Course Description

This course provides behavioral-health professionals with an evidence-based understanding of how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) can be integrated to improve relationship functioning and emotional safety in couples. Drawing from current empirical studies (2023–2024), participants explore how psychological flexibility, mindfulness, and compassion reduce self-criticism, shame, and avoidance, the transdiagnostic processes underlying distress across clinical presentations. The course bridges theory and practice through an applied process-based lens, highlighting how acceptance creates openness to experience while compassion transforms that openness into empathic connection. Clinical applications include structured session design, brief and digital formats, and adaptations for trauma, depression, parenting stress, and chronic illness. Ethical and cultural implications for telehealth delivery are reviewed in accordance with APA, ACA, AAMFT, and NASW professional codes. This is a NBCC and Florida Board Approved course for 1 CE hour.

Please review the course materials prior to purchasing the course. Often, individuals will print a copy of the course worksheet to complete while they view the course material. Once you are ready to complete the course, please enroll in the course and complete the course requirements, including the course post-test and course survey. You will receive your certificate automatically for printing or downloading after achieving an 80% or higher on the post-test and completing the course survey. 

Cultivating Acceptance and Compassion in Couple Therapy Course Text.pdf

Cultivating Acceptance and Compassion in Couple Therapy Course Worksheet.pdf


Course Author:  Bryan Glazier, PhD, LMFT, LMHC,, FL Qualified MHC/MFT Supervisor 

Course Time/Location: 1 CE Hour, Location: www.directceu.com (web-based, asynchronous/home study) 

Course Text: Cultivating Acceptance and Compassion in Couple Therapy

Course Board Approval Statement(s): NBCC, Florida Board Approved

Directceu, llc has been approved by NBCC as an Approved Continuing Education Provider, ACEP No. 7411. directceu, llc maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

directceu, llc (BAP # 50-17578) is approved by the Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Mental Health Counseling. directceu, llc maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

 Financial Disclosure Statement

directceu, llc is committed to providing our professional colleagues with unbiased information. directceu does not accept commercial support and our course authors have no significant financial interests or other conflicts of interest pertaining to the material.

Learning Objectives:

Through the completion of this course, participants will be able to:

  1. Describe the theoretical and empirical foundations of Acceptance and Compassion Integration in couple therapy.
  2. Identify key transdiagnostic mechanisms, psychological flexibility, shame, and self-criticism, that contribute to relational distress.
  3. Apply acceptance and compassion interventions to enhance co-regulation, emotional tolerance, and empathy within couples.
  4. Demonstrate ethical, cultural, and telehealth competence when implementing acceptance–compassion therapy.

 Course Syllabus:

Foundations of ACT and CFT Integration

  • Historical evolution of third-wave behavioral therapies
  • Shared roots in contextual behavioral science and attachment theory
  • The role of experiential, relational, and process-based change

Transdiagnostic Mechanisms in Couple Functioning

  • Emotional avoidance, shame, and self-criticism in relational distress
  • ACT processes of psychological flexibility and values-based action
  • CFT processes of affiliative emotion regulation and social safeness

Core Processes—Flexibility, Compassion, and Co-Regulation

  • The six-process ACT model and its dyadic application
  • Compassion as a regulator of the threat system
  • Interpersonal mechanisms of acceptance–compassion synergy

Assessment and Case Formulation

  • Functional–contextual formulation of couple dynamics
  • Process-based assessment tools (AAQ-II, Self-Compassion Scale, Fears of Compassion Scales)
  • Establishing mechanism-aligned treatment goals

Treatment Structure and Telehealth Adaptations

  • Phased treatment models (stabilization, mechanism activation, maintenance)
  • Session structure and experiential sequencing
  • Digital delivery, hybrid care, and brief interventions

Ethical, Cultural, and Implementation Considerations

  • Professional codes and telehealth best practices (APA, ACA, AAMFT, NASW)
  • Cultural adaptations of compassion and acceptance practices
  • Feasibility, supervision, and implementation science directions

Limitations 

  • Current empirical gaps and the need for dyadic RCTs
  • Mechanistic mediation and partner crossover research
  • Training pathways and scalability for clinical integration