Couple therapy aims to help partners negotiate behavior changes, improve communication skills, and avoid destructive fighting. There are several approaches, including behavioral therapy which modifies dysfunctional behaviors, and emotion-focused therapy which helps partners experience and process emotions. Effective couple counseling principles include changing views of the relationship, promoting strengths, and improving communication. Common techniques involve analyzing communication styles, exploring unconscious relationship roots, and enhancing intimacy.

1. COUPLE THERAPY

2. DEFINITION OF A COUPLE
Couple means two of the same sort considered
together. We are more concerned with the
definition that two people who are married or
have a romantic or sexual relationship

3. CHARACTERISTICS OF HAPPY
COUPLES
• Foundation of affection and friendship
• "Validation sequences“
• Ability to resolve disagreements
• “Positive sentiment override
• A 5 to 1(or better) compliment-criticism ratio is
optimal
• As the ratio decreases, marriage satisfaction decreases
• Amount of conflict relatively unimportant

4. COUPLE THERAPY
• It is a related and different process.
• It may differ from relationship counseling in
duration.
• Short term counseling may be between 1 to 3
sessions whereas long term couples therapy
may be between 12 and 24 sessions.

5. HISTORY
The evolving patterns in theory and practice are
reviewed as having progressed through four
distinctive phases:
• Phase I--A theoretical Marriage Counseling
Formation (1930-1963);
• Phase II--Psychoanalytic Experimentation (1931-
1966);
• Phase III--Family Therapy Incorporation (1963-
1985);
• Phase IV--Refinement, Extension, Diversification,
and Integration (1986-present).

6. CONT….
The history of research in the field is described
as having passed through three phases:
• Phase I--A Technique in Search of Some Data
(1930-1974)
• Phase II--Irrational(?) Exuberance (1975-
1992)
• Phase III--Caution and Extension (1993-
present).

7. GOALS OF THERAPY
• Help partners negotiate behavior change
• Teach more effective communication skills
(e.g., active listening, how to argue)
• Avoid the 4 horsemen and other forms of
destructive fighting
• Focus on and encourage “positive sentiment
override”
• Improving "communication skills"

8. ASSESSMENT OF MARITAL
DISTRESS
• Couples can be assessed along behavior,
cognition, affect, and internal dynamics.
• First understand the characteristics of
unsatisfied couples, then prevent and treat
dissatisfaction.
• Distressed couples show high rates of “The
Four Horsemen”: defensiveness, criticism,
contempt, stonewalling.

9. TREATMENT APPROACHES
BEHAVIORAL MARITAL/COUPLE
THERAPY
• Origins in behaviorism and is a form
of behavior therapy. The theory is rooted
in social learning theory and behavior analysis
• The purpose of Behavioral Couples Therapy
(BCT) is to build support for abstinence and to
improve relationship functioning among
married or cohabiting individuals seeking help
for alcoholism or drug abuse.

10. INTEGRATIVE BEHAVIORAL COUPLE
THERAPY
• Consists of two major phases, an
evaluation/feedback phase and an active
treatment phase.
• The typical course of therapy lasts between 6
and 12 months.

11. EMOTION-FOCUSED THERAPY (EFT)
• It is a unique empirically-based approach,
based on methods designed to help people
accept, express, regulate, make sense of and
transform emotion.
• Learning about emotions is not enough;
instead, what is needed is for clients
to experience those emotions as they arise in
the safety of the therapy session.

12. COUPLES AND
MARRIAGE
COUNSELING

13. • Couples or marriage counseling is offered to
support people in relationship who may be
considering separation or seeking
improved intimacy and understanding.
• People in relationship seek counseling for any
number of reasons, from power struggles
and communication problems, to sexual
dissatisfaction and infidelity.
• Though counseling is recommended as soon as
discontent arises in a relationship, studies show that
on average, partners will not seek therapy until they
have been unhappy for six years.

14. 5 Principles of Effective Couples
Therapy

15. PRINCIPLES
1. Changes the views of the relationship
2. Modifies dysfunctional behavior
3. Decreases emotional avoidance
4. Improves communication
5. Promotes strengths

16. COUPLES COUNSELING
TECHNIQUES

17. 1) GOTTMAN METHOD
• Uses couples counseling techniques to increase
affection, closeness, and respect.
• These techniques help you resolve conflict when
you feel like you’re at an impasse.
• Shows you how to build love maps, which help you
learn about your partner’s psychological world by
mapping your partner’s worries, stresses, joys,
hopes, and history.
• It stresses conflict management rather than conflict
resolution.

18. 2) NARRATIVE THERAPY
• Narrative therapy seeks to separate the problem
from the person by externalizing issues of
concern.
• It allows you to gain new perspective on the
situation.
• Narrative therapy allows you to explore the past
to bring to light negativities that otherwise
remain hidden.

19. 3) EMOTIONALLY FOCUSED COUPLES
THERAPY
• was first developed for couples, but it has proven
useful for family counseling as well.
• emotionally focused therapy has three main goals:
 encourages the expansion and reorganization of
key emotional responses
 seeks to secure a tight bond between you and your
partner
 Distance during interactions and creates new,
beneficial interactions in your partnership.

20. 4) POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Positive psychology emphasizes positive emotions,
character strengths, and constructive institutions to
promote the notion that happiness is derived from
various mental and emotional factors.
Specialists believe perception dictates happiness
from one event to another

21. 5) IMAGO RELATIONSHIP THERAPY
• Imago Relationship Therapy combines
spiritual and behavioral techniques with
western psychological techniques of therapy to
expose unconscious components.
• The therapist views the couple’s conflict as a
solution to the situation rather than the
problem. Examination of the conflict is the key
to finding a solution to disharmony.

22. • Acknowledgment that each partner is
communicating differently helps resolves
problems.
• Partners learn that disagreements aren’t signs
of love loss but are normal occurrences in
relationships that can be resolved through
communication.

23. 6) ANALYZING THE WAYS YOU
COMMUNICATE
• The inability to communicate in healthy ways is
the basis for the majority of problems in a
relationship.
• Its important for you to speak your mind rather
than to expect one another to read moods and
body language, which are open to
misinterpretation.
• A therapist can guide you toward functional
forms of communication that alleviate
misunderstandings.

24. 7) EXPLORING UNCONSCIOUS
ROOTS OF PROBLEMS
• The purpose is to bring the unconscious roots of a
problem to the surface, whether the problem
belongs to one or both partners.
• The belief of a psychodynamic counselor is that
significant life events and childhood experiences
shape peoples’ behavioral tendencies.
• During couples counseling, the therapist explores
major past experiences in order to change
distorted perceptions and eliminate irrational
reactions to current events.

25. 8) ENHANCING INTIMACY TO
PROMOTE CLOSENESS
• Couples therapy isn’t just limited to deflecting or
solving problems; it also promotes closeness and
intimacy in a partnership.
• Counselors help couples enrich their lives by
aiding the development of friendship and ways to
show affection.
• By providing exercises to increase mutual
support, therapists teach couples how to
overcome existing issues and how to make
relationships resilient.

26. 9) INDIVIDUAL COUNSELING
• Individual counseling is recommended
when one partner is unwilling to undergo
therapy or as a precursor to couples therapy.
• A common issue with individual therapy
arises with the client’s right to privacy.
• The best outcome can be expected when
both partners are committed to counseling.

27. CONCLUSION
• Couple therapy helps in understanding of
different marital demands and requisites and
tries to solve our problems through different
techniques.
• It also allows in establishing intimacy and care
among partners.