This practical, skills-based self-access class is designed for psychotherapists, counsellors and relationship therapists supporting couples through the early stages of stepfamily and blended family life.
New relationships rarely develop in isolation. Children, ex-partners, wider family networks, established routines and differing household expectations all influence the couple’s emerging relationship. This class supports practitioners to work confidently with the competing loyalties, boundary dilemmas and complex relational dynamics that can arise when couples begin building a shared life across multiple households.
Grounded in systemic thinking and inclusive of diverse family constellations, the class explores the realities of forming a new partnership while co-parenting. It considers the balance between intimacy, individual identity, parenting responsibilities and the gradual development of the stepparent role. It also examines how couples can establish effective co-parenting alliances, negotiate clearer boundaries with ex-partners and protect their relationship during periods of family transition.
Across three hours of asynchronous, bite-sized learning, participants will learn how to map multi-household systems using tools such as two-household genograms and loyalty-lines maps. They will explore circular communication patterns and practise using systemic questioning, non-blaming reframes, boundary-setting scripts and brief repair rituals to make recurring conflict more predictable and manageable.
Short videos, case vignettes and guided exercises bring the learning into practice, helping participants understand and de-polarise common blended-family dynamics, including vigilance and calm, or cohesion and fragmentation. A practical toolkit of scripts, routines and rituals is provided for use within early therapeutic sessions.
Ethical and safeguarding considerations are integrated throughout, including consent, confidentiality across households, information sharing, record-keeping and risk management. Participants will consolidate their learning through guided exercises and a 20-question multiple-choice assessment.
Session Structure
- Introduction and orientation to the class.
- The structures, strengths and common challenges of stepfamily and blended-family life. Mapping multi-household systems using two-household genograms and loyalty-lines maps.
- Recognising competing attachments, loyalty binds and boundary dilemmas. Using systemic formulation, circular questions and non-blaming reframes to de-polarise conflict.
- Developing effective co-parenting alliances and negotiating flexible boundaries with ex-partners. Balancing intimacy, individual identity, parenting responsibilities and the developing stepparent role.
- Applying practical scripts, routines and repair rituals during early therapeutic sessions. Ethical and safeguarding considerations across households, including consent, confidentiality, information sharing, record-keeping and risk.
- Consolidating learning through video examples, case vignettes, guided exercises and a 20-question multiple-choice assessment.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:
- Describe the structures, strengths and common challenges associated with newly forming couples, stepfamilies and blended-family life.
- Map multi-household family systems and identify loyalty conflicts, competing attachments and boundary dilemmas involving children, ex-partners and wider family members.
- Apply systemic formulation, circular questioning and non-blaming reframing to understand and de-polarise recurring patterns of conflict. Support couples to develop effective co-parenting alliances while protecting the developing couple relationship.
- Facilitate conversations about intimacy, identity, parenting responsibilities and the gradual development of the stepparent role. Use practical scripts, routines, repair rituals and communication tools to establish clear, flexible boundaries across households.
- Recognise and respond to ethical, confidentiality, information-sharing, record-keeping and safeguarding considerations within multi-household systems.
- Integrate blended-family-informed interventions into early therapeutic work with newly forming couples and families.
About the Trainer
Professor Hannah Sherbersky is a Family and Systemic Psychotherapist, Associate Professor at the University of Exeter and CEO of the Association for Family and Systemic Psychotherapy UK.
Hannah has over 30 years of experience working within the mental health service as a clinician and trainer. At the University, she is Deputy Director of the clinical training department CEDAR, and Co-Director of the Systemic Portfolio, where she helped to establish one of the most prolific systemic training providers in country. She has co-developed and manualised a model of couple therapy in a research-based couple clinic, and still works clinically as a psychotherapist and supervisor.
In 2020 Hannah completed her doctorate, researching notions of ‘home’ within an adolescent inpatient context. She is past Associate Editor for the Journal of Family Therapy and is interested in the innovative delivery of systemic ideas, contributing to a BBC documentary about family therapy (2019), an online couple therapy app (2020) and various podcasts. She presents nationally and internationally in both her leadership roles and has published on numerous related subjects.
