Couple Therapy

Couple therapy is often an important aspect of family therapy. Sometimes a marital problem is at the heart of a problem that presents as a dysfunction in the wider family system. Couple therapy has increasingly concentrated on the interactional processes occurring between the marital pair, rather than on the partners’ intrapsychic processes. This chapter reviews the efficacy of individual versus conjoint configuration for couple therapy, the alliance in couple therapy and the thorny problem of 'mixed agenda' couples. After articulating five general principles of couple therapy, the chapter describes some representative approaches: traditional behavioural couples therapy (TBCT), integrative behavioural couples therapy (IBCT), emotionally focused therapy (EFT), the Gottman method, solution-focused therapy and narrative couple therapy. The chapter describes how family therapists can be helpful to families experiencing separation and divorce therapy and mediation. It finally provides an overview of sex therapy.