couples can learn to keep the love they have or to get back the love they’ve lost. At some point couples discover that their special connection has another side- an increased vulnerability to feeling hurt, ignored, betrayed, disappointed, frustrated. Injuries, large and small, trigger their emotional apertures to close, slam the door. With the “end of the honeymoon” couples are launched into the full mind-bending puzzle: open they have the vulnerability to emotional injury, closed they suffer the loss of connection they want and need. This opening and closing of our emotional apertures is the central element of human connection. When couples learn to pay attention to apertures they gain the power to steer through the dark and stormy moments and to find the loving connection they long for. When the going gets tough couples tend to do two counterproductive things. Counterproductive Thing #1 is tuning out and going on autopilot, allowing habitual reactions to drive them further apart. Counterproductive Thing #2 is to try to think their way out of the tangled moments. Both tuning out and thinking can get in the way of using our brilliant minds for the direct perception of what is happening in the present moment. TARGET AUDIENCE: LCSW, LMFT, LPCC, LEP Event listing: https://scv-camft.org/event-4632058