Couples therapy

Meet the patient

A couple sits in front of you, fourteen years married, and they cannot get through a sentence without the other correcting it. She pursues, loudly, about his drinking; he withdraws, further, into the sofa and the phone. Both are exhausted. He has a depressive episode; she has an alcohol problem neither of them names. Before you book a single conjoint session, there is a question you must ask each of them alone.^[13][16]

The registrar reaches for "communication skills". The examiner's question is sharper and safer: have you screened each partner privately for intimate partner violence, and is conjoint problem-solving actually safe here? Everything below assumes the answer is yes.^[1][15]

References16ShowHide

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12. [12]Monson CM, Fredman SJ, Macdonald A, et al. Effect of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy for PTSD: a randomized controlled trial JAMA, 2012.PMID 22893167
13. [13]Whisman MA Marital distress and DSM-IV psychiatric disorders in a population-based national survey J Abnorm Psychol, 2007.PMID 17696721
14. [14]Wiebe SA, Johnson SM A Review of the Research in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples Fam Process, 2016.PMID 27273169
15. [15]Lebow J, Snyder DK Couple therapy in the 2020s: Current status and emerging developments Fam Process, 2022.PMID 36175119
16. [16]Baucom DH, Belus JM, Adelman CB, Fischer MS, Paprocki C Couple-based interventions for psychopathology: A renewed direction for the field Fam Process, 2014.PMID 24773298