Barbara Pherribo Counseling
2026 WORKSHOPS
June 2026
REBUILDING WHEN YOUR RELATIONSHIP ENDS
The Ten Week Rebuilders Seminar
is based on the best-selling book, Rebuilding When Your Relationship Ends, written by renowned divorce recovery therapist, Dr. Bruce Fisher. The Rebuilding book has been translated into eighteen languages and the book remains a bestseller, more than thirty years after its original publication. The Rebuilding Seminar is currently offered in numerous cities across the United States, as well as in other countries. The Rebuilding book and seminar are among the most effective resources for helping people heal from the pain of separation and divorce. Through the Rebuilders class, participants learn how to turn the painful and difficult ending of a love relationship into an opportunity for personal growth and learning.
Fisher identified nineteen “rebuilding blocks” in his divorce recovery model and he believed that working through these steps of divorce recovery could take up to several years. Join others in this journey, to work through Dr. Fisher’s 19 Rebuilding blocks and progress towards healing and recovery from separation, divorce or the ending of a love relationship. Through the Rebuilders class, participants learn how to turn the painful and difficult ending of a love relationship into an opportunity for personal growth and learning. Rebuilding participants enjoy fellowship and support from their classmates who are coping with similar life circumstances, as they work through the healing process and rebuild confidence.
Dr. Fisher's Rebuilding Blocks:
Freedom Sexuality Singleness Purpose
Openness Love Trust Relatedness
Grief Anger Letting Go Self Worth Transition
Denial Fear Adaptation Loneliness Friendship Guilt/Rejection
Session Overview
Session One: Rebuilding Blocks
Introductions, group guidelines, interactive group activity with Dr. Fisher’s 19 rebuilding blocks.
Session Two: Adaptive Behaviors
Healthy/unhealthy adaptive behaviors from childhood and impact on development and love relationships.
Session Three: Grief
Symptoms and stages of grief, learning positive self-care for managing grief, goodbye letter.
Session Four: Anger
Identifying symptoms, learning new skills for coping with anger and healthy ways to express it, “getting unstuck”.
Session Five: Self-Worth
Impact of loss of romantic relationship on self-worth, strategies to improve self- worth and acceptance, positive affirmations.
Session Six: Seeking My Identity
Fisher’s theory of growth and development; participant sharing related to the identity seeking process.
Session Seven: Openness
Johari window, discussion of masks, group activity to share and remove mask(s), increasing emotional closeness and intimacy.
Session Eight: Love
Becoming more loving towards ourselves and others. Definitions of love, styles of romantic relationships, importance of boundaries.
Session Nine: Trust and Relatedness
Traits of healthy relationships, hopes and fears regarding relationships, “warm fuzzies”.
Session Ten: Dating and Relationships
Graduation Celebration
Looking towards future; ins and outs of dating, relationships, positive affirmations; reflections on growth and learning.
LOVING CHOICES
In Dr. Fisher's 10 Week Loving Choices Seminar, you will learn to:
- Tame your “inner critic” and calm your "outer critic," revisit your family of origin and heal your wounded "inner child"
- Reconnect with your “inner children” and discard "adaptive survivor" behaviors from childhood (i.e. perfectionist, over-responsible) that are no longer working for you.
- Take off the masks and become “friends with your feelings”.
- Grow and develop your “wise nurturer”, an unconditionally loving and accepting voice/your inner core; learn how to balance these “internal parts” and integrate thinking with feeling.
- Develop a loving, nurturing relationship with yourself and learn to give yourself what you didn't get, instead of seeking this from others.
- Improve your relationships and develop your true, authentic self.
- Learn to use the self-encounter, an amazing tool that will help you navigate ANY situation in life more effectively.
- Learn about personal boundaries in relationships and build stronger connections and greater intimacy.
- Learn the loving choices process and how to make loving choices for the rest of your life.
HEALING THE CHILD WITHIN
Charles Whitfield’s bestselling book, Healing The Child Within
(1987), introduced the concept of “the inner child,” the part of us which is truly alive, energetic, creative and fulfilled. Healing the Child Within focuses on the inner child who has been lost to trauma and loss, and how by recovering “the child within”, we can heal the fear, confusion and unhappiness of our adult life. Recent brain research on the effects of trauma on the brains of developing children has further supported Dr. Whitfield’s original premise, regarding the significant impact of childhood trauma. Whitfield has worked as a psychiatrist for four decades with adults who have grown up in dysfunctional families, characterized by alcoholism, addiction, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, trauma and/or mental illness. Throughout his career, Whitfield has observed firsthand in his work with patients, that breaking the silence and telling the story related to one’s dysfunctional childhood is therapeutic and healing.
The Healing The Child and A Gift To Myself books were originally written for “Adult Children” to use in self help groups. The weekly “Healing The Child Within”
seminar sessions will include interactive activities and group discussions, and include personal sharing related to each curriculum topic. Participants will learn about the dysfunctional patterns and unhealthy experiences from their family of origin and how these have impacted them. In the group, we work together, utilizing a step by step process for nurturing and healing these wounds from childhood. Participants spend the last several sessions developing their individualized recovery plan to use in the months ahead. Many groups decide to continue meeting on a monthly basis for ongoing support and fellowship after the ten week Healing The Child Within
seminar has concluded.
