This workshop is a part of our:
Certificate in Diversity within Contemporary Relationships
Click above to see all modules and an overview of the entire certificate.
Dates : Wednesday 17th March 2027
Times: 10am – 4pm (BST). Please log-in at 9.45am for prompt 10am start.
TRAINER : Bernd Leygraf, Scroll down to see more about the trainer
LOCATION : Online
Cost : £110 if booked by 17th January 2027 ,
£125 if booked by 17th February 2027,
£140 full price
We now offer protection against cancellation. This must be purchased within 48 hours of booking the workshop. Click here for more info
Other Loves 2 – Beyond the Western Couple
Working Therapeutically with Diverse Relationships and Cultures
CLICK HERE TO BOOK NOW
A one-day CPD workshop with Bernd Leygraf
Are we helping clients create relationships that work for them — or relationships that make sense to us?
Western therapy often places individual autonomy, romantic choice and the self-selected couple at the centre of intimate life. Yet clients may understand love and commitment through family, faith, duty and interdependence.
As the profession considers its future through SCoPEd and the November 2026 Future of the Profession report, cultural responsiveness needs to be part of the conversation. Whose understandings of love, family and commitment will shape tomorrow’s therapy training?
This workshop explores arranged and family-facilitated marriages, polygamous relationships, polyamory, consensual non-monogamy, and online or geographically dispersed partnerships. We will consider how therapeutic practice changes when intimacy involves more than two people or extends into wider family and community systems.
Suitable for individual and couples therapists, the day combines clinical exploration with reflection on our own cultural assumptions.
Learning outcomes
Participants will be supported to:
- recognise cultural assumptions within conventional couples therapy;
- understand diverse relationships within their cultural and religious contexts;
- consider the different skills required for individual, couple and multiple-partner work;
- critically apply developmental perspectives, including Bader and Pearson;
- explore how love, care, loyalty and belonging are expressed across cultures;
- reflect on bias, communication and countertransference.
ABOUT THE TRAINER: Bernd Leygraf
Bernd Leygraf is a Consultant Psychotherapist, co-founder of Naos Institute, and contributing author and co-editor, with Dr Bishurul Hafi, of Developing Cultural Sensitivity in Psychosexual Therapy: Global Perspectives (Routledge, 2026).
With nearly four decades of experience in psychosexual and relationship therapy training, Bernd works with trainees from over 40 countries. In 2024, he received the Liz McElligot Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Profession of Psychosexual and Relationship Therapy.
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APPROVED FOR CPD : This course has been approved by NCIP- National Council Of Integrative Psychotherapists. A Certificate of Attendance form for Continuous Professional Development for 10 hours will be sent by email once you have filled in the feedback form.
This training may be taken on its own or as part of a 6-day series leading to a: Certificate in Diversity within Contemporary Relationships, more info can be found here: Certificate in Diversity within Contemporary Relationships
Maximum Number: 30
Something we all need to bear in mind
When powerful feelings are revealed and processed, it is not unusual that our own psychological issues are triggered and flow into the mix. Wilfred Bion is a respected name in the world of group working. He wrote extensively and cogently on issues that invariably occur in groups. We would like to agree basic guidelines with you – based on his findings – to ensure the success of our work together. Bion’s central focus was the disruption (he called it ‘resistance’) that may arise within a group that shifts it away from its agreed task. Our focus, our agreed task for this workshop is NOT therapy for the members or to criticise others.
Our agreed task is to offer teaching and learning related to diversity within contemporary relationships.
To this end, our Certificate in Diversity within Contemporary Relationships welcomes and needs people to be courageous, and examine prejudice with tolerance and a minimum of defensiveness. We need our workshops to be safe spaces, where participants can be vulnerable and supported if they make mistakes, as we all do. We would like to remind you that we work within UK law and ethics (Gender Recognition, Equalities Act, MOU and Race) and will not tolerate non-compliance in any way. We wholeheartedly support people courageously stepping forward, and anyone who is critical of this will not be welcome on this training and may be asked to leave.
OUR EXPECTATION : Is that you will attend this workshop for the full length of the course, have your video on, your mobile off, and fully participate.
There are some online talks on zoom that allow you to come and go, or to choose not to participate in the exercise and breakout rooms. This culture has started to creep into our workshops. We have even had people say they want to leave to go and pick up children from school or walk their dog! People dropping in and out is very disruptive – especially when there may be group exercises that are planned for the same group to participate in a number of times.
Because of this, we want to be clear about our expectations. This workshop has been planned with the assumption that you, and everyone else, will attend for the full time. So please be clear, that if you book on this workshop, we expect you to attend for the whole time, to participate in the breakout rooms and exercises and have your video switched on. Please also put your mobile to one side and on silent – checking your phone or texting will mean that you miss material. So we request that you only check your phone during breaks.
HANDOUTS : You will get a copy of the slides before the workshop
CANCELLATIONS : Any request to change (e.g. defer to alternative dates) or cancel your place at a workshop, that is made at less than 21 days before the course start date will be charged in full. Any cancellation / amendments / requests to defer before 21 days, will be subject to a 12.5% handling charge.
Organised through Sleeping Mountain Ltd