Introduction In couple’s therapy the main goal of intervention is to help two individuals improve the quality of their relationship. In order to do so, couple’s therapy helps individuals recognize the problems that exist in their relationship and works to help resolve these conflicts in a healthy manner. Therefore, couple’s therapy can be seen as a form of psychotherapy which helps individuals in relationships make thoughtful decisions in order to rebuild their relationship or part ways with one another. With relationships being unique, it is expected that intervention in couple therapy sessions can vary based upon the services a couple is seeking.
Description of the Intervention
Couple’s therapy can include many different components that are intended to have certain outcomes during intervention. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is used in couple’s therapy to help individuals explore the motives behind their behaviors. Often times in a relationship, individuals in a relationship display certain behaviors toward one another based off the actions they perceive from their partner. In other words, this means the actions of one partner affects how the other partner thinks, acts, and feels. According to Zisman (2010), “One spouse’s actions tug on the other in a way that compounds the problem” (p. 273). It is the goal of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help individuals change these behaviors and create more positive behaviors within a relationship. In order to do so, the first few
Emotionally focused therapy is designed to be short-term in structure. Developed principally by Dr. Susan Johnson, the main target of this type of therapy is couples and is focused on expressing emotions. The primary goal of emotionally focused therapy is to create a safe and long-lasting bond between romantic partners and family members while expanding and restructuring significant emotional responses. Partakers in emotionally focused therapy are emboldened to express their thoughts and emotions in a safe environment without fear of judgment. In this paper, we will discuss a therapy session between Sue Johnson and a couple, Leslie and Scott.
Gottman couples therapy is an integrative approach that focuses on emotion, behavior, cognitive, and narrative approaches with in a systemic framework (Gottman & Gottman, 2013). This therapy is based on extensive research about how stable relationships work and how unstable relationships fail. The goal of Gottman therapy is to help couple process their inevitable fights, moments of miscommunication, or hurt feelings and to enable them to repair the relationship (Gottman & Gottman, 2013). Moreover, the goal is to “heal the wounds crated by regrettable incidents” (Gottman & Gottman, 2013, p. 95).
Emotion-Focused Therapy was developed in the early 1980s by Sue Johnson and Leslie Greenberg to provide a clear framework for working with emotion in couple therapy. (Karris & Caldwell, 2015, p. 346). In working with distressed couples, Greenberg and Johnson noted that those people were overwhelmed by intense emotions that keep them fixed into malicious pattern of interactions (as cited in Karris & Caldwell, 2015, p. 347). The priority of EFT was to identify the negative interactional cycle early in treatment and, then, access “on each partner’s unexpressed underlying emotions” (Johnson and Greenberg, 1988, p. 29) that are hidden from the self and the
Cognitive behavioral therapy partner has focused on the detailed analysis of everyday conflicts that can lead to the breakdown of the relationship; it has been raised how problems arise, and how they are maintained. It has identified a feature which is associated with them generally, a predominance of negative interactions on positive. With the obvious aim of achieving an effective intervention, it has raised the ways to overcome them focusing on increasing the exchange of positive behaviors and improving communication and problem solving.
Gottman method couple therapy or Gottman's Sound Relationship House (SRH) theory (Gottman, 1999) is grounded on years of John Gottman’s research and exploration about what makes marital relationships succeed or fail. The outcomes of these studies reveal that couples with successful
Jane and Charlize is a homosexual monogamous couple who have been together for almost three years. The couple has been married for two years and a half. They were dating six months before deciding to get married. The couple attends therapy because they report feeling distant and having arguments a couple times a week. Taking the role of a therapist, I co-worked with another colleague during the third therapy session of the couple. The third session of the couple was based on the second stage of the Integrated Couple Therapy (ICT) model, stabilization (David, 2014, p. 66). This paper presents an analysis of the session I performed while working with the couple. This paper will analyze the couple’s presenting problem and their dysfunctional
Gurman, A. S. (2008). Clinical handbook of couple therapy (4th ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.
There are a series of steps involved in integrated systemic couples therapy (Goldman & Greenberg, 1992). First, the therapist and the couple define the issue. A negative cycle is determined, but not necessarily by the couple; the therapist could determine the negative cycle instead. The therapist and couple come together to restructure that negative cycle, and try to redefine the problem with a positive spin. The important aspect of integrated systemic therapy is that the therapist encourages the couple to progress at their own pace (Goldman & Greenberg, 1992). Restraint is a key component because it allows the couples examine their actions, as opposed to rushing into
One of the leading therapeutic theories that I agree with is the fact that greater individuation in the marriage and the increased
Relationships vs. functioning. Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is built on the premise that when problem behaviors are reduced and thought patterns change, the relationships in the family naturally improve. While this may seem contradictory to the other two theories, in practice, it aligns well with the idea that the achievement of individual mental and emotional health supports the functioning of the family
Benson, McGinn and Christensen’s evidence suggests effective couples change the way that they behave with their partners. Meaning that further to improving couple interactions, therapists need to ensure that their clients are not engaging in actions that can cause physical, psychological, or economic harm. This can be as simple as one partner’s behavioural response to the other partner’s upset or on the other end of the scale
There are two main theories applied to relationships, Social Exchange Theory and Equity Theory underpin commonly used behavioural therapies such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Enhanced Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Integrative Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. More recent studies in neuroscience and behaviour and the importance of language have led to the development of Relational Frame Theory and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as an alternative approach. In this essay I will outline the relationship models comparing and contrasting them. I will also introduce and briefly touch on Relational Frame Theory and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as an additional approach to couples counselling and offer considerations which an
The primary tool of this therapy is called The Couple’s Dialogue which teaches couples to communicate more effectively. It is structured to create emotional security that is required for people to communicate their insecurities and with one another to ultimately create an empathetic connection (Robbins, 2005). In the study Couples Therapy and Empathy: An Evaluation of the Impact of IRT on Partner Empathy Levels, Gelhert and Schmidt (2016) had adult couples complete twelve 90-minute treatment sessions and assessed them using the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI). The IRI is a self-report measure scored on a Likert scale from 0-4 that asks about the psychological viewpoint of others. Interestingly, the study found that over the course of 12 sessions of IRT, participants in the treatment group showed a steady increase in their empathy scores. These results indicate that focusing on empathy in IRT does affect people on an individual level in addition to empirically proven increases in marital satisfaction (Gelhert & Schmidt, 2016). This, along with other studies have shown that IRT helps people become more empathetic with their counterparts, which in turn could help ADHD couples understand each other more on an interpersonal level as well as help develop copping methods for ADHD symptoms. Additionally, when discussing romantic relationships earlier, it was articulated
Cognitive-behavioral family therapy provides many strengths for families. It also helps strengthen the relationship between couples that are married. Therapists treating couples who are married use strategies to improve the foundation of their marriage. In cognitive behavioral family therapy couples are taught to express themselves clearly and are taught new behaviors to improve communication and establish a solid union as partners. They are also taught strategies to solve marital problems and ways to maintain positive control. Toggle appreciable family therapy provides a number of treatment interventions for the family to improve their emotional regulation. An example of an intervention is the downward Arrow which helps families Express their feelings and the emotions behind them it allows them to express their emotions and understand them while projecting in a calm manner not leading to recrimination. Nichols 2014 says the greatest shape of behavior therapy is its insistence on its serving what happens and then measuring change 186. The goal of therapy is to help each family member recognize their distortions in thinking and improve and change their behaviors. A weakness of cognitive behavioral therapy is that the emotional state of a client may not be good even though their behavior changes. Nichols (2014) provides a good example of how a mother reports that her son is performing household chores however she feels as though her son does not really want to do the
The clinical case scenario presented can be approached from a variety of different theories from the field of marriage and family therapy. While each approach carries with it specific techniques and strategies for invoking change, I would assert that no one approach is inherently better than the other. A common characteristic among all the theories is that there effectiveness depends highly on the depth of knowledge of the approach, skill in the application of the strategies for change, and creativity of the therapist. With this in mind, the following text will be a separate application of MRI Brief Therapy and Strategic Therapy to the provided clinical case scenario.