Couples Therapy Helps Interpret Challenges

By Georgie Maddison - Friday, April 13th, 2007

In [tag]couples therapy[/tag], marriage and family difficulties account for about half of all visits to psychotherapists, and most therapists who specialize in family therapy. According to the March 2007 issue of the Harvard Mental Health Letter, the therapist “helps the couple work on eliminating mutual misunderstandings, unreasonable expectations, and unstated assumptions that perpetuate conflict”.

The letter says that couples therapists make little use of psychiatric diagnosis, but they do use many of the same methods employed by therapists who work with individuals. Those include assigning exercises for behavior change; challenging beliefs; interpreting emotional conflicts and the influence of the past; offering advice and support; and teaching social skills and problem solving.

“Emotional problems arise between people as well as within them,” says Dr. Michael Miller, editor in chief of the Harvard Mental Health Letter. “Couples therapy addresses this fact, and therefore can help some relationships.”

He said that although most studies found that couples therapy can be helpful, it’s unclear whether it can transform unhappy relationships into satisfactory ones, and whether the effects last.

“Improvement is usually maintained for six months, but often there is a relapse after a year or two,” he said. “Therapists may try different treatment approaches, or they may emphasize features that all approaches have in common.”

The couples therapist assumes that the unhappiness amounts to more than the sum of their individual problems and symptoms, and helps them examine their lives together and decide what changes are needed. Therapists do, however, try to help each partner understand his or her contributions to the couple’s problems. The individuals are also encouraged to weigh the benefits and costs of being in the relationship.

The March issue also contains articles about