Transform How You Work With Couples
Train in the Duo Coaching Framework — the intensive, dual-therapist model that’s changing outcomes for couples and practitioners alike.
Explore CertificationThe Challenge You Know
You trained hard. You care deeply about your clients. And yet you’ve probably had this nagging feeling that something about the way couples therapy is traditionally structured doesn’t quite add up.
Fifty minutes, once a week, with one therapist. For a relationship in crisis, it’s like trying to repair a boat in the middle of a storm while standing on one leg.
Couples arrive already defended. By the time they’ve settled in and begun to open up, the session is nearly over. Progress inches forward between appointments — if it doesn’t slide backwards first. And as the sole therapist, you’re carrying the weight of both partners’ experiences, trying to hold the balance alone.
There is a better way. Duo Coaching was developed over fifteen years of clinical practice, refined through doctoral research, and built on a simple but powerful insight: couples deserve more time, more depth, and the combined perspective of two therapists working in partnership.
What Is Duo Coaching?
Â
Two Therapists, One Couple
A male and female co-therapy partnership brings balance, dual perspective, and the ability to work with each partner simultaneously. It models the healthy collaboration you’re helping your clients build.
Â
Â
Â
Extended Sessions, Deeper Work
Initial sessions of three and a half hours — not fifty minutes. This isn’t therapy by the clock. It’s the time couples need to move through defences, reach the real issues, and begin genuine change within a single session.
Â
Â
The Relationship Paradigm
A framework built on six interconnected elements: Communication, Connection, Commitment, Fun, Growth, and Trust. Developed through doctoral research in the phenomenology of relationships, it gives both practitioners and couples a shared language for understanding where they are and where they need to go..
An Integrative Approach
Duo Coaching draws on IFS, Gestalt, Satir, family constellations, hypnotherapy, transactional analysis, and more — applied responsively to what each couple needs, not rigidly attached to a single modality.
Â
.
Your Training Pathway
The Duo Coaching Academy offers a structured, professionally recognised pathway from foundational understanding to expert practice. Whether you’re an experienced couples therapist looking to evolve your approach, or a skilled individual therapist ready to move into relationship work, there’s a clear route forward.
Â
Foundation
Understand the framework. Learn the model. Find your co-therapy partner. This is where the journey begins — grounded in the same research and methodology set out in the Routledge practitioners’ guide.
Intermediate
Develop clinical competence through supervised practice with real couples. Deepen your skill in extended sessions, integrative interventions, and the co-therapy partnership. This is where understanding becomes ability.
Expert
Achieve mastery. Work with complex cases, develop supervision skills, and contribute to the growing evidence base. Expert-certified practitioners are eligible to train and supervise others.
Developed by Practitioners, For Practitioners
Dr Neil Wilkie completed his doctorate in The Phenomenology of Relationships at Middlesex University in 2024, where he is now a Visiting Fellow. Before becoming a psychotherapist at fifty, he had a distinguished business career that included CEO roles and raising over ÂŁ500 million across fourteen management buyouts. He has published over 370 articles on relationships, reaching millions of readers worldwide.
Together with his colleague Maria Hudson, Neil has spent fifteen years refining the Duo Coaching methodology through hands-on clinical work with hundreds of couples. Their approach is now published by Routledge as a professional book trilogy and forms the basis of the Academy’s training programmes.
This isn’t theory developed in isolation. Every element of the training has been tested, refined, and proven in practice.
The Books
Â
A Practitioner’s Guide to the Duo Coaching Framework
Published by Routledge, July 2026
The definitive guide to the Duo Coaching Framework — from the theoretical foundations and the Relationship Paradigm to session-by-session protocols and real case studies. Written for therapists and counsellors who want to understand intensive, dual-therapist relationship work from the inside.
The book provides the knowledge. The Academy provides the skills, supervision, and certification to put it into practice.
Â
Reinventing Relationship therapy through the Duo Coaching Framework
Published by Routledge April 2026
What if the traditional 50-minute session with a single therapist was never designed for the complexity of a relationship in distress? This book makes the case for a fundamental rethinking of how we approach couples work. Drawing on systems theory, attachment research, neuroscience, and doctoral research into the phenomenology of relationships, it examines why conventional models fall short — and introduces the Duo Coaching Framework as an evidence-informed alternative. From the co-therapy model and extended sessions to the Relationship Paradigm and integrative practice, this is the theoretical foundation for everything the Academy teaches.
The book that answers the question: why does this approach exist?
Demystifying Relationship Therapy - A view from the Therapist's Chair
Published by Routledge July 2026
What actually happens behind the closed door of a therapy room? This book invites you inside — through the real stories of couples in crisis, transformation, and everything in between. Written from the therapist's perspective, it reveals the thinking, the feeling, and the clinical decision-making that unfold session by session as two therapists work with two partners navigating some of life's most challenging moments. It is honest about what works, what doesn't, and what this work asks of the people who do it. For practitioners, it offers the clinical wisdom that only comes from sitting in the chair. For anyone curious about therapy, it opens a door that is usually firmly shut.
The book that shows you what the work looks and feels like from the inside.
Is This For You?
The Duo Coaching Academy is designed for qualified practitioners who want to transform their couples work. You’ll get the most from this training if:
You hold a postgraduate qualification in counselling, psychotherapy, psychology, or a closely related discipline
- You have at least two years’ post-qualifying clinical experience
- You’re frustrated by the limitations of the traditional 50-minute, single-therapist model
- You’re open to working integratively across multiple therapeutic modalities
- You’re ready to invest in deepening your practice and expanding what’s possible for your clients
- You’re willing to work in partnership with a co-therapist — or eager to find one
What You’ll Gain
Â
The Framework
Complete access to the Relationship Paradigm and its six elements — a structured, evidence-informed model for understanding and transforming couple dynamics.
The Methodology
Session structures, intervention protocols, assessment tools, exercises, and between-session materials refined over fifteen years of clinical use
The Certification
Professional recognition as a Duo Coaching practitioner with a licence to use the proprietary methodology. A credential that signals rigour, depth, and commitment to excellence.
The Community
Ongoing connection with fellow practitioners through supervision groups, peer learning, and professional development. You won’t be doing this alone.
The Transformation
A practice that’s more satisfying, more sustainable, and more impactful. Practitioners consistently report that working in the Duo model reinvigorates their clinical work.
Your Next Step
Â
The Duo Coaching Academy exists because we believe couples deserve better — and practitioners deserve the training, support, and professional community to deliver it. If you’re ready to transform your practice, we’d love to hear from you.
The Duo Coaching Academy is now accepting applications for our Foundation Programme. Places are limited to ensure the quality of training and supervision that this work demands.
Â
Register for the Foundation Programme