The document discusses three theories of marriage/couples counseling: 1) Psychoanalytic theory focuses on early childhood relationships with parents and how those bonds impact adult relationships. Therapy involves understanding each person's parental relationships. 2) Social learning theory views relationships as learning behaviors from others through modeling and imitation. Therapy aims to build communication skills. 3) Rational emotive behavior theory posits that irrational thoughts, rather than events, cause relationship problems. Therapy helps individuals change dysfunctional thinking patterns to improve the relationship. The author finds rational emotive behavior theory most appealing as it addresses both individuals and the couple system.

1. Reply needed today by 4pm
Marriage/Couples’ Counseling:
1)
Psychoanalytic Theory
:
Based on the theory of object relations. This theory
focuses on generational relationship development. The objects
are parents such as a mother-daughter bond formed during early
childhood development. These early developments and bonds
formed with parents are brought into adulthood and
subsequently enter into marriages. Therapy for couples with this
theoretical focus involves the counselor gaining crucial insight
into each person’s parental relationships. Each person then
transfers reorganized thoughts based on reactions, expectations,
and perceptions of themselves and others onto the therapist. The
counselor may also use dream work, interpretation, and
resistance analysis in their therapeutic technique. The outcome
of this theoretical approach is typically that catharsis will occur
for couples by allowing them to acquire nascent insights into
their lives, which creates space for altering the behaviors that
probably caused the couples to seek therapy to begin with
(Newsome & Gladding, 2014).
2)
Social-Learning Theory
:
Newsome and Gladding (2014) describe social-learning
theory as “learning through modeling and imitation.”
Essentially, the theory says that we learn a lot of what we know
by observing the behaviors of others and couples who seek
therapy have too many or too few important behaviors. An
example of not enough is someone not knowing how to resolve
arguments with their partner and an example of an excess is

2. oversharing things that one person thinks the other person wants
to know. One of the counseling goals utilizing this theoretical
approach is to work on building skills in the moment. To help
couples, the counselor uses communication-enhancement
exercises, homework, and contracts. This theory is rooted in
linear cognition.
3)
Rational Emotive Behavior Theory
:
REBT focuses on the idea that couples give more
credence to thoughts rather than occurrences. Newsome and
Gladding (2014) note that couples who think irrationally are
more apt to becoming neurotic about the goings-on of their
relationship, which then causes upheaval in relationships. To
cope with disruptions in their relationships, couples should
attempt to resolve and alter their ways of thinking and feeling
about particular events. By focusing on the individuals in the
relationship, the counselor can help the couple as a unit. This
theory is also known as double systems therapy because of the
focus on changing the individual within a family system.
The theory I find most appealing is the rational emotive
behavior theory because it treats the individual as well as the
couple. I think sometimes people can lose their sense of self in
their relationships so having this theory bring the focus back
onto the individual and allowing them to rationalize their
feelings in the context of the relationship seems to be something
I would use in my own practice. If we evaluate our own internal
issues we might see that our relationships can be directly
affected by the way we think about things that happen within
them and help us avoid turmoil or at least manage it more
effectively.

3. References
Newsome, D. W., & Gladding, S. T. (2014).
Clinical Mental Health Counseling in Community and Agency
Settings
(4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc