The Science Behind Relationships: Understanding Attachment, Maintenance, Infidelity and the Dissolution
Attention all relationship enthusiasts!
Get ready to unlock the secrets behind successful relationships and delve into the fascinating world of human connections at our upcoming conference: "The Science Behind Relationships: Understanding Attachment, Maintenance, Infidelity, and Dissolution."
More than 10 guest lecturers and led by the esteemed Dr. Rhonda Balzarini, this conference promises to be a captivating journey into the research-based insights that can revolutionize the way we approach couples therapy and enhance our understanding of the intricate dynamics of romantic relationships.
Schedule:
100% Online with recording optional
Saturday, September 16th, 10am - 6pm CST
Sunday, September 17th, 10am - 6pm CST
During this weekend deep dive,, we will explore a range of theories that underpin the science of relationships. Prepare to expand your knowledge and gain valuable tools to better support couples on their journey. Some of the theories we will delve into include:
Attachment Theory: Uncover the profound impact of early emotional bonds on adult relationships and learn how attachment styles shape our connections.
Exchange Theory: Discover the intricate web of give-and-take that lies at the heart of every successful partnership.
Evolutionary Theory: Explore the biological and evolutionary foundations of attraction, mate selection, and long-term bonding.
The Investment Model: Gain insights into the factors that influence commitment and the delicate balance between rewards, costs, and alternatives in relationships.
Self-Expansion Theory: Understand how relationships can facilitate personal growth and self-fulfillment through shared experiences.
Self-Regulation: Uncover the role of self-control and emotional regulation in maintaining healthy and harmonious relationships.
Implicit Theories: Learn about the hidden beliefs and assumptions that shape our behavior and interactions with our partners.
Responsiveness: Explore the power of responsiveness and emotional attunement in nurturing and sustaining intimate connections.
Meet Our Presenters
Dr. Rhonda Balzarini - Assistant Professor at Texas State University and an Affiliated Faculty Member at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University
Dr. Marie Thouin - Founder of Love InSight, a Mindful Dating & Relationship Coaching practice
Lisa Neff - Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin
Dr. Sarah Stanton - Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh
Dr. Bill Chopik - Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University
Laura Vowels - Junior Lecturer and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland
Dr. Dylan Selterman - social-personality psychologist working as an Associate Teaching Professor at the Johns Hopkins University
Dr. Nicole Prause, Ph.D. - Leading neuroscientist and licensed psychologist
Dr. Taylor Kohut - Post-Doctoral Fellow and Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at Western University
Dr. Christopher Agnew - Purdue University
Dr. Lisa Diamond - University of Utah
And, MORE!
Prepare to be inspired, challenged, and empowered as you engage with cutting-edge research, thought-provoking discussions, and practical insights from renowned experts in the field. Our conference is designed for therapists, counselors, researchers, and anyone passionate about the science behind successful relationships.
This Sexceptional Weekend Conference will cover an extensive range of captivating topics related to relationships, including:
Attraction and Initiation: Discover the secrets of initial attraction and how relationships blossom from the seeds of curiosity.
Relationship Maintenance: Acquire practical strategies for cultivating and nurturing fulfilling relationships over time.
Interdependence: Understand the delicate balance of independence and togetherness in fostering long-term happiness.
Love: Dive into the multifaceted nature of love and its different expressions in romantic relationships.
Sexuality: Explore both solo and partnered expressions of sexuality, deepening our understanding of this intimate aspect of human connections.
Social Cognition: Uncover the psychological processes that shape our perceptions and interactions within relationships.
Communication: Learn effective communication techniques that foster understanding, connection, and conflict resolution.
Stressors and Strains: Gain insights into the challenges relationships face in the face of external pressures and life events.
Conflict and Conflict Resolution: Acquire valuable skills for managing conflicts constructively and maintaining relationship harmony.
Power and Violence: Understand the dynamics of power and violence in relationships and explore strategies for creating safe and respectful partnerships.
Don't miss out on this unique opportunity to deepen your knowledge, network with like-minded individuals, and be at the forefront of relationship science. Join us at "The Science Behind Relationships" and embark on a transformative journey toward building stronger, healthier, and more fulfilling connections. Register now and secure your spot today!
MORE ABOUT OUR Presenters:
DR. RHONDA BALZARINI
Dr. Rhonda Balzarini is an Assistant Professor at Texas State University and an Affiliated Faculty Member at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. Dr. Balzarini is a social psychologist studying the interpersonal processes that enhance and detract from the quality of romantic and sexual relationships. Her recent research focuses on how diverse couples can have satisfying and passionate relationships and successfully navigate challenges through diversifying need fulfillment, engaging in novel and exciting activities, and being responsive during times of conflict or distress.
Marie Thouin, PhD
Dr. Marie Thouin is the founder of Love InSight, a Mindful Dating & Relationship Coaching practice where she supports folks of all backgrounds in bringing intentionality and authenticity into their love lives. She is also a leading scholar on the topic of compersion in consensually non-monogamous relationships. She has appeared on the Savage Lovecast, Multiamory, Sex Out Loud, and multiple other shows. Marie shares her compersion research freely on her website, www.whatiscompersion.com, and is in the process of writing a seminal book on the topic. She believes that celebrating relationship authenticity is the next big frontier in creating a healthier, and more inclusive, society.
Lisa Neff, PhD
Lisa Neff is a Professor of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. She is an expert on marriage and family relationships and has conducted extensive research on how couples’ relationships develop and change over time. As examining the dynamics of change in couples’ relationships requires longitudinal, labor intensive research that utilizes multiple methods, her research typically involves collecting a mix of self-report, daily survey, observational, and physiological data from couples at multiple points over the course of several years. She has published numerous articles identifying risk factors for relationship decline, with a special emphasis on how stressful life circumstances may alter relationship functioning. More recently, she has begun examining whether the manner in which couples navigate their relationship difficulties may change as they grow older. Dr. Neff has served as an Associate Editor for prominent journals in her field (e.g., Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personal Relationships) and has been the recipient of awards for her contributions to relationship science, including the Caryl E. Rusbult Early Career Award from the Society of Personality and Social Psychology.
Sarah Stanton, PhD
Dr. Sarah Stanton is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) in the Department of Psychology at the University of Edinburgh, where she directs the Health and Relationship Processes Lab. Her research investigates (1) how close relationships influence health and well-being over time and (2) which psychological processes help people who struggle with close relationships enjoy better personal and relationship outcomes. Her work has been funded by the UK Economic and Social Research Council, and she has been named a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science. Learn more about her lab and her work by visiting https://www.sarahcestanton.com.
William (Bill) Chopik, PhD
Dr. Bill Chopik is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at Michigan State University. He studies how close relationships—and the people in them—change over time and across situations. Dr. Chopik’s work examines phenomena as broad as how relationships and social institutions shape development and as focused as the mechanisms that underlie the link between close relationships and health. In 2017, Dr. Chopik was recognized as one of Forbes Magazine’s Top 30 Scientists Under 30 and has since been recognized as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science and with the Baltes Award for Social and Behavioral Gerontology.
Laura Vowel, PhD
Laura Vowels is a junior lecturer and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland. Her research focuses on understanding how to improve romantic relationship quality, specializing in the management of sexual desire discrepancy in long-term relationships. She’s an ICEEFT-certified emotionally-focused relationship therapist in private practice where she sees individuals, couples, and families for a variety of issues. She has published extensively on topics about romantic relationship functioning and presented her research at numerous international scientific conferences. She actively provides training to students, therapists, and the public about romantic relationships and she has advised several start-up companies dedicated to providing support for individuals and couples struggling with their (sexual) relationships.
Dr. Dylan Selterman
Dr. Dylan Selterman is a social/personality psychologist and an Associate Teaching Professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Selterman studies romantic attraction/dating, patterns of dreaming, well-being, morals, ethics, and political psychology. Dr. Selterman has published original research in journals such as Social Psychological and Personality Science, Archives of Sexual Behavior, and The Journal of Sex Research. He teaches courses on Social Attraction, The Psychology of Happiness, and Introductory Psychology. Dylan is a TEDx speaker and has written for The Washington Post, National Geographic, The Conversation, and Psychology Today. Dylan’s monthly column is called The Resistance Hypothesis and co-hosts a podcast called A Bit More Complicated.
Dr. Christopher Agnew
Dr. Christopher Agnew is Professor of Psychological Sciences at Purdue University. He received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University and his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research focuses on close, interpersonal relationships and the use of relational models to understand broader social and health processes. He has published and presented his research widely, and has received funding from federal agencies (e.g., National Institutes of Health), private foundations (e.g., Robert Wood Johnson Foundation) and corporations (e.g., Meta). Dr. Agnew has served on the editorial boards for the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, and Personal Relationships, and as General Editor of the Cambridge University Press book series Advances in Personal Relationships. He was the recipient of the Early Career Award from the Relationships Researchers Interest Group of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, American Psychological Association, International Association for Relationship Research, Midwestern Psychological Association, the Society of Experimental Social Psychology, and the Society for Personality and Social Psychology. He served as President of the International Association for Relationship Research, as Head of Psychological Sciences at Purdue, and as Associate Vice President for Research for Purdue University.
Dr. Taylor Kohut
Dr. Taylor Kohut is a socially trained stats-ninja who is currently paid to study porn (and how it may influence thoughts, feelings, and actions). Often taken more seriously than he should be, he's periodically compelled to teach bachelors and graduate level courses in research methodology, the psychology of relationships, and couples therapy. His dog Waffles is his best friend and his lucky numbers are 63, 19, and 34.
Anik Debrot, PhD
Dr. Anik Debrot is a tenured Lecturer at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. She teaches and conducts research in clinical psychology and relationship science, and is a licensed psychotherapist. Her research focuses on two facets of the association between close relationships and well-being. First, investigating affectionate behaviors (with a focus on touch) as a mechanism linking close relationships to well-being; and second, using the internet to provide empirically grounded support either for people that have lost such relationships or to promote such support. For more information, please visit https://people.unil.ch/anikdebrot/
Nikky Prause
Nicole Prause, Ph.D. is a scientist and licensed psychologist working full-time as a researcher and mental health care provider. Trained at one of the birthplaces of clinical science, Indiana University, Dr. Prause clinically interned at Boston Consortium and was a research fellow at Harvard University. This prepared her for ten years leading laboratory research into human psychophysiology to understand approach motivation and pleasure. These academic faculty appointments included Albuquerque's neuroimaging facility Mind Research Network and the University of California, Los Angeles. With this strong dual training as a scientist and clinician, Dr. Prause is determined to develop and advocate for better therapies for improving patient care. In service of this ideal, she is concerned about how to measure therapeutic success, making empirically-supported therapies accessible for clinicians, how to identify and prevent the use of ineffective therapies, and promoting clear communication with clients about process.
Lisa Diamond, PhD
Lisa M. Diamond is Professor of Psychology and Gender Studies at the University of Utah. She studies the expression of sexual attractions and sexual identity over the life course, and the influences of early life experiences on later sexual development. Dr. Diamond is best known for her research on sexual fluidity, which describes the capacity for individuals to experience shifts in their pattern of same-sex and other-sex attractions over time.
Her 2008 book, Sexual Fluidity, published by Harvard University Press, describes the changes and transformations that she has observed in the sexual attractions, behaviors, and identities of a sample of lesbian, bisexual, and “unlabeled” women that she has been following since 1995. Sexual Fluidity has been awarded the Distinguished Book Award from the American Psychological Association’s Society for the Study of Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered Issues.
Dr. Diamond is co-editor of the APA Handbook of Sexuality and Psychology and is a fellow of two divisions of the APA. Dr. Diamond has published over 120 articles and book chapters, and has been invited to present her research at over 100 national and international Universities and conferences
WANT TO BECOME SHA CERTIFIED?:
Want to stop paying for conferences one by one and gain hours towards AASECT Certification too? This program can also be registered for and included as part of SHA’s full Sexuality Educator/Counselor/Sex Therapy Certification & Sexuality Consultant Program. Apply HERE to become SHA Certified and to gain all the CEs you need to apply towards AASECT Certification. Take your sexuality education even further and become sexceptional.
NEED A SCHOLARSHIP FOR THIS WEEKEND CONFERENCE?
In collaboration with the BIPOC Collective, SHA donates two full weekend scholarship spots to every conference for BIPOC-identifying individuals.
*The BIPOC Collective's mission is to support the diverse community of BIPOC adult performers and sex-workers within the adult industry through mutual aid and advocacy with dignity and respect.
STUDENT DISCOUNTS
Are you a current college or graduate student? Email shacertifications@gmail.com with a copy of your student ID and current or next term’s course schedule to get this conference at student rate.
*Please note, this discount does not include CEs.