The Gottman Institute™ Overview:
Researching and Restoring Relationships

The Gottman Institute™, co-founded by Drs. John and Julie Schwartz Gottman, has two major functions. The Institute helps couples directly, and it provides state-of-the-art training to mental health professionals and other health care providers. The Gottman Institute™ applies leading-edge research on marriage in a practical, down-to-earth therapy and trains therapists committed to helping couples. No other approach to couples education and therapy has relied on such intensive, detailed, and long-term scientific study of why marriages succeed or fail. To read more about Dr. John Gottman, click here. To read more about Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman, click here.

The Gottman Institute™ Mission

We understand that the human family is in crisis, and that all individuals are capable of and deserve compassion. It is our mission to reach out to families in order to help create and maintain greater love and health in relationships. We are committed to an ongoing program of research that increases the understanding of relationships and adds to the development of interventions that have been carefully evaluated. It is our goal to make our services accessible to the broadest reach of people across race, religion, class, culture, sexual orientation, and ethnicity. We are also committed to the care and support of our Institute team, as we know that compassion must begin with ourselves.

Help for Couples

Just as Masters and Johnson were pioneers in the study of human sexuality, so Dr. John Gottman has revolutionized the study of marriage. For three decades, John Gottman has conducted research on all facets of married life, including parenting issues. At the Institute, John Gottman, in collaboration with Julie Gottman, has developed an approach that strengthens happy marriages and committed relationships and supports and repairs troubled ones. The Gottman Institute provides workshops and training materials for couples, while The Gottman Relationship Center and Referral Network, the clinical branch of the Institute, provides therapy to couples.

Training for Mental Health Professionals

Today, with divorce rates of 50%, couples face severe challenges and seek a scientifically sound therapy to help them in the real world. Part of the mission of the Gottman Institute is to empower therapists to provide this help to couples and families. Accordingly, the Gottman Institute offers accredited training in research-based assessment techniques and intervention strategies for mental health professionals, allied professionals and clergy who wish to serve today's couples and families.

The Gottman Institute™ offers three levels of accredited training in couples therapy to mental health professionals, allied professionals, and clergy. Because the Gottman Method Couples Therapy™ is based on research, the interventions are proven and practical. Please click on each training component for detailed information:

•  Level I: The two-day workshop, Marital Therapy: A Research-Based Approach, introduces the therapists to Dr. Gottman’s theory of what makes relationships work, and teaches theoretically grounded methods of assessment and intervention.
• Level II: The four-day Advanced Study in Gottman Method Couples Therapy uses lecture, film, role-play and discussion to deepen the participant’s clinical understanding of the methods.
• Level III: After completing the Advanced Study seminar, the clinician may apply to enter the Certification Program, which includes individual or group consultation and submitting videotapes for review. Once certified as a Gottman Method Couples Therapist™, a therapist may refer to him/herself as a Gottman Therapist*, may receive referrals, may teach workshops and is eligible to participate in further training opportunities and receive ongoing benefits of affiliation with the Gottman Institute. For more information please see About Professional Training on this site.

Certified Gottman Therapists

For additional information about Certified Gottman Therapists*, click here.

*Certified Gottman Therapists are all licensed or certified therapists who practice independently in their state, province, or country. Each has been specifically trained by Drs. John and Julie Gottman to provide Gottman Method Couples Therapy.

Staff

If you would like to know more about the work being done by the Institute or if you would like to be on our mailing list, please contact us.  We do not have any jobs or internships available at this time.

In sum, the Gottman Institute is dedicated to combining wisdom from research and practice to support and strengthen marriages, families, and relationships. It brings the knowledge of research to therapists--and the insight of therapists to researchers. This link between research and practice reflects the collaboration of John and Julie Gottman, whose combined research and clinical experience is excellent, extensive, and incomparable.