AUSTIN, TEXAS, UNITED STATES, May 31, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As one of the top certified Gottman method therapists in the country, Dr. Don Allen has been on a mission to continue helping as many couples as possible build and maintain positive, healthy relationships after months of struggling with the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on the Sound Relationship House theory courtesy of the John and Julie Gottman, Dr. Allen also utilizes intervention strategies from Susan Johnson’s Emotion Focus Therapy (EFT) and Francine Shapiro’s Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

Close Up Radio is excited to welcome back Dr. Don Allen, an exceptional Clinical Social Worker, Certified EMDR specialist and consultant, Public Speaker, Certified Gottman Therapist.

Part of his objective today is to seek to bridge the gap between our exhaustion over COVID-19, as we ease restrictions and prepare to reopen our communities and get our lives back on track, returning our marriages/ relationships toward being happy and connected in the new normal. “With the uncertainty of how we must adapt and cope as our perspectives shift, we are faced with the challenges of figuring out how our relationships have been impaired by COVID-19, and struggling to find how to reconnect in better ways.”

For Don, it’s presently about transitioning away from COVID-19 and the tumultuous months of wearing masks, sheltering in place, and communicating virtually to create a better and more joyful balance in our lives. Don says, “it’s essential to resolve conflicted relationships in loving healthy ways in an increasingly changing world intensified further by the COVID-19 pandemic and other world events”.

Today he is excited to announce he will be starting to schedule upcoming couples’ workshop like the Art and Science of Love and The Seven Principles Approach to Marriage created by the Gottman Institute and John and Julie Gottman. “These workshops are designed to ideally help struggling couples mend their relationships or to help healthy happy marriage learn better ways to enhance their love relationship. These workshops will be in person!!!

With practical insights, these workshops, set in a peaceful and relaxing environment, will teach and inspire couples to reconnect, hopefully offering a transformative experience where they can spend a weekend bonding, and openly discussing relevant topics. These retreats will focus on couples taking a much-needed weekend getaway while learning evidence-based research methods proven to help relationships, while focusing on relationship skills in a fun and easy way. “Even those in well-functioning relationships will benefit from these workshops with the likelihood of getting even closer to their loved one. These new skills can then be translated into day to day behaviors that maintain what was learned in the couple’s retreat.

“Research shows that couples who participate in these fun and research driven activities can form a stronger relationship bond. With couples confused, overwhelmed and frustrated from the effects of the pandemic, and world events can begin to move forward in the relationship with positivity and momentum”.

Anyone interested can contact Don and who will put you on list and if/ when he is coming to a community near you. Demand from your request may allow Dr. Allen to book a venue near you, so please sign up. Communities and organizations may want to sponsor him to come to an area near you! If you send him an email, he will reach out to you with all the needed information to attend a retreat. He hopes you get as excited as he and his friends do, so be prepared to have fun, connect to others and learn transformative information to better your relationship, now and in the future.”

In this upcoming radio interview, Don will discuss such important topics as the essential need for balance and internal locus of control. He will talk about how COVID-19 has had major effects on our romantic life. We will focus on relational reconnection and revitalizing your friendship, giving examples of how the Sound Relationship House may have been negatively affected by COVID-19 and other world events. Also, he will give examples of how to reverse deterioration of the Sound Relationship House and how to reverse those negative patterns.

For Don, workshops are essential right now because they are not only fun and informative, but, he says: “People can laugh and engage with other couples, brainstorm, and interact with lightheartedness and humor, realizing we all have the same problems and challenges”. Through Don’s empowering workshops, couples can receive the proper tools and move towards a path of self-discovery. This happens all through the science of the Gottman method. Also, couples can bond together against the issues and events in life that have created undo stress and strain on their relationship with others participants that also get and appreciate the importance of a sound relationship. He wants to emphasize that these retreats are education only and not psychotherapy.

One of the things that’s important in dealing with relationships and marriage is having meaningful time with our partner. “When things are going well we can have twenty positive minutes to one negative minute of connection/ interaction. On the flip side when things start to go wrong we need to maintain at least five minutes of positive interactions to one minute of negative ones. This 5 to 1 ratio is what John and Julie Gottman call “the Magic Ratio”. Don says, “Using this magic ratio with gentle start up, saying it nice and with a gentle tone, and not using “the four horsemen”, can allow the relationship to repair and get back to being connected, positive and happy.

According to the Gottman method, we don’t avoid problems we expect them and then strive towards forgiveness, repair, gratitude, and a positive return to the Sound Relationship House. We also teach how to manage conflict, build rituals of connection and fondness and admiration. Further, we teach how to tune into our person’s love maps in order to better learn to make their dreams known and come true, today and over a lifetime.

Moreover, with the Gottman method, these lifelong skills really help remedy existing problems while avoiding future ones. The results? A happier, more loving bond with our person over a lifetime.

“Our goal is to help couples leave workshops with more skills, ability and self-assurance so that they can use these skills over a lifetime”. Sadly, our society does not teach these skills in schools and many of us never had the role models to teach us these skills or perhaps we have just never learned them on our own. Do not blame yourself or feel bad!! John and Julie Gottman have incorporated science and a method that can provide this set of skills now. Dr. Allen can bring these methods to you.

Workshops dates will be announced, but we urge those couples interested to contact Don directly at: yourvoice@donallenphd.com to reserve your space as soon as possible. Please listen to Dr. Allen live next Wednesday!

Close Up News Radio will feature Don Allen in an interview with Jim Masters on Wednesday June 2nd at 1 pm EST

Listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio

If you have any questions for our guest, please call (347) 996-3389

For more information or to request to be included in upcoming couple’s retreats, visit www.donallenphd.com and contact Dr. Allen directly at: yourvoice@donallenphd.com

Written by: Beatrice Maria Centeno

Lou Ceparano
Close Up Television & Radio
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