Integrated Behavioral Couples Therapy

Traditional Behavioral Couples Therapy (TBCT) is based on a few basic ideas: Simply talking about how you feel and think about problems is not very helpful; rather, doing something about them is what helps. TBCT focuses on changing behavior through communication and problem-solving; you negotiate changes and agree to implement them. Studies have shown that […]

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Infidelity

Marriage is the only war where you sleep with the enemy. Gary Busey What Do We Know About Infidelity? Some stats on infidelity: In the clinical population, 25-30% of couples come to therapy in the aftermath of an affair, and an additional 30% report during therapy that there has been an affair, so roughly 1 […]

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The History of Marital Therapy

from The history of couple therapy: A millennial review. Family Process, 41, 199-260. (2002). Gurman and Fraenkel point out that relational therapy (formerly marital or couples therapy) has been largely neglected as its own specialty, even though family therapists do almost twice as much work with couples as work with multigenerational families. Sometimes it is […]

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The Sound Marital House

John Gottman has been conducting marital therapy research for almost 30 years, and is a well-respected leader in the field. Based on this research and clinical testing of the theory, he and his wife Julie Schwartz-Gottman have developed a solid understanding of why some relationships last and why some do not, as well as an […]

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Gender Issues in Couples Therapy

Introduction “Gender Issues” has been a difficult area for couples therapy. In 1988 the AAMFT required that accredited programs had to include gender issues in their curriculum. “Feminism” is initially what this meant, as women argued that traditional couples therapy maintained the sexist status quo, both by blaming women for violence and by maintaining therapeutic […]

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Families and Substance Abuse

This was a presentation to social workers based upon requests to know more about substance abuse and dysfunctional families. So How Does Substance Abuse Cause Changes In the Family? Drugs and alcohol are substances that alter people by producing changes in: Aggression – Research shows that substance abuse is not a risk factor for many […]

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Emotion Focused Therapy for Couples

Review of Susan Johnson and Leslie Greenberg’s Approach to Couples Therapy Notes from my Couples Therapy Class To hear you say my name, to see you search my eyes… To feel you touch my hand, it more than satisfies. If I was not the first, just say I’ll be the last. It’s too much to […]

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Defenses

Following is a list of defenses and some information about them. The list is not exhaustive, but covers the big ones. Displacement One way to avoid the risk associated with feeling unpleasant emotions is to displace them, or put them somewhere other than where they belong. A common example is being angry at your boss. […]

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