Courses

New here? Each course below is built from one book by A. Damianakis. You take it online, one lesson at a time, at your own pace. Every lesson ends with your own work: questions to answer and things to notice in your life that week. Nothing can be downloaded; you work inside the course.

Not sure where to begin?

Try a free five-day start first, one for each book. One question a day, about ten minutes, written right here on this website.

Black Swans Undercover “N”: The Four Entry Questions

Orthodox Psychotherapy Applied: Where Art Thou?

Connecting the Dots: Five Tools, 5 Days

Self-study course · $119 · 39 video lessons

Black Swans Undercover “N”: Covert Psychological Manipulation Finally Explained

What it is about: hidden control in close relationships, the kind that leaves no bruise and no clear evidence. Someone keeps rewriting what happened, turning your concerns into your faults, and cutting you off from the people who would tell you the truth. The “N” stands for the word people usually reach for, narcissism. The book sets that label aside and describes the pattern instead.

Who it is for: anyone who is in, has left, or is watching someone they love in a relationship like this, and anyone who wants to know whether what they live with has a name.

What you do: watch 39 short video lessons in the author’s own voice (about five hours in all). The course names 116 tactics in six phases. For each one you mark whether you have met it, check which of its effects are true in your life, write about one real instance, and read what helps. Your marks gather into a private Pattern Map, so you see the pattern instead of separate incidents.

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Self-study course · $119 · 23 written lessons · Individuals (Couples edition $137 per partner)

Connecting the Dots: A Counselor’s Toolbox for Better Relationships

What it is about: the practical tools a counselor uses in the room to help people connect, talk and repair: short pictures, comparisons and sayings that make a hard idea easy to remember and use. The course is organized around three things every person needs: Connection, Communication and Calling (a life with purpose).

Who it is for: individuals and couples who want to understand each other and handle conflict better. This course is about ordinary relationship difficulty, not about manipulation.

What you do: four parts: the person and relationship; communication and becoming your own person; acting, tending and recognizing each other; and intimacy, limits and forgiveness. Each lesson gives one tool, explains when it does not apply, and has you work the tool on your own relationship.

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Self-study course · $119 · 37 written lessons

Orthodox Psychotherapy Applied: The Interior Campaign

What it is about: the Orthodox Christian tradition has its own detailed understanding of the inner life: how thoughts arrive, take hold and shape a person, and how a person heals. This course puts that tradition to work on everyday struggles, the way a counselor would. “The Interior Campaign” is the book’s name for that inner work.

Who it is for: Orthodox Christians and anyone interested in a faith-based, practical approach to the inner life. No theology background is needed.

What you do: eight parts. Each lesson gives one tool, explains its limits, and gives one practice for the week. During that week you write one line each day: what happened with that practice, and whether the day moved you toward it or away from it. At the end of each part you read your daily lines together to see what changed over that stretch of time.

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How the courses work

Where you take themCourses are taken in our online classroom (join free, then buy the course you want), or in the Ugly Duckling Workshops app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Classroom buyers get their course in the app at no extra cost. The app is in store review now.
Lesson by lessonOne lesson at a time, each with its own work. There is nothing to download: no PDFs, no audio files, no copies of the books.
Whole course or part by partBuy the whole course for $119, or one part at a time (Black Swans Undercover “N” and Orthodox Psychotherapy Applied: 8 parts at $19; Connecting the Dots: 4 parts at $37). Buying every part costs a little more than the whole course.
Couples: $137 per partnerConnecting the Dots comes in a Couples edition for two partners. Each partner buys their own seat and has their own login ($274 for the couple, because two people are taking the course). Each partner works the lesson alone, then the two of you meet for the Together step at the end of the lesson. Black Swans Undercover “N” has no Couples edition: it is never for use with the person whose behavior you are studying.
Groups of 6 or more: $95 per personAll three courses come in a Groups edition for church groups, support groups and study circles of 6 or more, priced per seat. The group rate is for groups of 6 or more. Each member has their own login, works each lesson alone, then meets with the group for the Together step at the end of the lesson.
Your privacyYour workbook answers are saved only on your own device. A quick-exit button and an erase-everything button are on every screen.
Mastery levelsAfter you buy any course, three training levels open to you. Nesting is recognition training from Black Swans Undercover “N”: one drill for each phase of the Distortion Cascade, worked on your own dated entries. Tree House is practice training from Connecting the Dots: you use the book’s templates in real situations, part by part. First Flight is integration training from Orthodox Psychotherapy Applied: the questions that gather each part of the campaign.

Professional courses

Clinical courses for licensed professionals are on the Professionals page. They are a separate track with their own access requirements.

Go to Professionals

For educational purposes only. The workshops are not a substitute for counseling, pastoral, or medical services of any kind.

If you need help now: call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline), or call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788.