We've all seen couples so irrationally embroiled in furious, chronic conflict—often triggered by insignificant issues—that they seem completely incapable of listening to a therapist, much less focusing on therapy itself. In this workshop, you'll learn a model, based on neurobiological research, that helps explain how these partners continually trigger the reptilian brain's fight-or-flight response in each other, resulting in instantaneous and powerful feelings of fear and rage that prevent clinical progress. Participants will learn brain-based techniques for slowing therapy down and organizing it so that the partners don't continue triggering each other. We'll discuss methods for helping partners contain their primitive reactions, stop pushing each other's buttons, listen to each other, and step back to observe what's happening between them. We'll also explore how to proceed once couples have evolved from "reptile" to "human" and can start the actual work of putting their marriages back together by examining their individual and joint dynamics, repairing their communication patterns, and beginning to reexperience the enthusiasm and desire they once had for each other.