Couple Therapy Training Program
Albert Brok, PhD, CGP, Co-Director & Delverlon Hall, EdD, LCSW, Co-Director


Training Institute for Mental Health
115 West 27th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10001

“I Deserve More!”:
Challenging Entitlement in Couple Therapy

Gil Consolini, PhD, LCSW
Tripp Evans, PhD, LCSW

Saturday, Feb 8, 10:00AM -1:00PM

Three Contact Hours for Social Workers


What do individuals in relationship deserve, expect or demand? How entitled are we? Are Narcissism and Entitlement the same?

Couples today are struggling with gender equality and “fairness” — especially given the times we're living in. People are throwing around Narcissism with abandon but what does it really mean — especially in couple relationships?

Individuals in relationships have expectations of and from their significant other. But when are those expectations overwhelmingly demanding and selfish? Can those demands be tempered, acknowledged, compromised, and achieved? And what if we were to look at this behavior as entitlement as opposed to narcissism?

We found that those with Narcissistic Personality Disorder would rarely, if ever, be in therapy (individual or couple); they are very difficult to work with and can be extremely destructive in relationships. But those who present an aspect of entitlement are far more workable and open to the therapeutic process.

Working with couples where one member feels overly entitled can be challenging but that individual can achieve an understanding as to where the entitlement comes from and what effect it has on the other. Why? Because entitlement involves the self in relation to the other (unlike Narcissism). Entitlement exists. We will identify it and demonstrate how to work with it and through it.

Learning Objectives:

Participants will:

• Understand aspects of Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
• Identify, compare, and contrast the concepts of Narcissism versus Entitlement.
• Look at the differences between male and female entitlement.
• Demonstrate an understanding of Attachment Theory and how it informs entitlement.
• Demonstrate one aspect of an Inflated Sense of Entitlement with a clinical vignette from their own practice.
• Demonstrate one aspect of a Restricted Sense of Entitlement with a clinical vignette from their own practice.
• Explore countertransference reactions as they relate to the entitled patient in couple therapy.

Please Select

No charge for TIMH students/candidates.

Gil Consolini, PhD, LCSW has been working with couples for 20 years and has presented many professional workshops on couple therapy and other subjects. He has published two papers in clinical social work journals, and has been a training analyst and faculty member at the New York Center for Psychoanalytic Training. He is currently in private practice.

Tripp Evans, PhD, LCSW has been working with couples for over 20 years and is in private practice. He is on faculty and a supervisor at the Couple Therapy Training Program of the Training Institute for Mental Health, and has taught a couple therapy elective at the NYU School of Social Work. He has co-presented previous workshops on couple relationships and therapy, and is co-author of a paper on aspects of empathy in couple work.