Presenter: Skylar Colle, PhD, LMFT, CST
Date: December 1, 2026 | 2:00 PM MST
Format: Live, synchronous webinar | 2 hours
Instructional Level: Introductory
Target Audience: Clinical Mental Health Providers
CE Credits: 2 continuing education credits
Certificates Available: ASWB/NASW, AASECT, THGI
Course Description
This two-hour experiential workshop introduces Love-Centered Therapy™ (LCT), a developing, clinically derived process model for understanding and interrupting protective cycles in intimate relationships.
Participants will explore how attachment experiences, family patterns, cultural expectations, and intergenerational histories shape immediate meanings, First Stories, and protective responses. Drawing on the presenter’s learning through the 4-D Wheel, the workshop emphasizes compassionate self-examination, deconstruction of inherited meanings, and the practice of right relationship and reciprocity.
Clinicians will learn to recognize their own activation and protective pulls while supporting differentiation and accountability in couples. Demonstrations connect everyday interactions with sexual communication, desire, and the difficulty of expressing or receiving preferences. Participants will use worksheets and a triad role-play to practice noticing, inviting curiosity, normalizing protection, and returning attention to the relationship. The workshop provides an introductory clinical framework along with structured opportunities for practice.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this training, attendees will be able to:
Describe activation, body response, First Story, and protection, and explain how one partner’s protective response can become the other partner’s next activating moment.
Identify a personal First Story and protective pull as a therapist, and demonstrate one response that supports self-regulation and differentiation during a triad role-play.
Distinguish defensiveness, shame collapse, and accountability, and identify two ways protective relational patterns can affect sexual communication or connection.
Limitations, Risks, & Benefits
This training will be delivered via an online platform, and there are no anticipated risks beyond those typically associated with online learning environments. Because it is delivered online, the training may not replicate the full interactivity of in-person learning. Role-play and interactive discussion could feel vulnerable for some attendees. Benefits include an increased ability to understand the subject presented and apply this knowledge in professional practice, along with foundational knowledge and practical skills that build on participants’ existing training. The training promotes compassionate, inclusive care, reduces discomfort when addressing topics related to diversity, cultural differences, and individual role differences, and supports participants in maintaining and developing professional competencies in order to improve services to the public.
Cultural Sensitivity
This training explicitly addresses the influence of culture, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disability, language, and socioeconomic status on how partners form meanings and protective responses. Participants are invited to recognize and examine their own unconscious biases, reflect on how their cultural background and professional training shape their clinical practice, and consider how implicit bias may affect clinical decision-making, assessment, and treatment planning. Case examples and discussion reflect diverse populations and lived experiences. The training draws on the NASW Standards and Indicators for Cultural Competence in Social Work Practice, promotes inclusive, affirming, and non-stigmatizing language, offers strategies for culturally responsive and affirming care, and supports culturally humble, self-reflective practice consistent with ethical responsibilities for nondiscrimination and equitable service delivery.
Course Content
This training presents introductory-level content on Love-Centered Therapy™ and protective relational cycles, informed by current research and peer-reviewed literature on partner responsiveness, autonomic regulation, moral emotions, and sexual desire, and by trauma-informed approaches to relational work. Teaching methods include lecture and didactic instruction, large group discussion and facilitated dialogue, demonstration, role-play and skills practice, experiential learning activities linked directly to professional skill development, live question and answer with the presenter, and supplemental worksheets.
Relevance
This training addresses content directly applicable to clinical practice, including assessment, intervention, and treatment planning with individuals and couples whose protective relational patterns affect intimacy and sexual communication. It builds on foundational knowledge gained through a completed graduate-level degree in social work, psychology, counseling, or a related mental health field, and draws on theories of human behavior and the social environment relevant to direct practice. The training supports ethical responsibilities and standards outlined in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) Code of Ethics, applies principles of trauma-informed care, and addresses diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice as they apply to clinical work. It is relevant to professionals across mental health disciplines, including licensed social workers, psychologists, licensed professional counselors, and marriage and family therapists.
About the Presenter
Skylar Colle, PhD, LMFT, CST, is a licensed marriage and family therapist and AASECT Certified Sex Therapist in private practice with Magnolia Health in Ithaca, New York, where she provides trauma-informed therapy for individuals and couples. She holds a PhD in Clinical Sexology and an MA in Art Therapy and Marriage and Family Therapy from Notre Dame de Namur University. Her clinical work focuses on couples, attachment, trauma, sex therapy, sexual concerns, infidelity, and kink and diverse sexualities. Dr. Colle is the developer of Love-Centered Therapy™, a clinically derived process model for understanding and interrupting protective cycles in intimate relationships, and her work on the model appears in the Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy.
Course Details
Delivery method: Live webinar via the Institute learning platform
Course interactivity: Lecture and didactic instruction, demonstration, worksheets, triad role-play, large group discussion, and live Q&A
Posttest/quiz: Because this is a live course, a standard posttest is not required. Participation will be monitored throughout the session.
Certificate issuance: Certificates of credit will be issued immediately after course completion to participants who attend the full session and complete the course evaluation.
Contact for questions: institute@thehealinggroup.com
Accessibility accommodations: To request accessibility accommodations, please contact institute@thehealinggroup.com prior to the event. We are committed to making our trainings accessible to all participants.
Registration
Register online at thehealinggroupinstitute.com. Refunds are not available. Full refund and cancellation policy is available on the website.
Commercial Support & Conflict of Interest Disclosure
No commercial entity has provided funding or support for this course. Skylar Colle has no relevant conflicts of interest to disclose.
ASWB ACE Statement:
The Healing Group Institute, provider number 2716, is approved as an ACE provider to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Regulatory boards are the final authority on courses accepted for continuing education credit. ACE provider approval period: 3/31/26 – 3/31/27. Social workers completing this course receive 2 continuing education credits.
AASECT CKA:
C. Socio-cultural, familial factors (e.g., ethnicity, culture, religion, spirituality, socioeconomic status, family values) in relation to sexual values and behaviors.
E. Intimacy skills (e.g., social, emotional, sexual), intimate relationships, interpersonal relationships and family dynamics.
I. Range of sexual functioning and behavior, from optimal to problematic including, but not limited to, common issues such as: desire discrepancy, lack of desire, difficulty achieving or maintaining arousal, sexual pain, penetration problems and difficulty with orgasm.
AASECT ST:
A. Theory and methods of sex-related psychotherapy, including several different models.
C. Theory and methods of approach to intervention in relationship systems experiencing sex and intimacy problems.
This program meets the requirements of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists (AASECT) and is approved for CE credits. These CE credits may be applied toward AASECT certification and renewal of certification. Completion of this program does not ensure or guarantee AASECT certification. For further information please contact info@aasect.org.
References
Balban, M. Y., Neri, E., Kogon, M. M., Weed, L., Nouriani, B., Jo, B., Holl, G., Zeitzer, J. M., Spiegel, D., & Huberman, A. D. (2023). Brief structured respiration practices enhance mood and reduce physiological arousal. Cell Reports Medicine, 4(1), 100895. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100895
Birnbaum, G. E., Reis, H. T., Mizrahi, M., Kanat-Maymon, Y., Sass, O., & Granovski-Milner, C. (2016). Intimately connected: The importance of partner responsiveness for experiencing sexual desire. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 111(4), 530–546. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000069
Collé, S. (2026). Love-Centered Therapy and the First Story Cycle: A dyadic process model of implicit relational activation, autonomic co-regulation, and sexual field disruption. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2026.2720622
Harris, E. A., Gormezano, A. M., & van Anders, S. M. (2022). Gender inequities in household labor predict lower sexual desire in women partnered with men. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 51(8), 3847–3870. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-022-02397-2
Kuhn, R. J. (2024). Somacultural liberation: An Indigenous, Two-Spirit somatic guide to integrating cultural experiences toward freedom. North Atlantic Books.
Nagoski, E. (2024). Come together: The science (and art!) of creating lasting sexual connections. Ballantine Books.
Ogden, G. (2018). Expanding the practice of sex therapy: The neuro update edition—An integrative approach for exploring desire and intimacy (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Schnarch, D. (1997). Passionate marriage: Keeping love and intimacy alive in committed relationships. W. W. Norton.
Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J., & Mashek, D. J. (2007). Moral emotions and moral behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 345–372. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070145