All playbooks
Conversation Playbook
Couples / Relationship Counseling — Counselor (General Practice)
Better Conversations | Stronger Relationships | Better Outcomes
Before the session
- Frame it for the couple: Clarion listens for patterns across four EI domains to help both partners — and you — see the relationship system more clearly. It's not judging either partner.
- Let the couple talk to each other, not just to you — the richest signal comes from real partner-to-partner exchanges, not a Q&A with the counselor.
- Pull up the previous Clarion report for 10–15 min before the session to see what's shifted since last time and to prep today's focus.
Ask across all four domains each session
Self-Awareness
- “What did you notice in yourself in the moment things got tense this week?”
- “What emotion came up first for you, before anything else, in that exchange?”
- “What do you think triggered that reaction in you?”
Self-Management
- “How did you try to calm yourself when things got heated?”
- “What helped you stay present instead of shutting down or lashing out?”
- “What would you want to do differently next time you feel that same escalation?”
Social Awareness
- “What do you think your partner was feeling in that moment, even if they didn't say it?”
- “What did you notice about your partner's tone or body language?”
- “Where do you think your partner felt unheard?”
Relationship Management
- “What's one bid for connection you made or missed this week?”
- “How did you two try to repair after the disagreement?”
- “What would help you feel more like a team the next time this comes up?”
Tracking your own practice and methods
Clarion's four EI domains are built to sit alongside whatever framework you already practice with — not to replace it. Here's how they typically line up, so you can track your own method's constructs in the same conversation:
Individual-level constructs
Self-Awareness often lines up with the individual-level constructs your framework already tracks — triggers, internal states, cognitive patterns, or the parts and roles each partner brings into the room.
Regulation-focused constructs
Self-Management often lines up with regulation-focused constructs — coping strategies, distress tolerance, de-escalation, or self-soothing between partners.
Attunement-focused constructs
Social Awareness often lines up with attunement-focused constructs — empathic accuracy, perspective-taking, or how well each partner reads the other's bids and cues.
Systemic / cyclical constructs
Relationship Management often lines up with systemic or cyclical constructs — interaction cycles, repair sequences, attachment behaviors, or relational roles.
What you'll be able to see afterward
- A read on where the couple actually stands: end with each partner naming one thing they'll try before next session — this feeds commitment-risk scoring.
- Use LCD (Likeable, Credible, Dependable) as a lens on how each partner is currently experiencing the other, not just how they describe the relationship in the abstract.
- A second, independent read on the pattern you're already tracking in your own method — useful for confirming your clinical read, or noticing when it diverges.
Counselor reminders
- Before the session, jot down the one or two constructs from your own method you're specifically tracking today.
- After the session, compare your clinical notes to the Clarion brief — where they align, and where Clarion surfaced something your framework alone might have missed.
- Stay the clinical read of record — use the brief to confirm or challenge your own observations, not to replace them.
