Should Couples Therapy Be The Hardest Form Of Therapy? Essay

As a marriage and family therapist, it is important to have a firm understanding of both who you are and your values. This concept is ever present and most important during our training period. We start as individuals, with a passion that leads us to choose this career path and our own preconceived ideas about what it means to be a therapist. It is those preconceived notions or beliefs, that become assumptions and therapeutic viewpoints underlying our treatment methods. There are seven, beliefs and assumptions, in particular, that can contribute to what therapeutic model of treatment we choose to use in our sessions.

Gurman, A. S. (2008). Clinical handbook of couple therapy (4th ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

When we look at Cognitive-Behavioral Couple Therapy (CBCT) and Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT), there are some clear similarities and differences. Both of these forms of therapy are relatively new. They are both therapeutic treatments that have been developed from Traditional Behavioral Couple Therapy (TBCT) (Gurman, 2008). Both CBCT and IBCT tend to stress the significance to private occasions.

The authors do not have any professional training on relationship counseling. They may, however, have personal experience through relationships of their own, but this is not made clear in the essay. With their strong defense of men in marriage, I do feel as if the authors are married, due to the way

Capuzzi and Stauffer (2015) state that assessment of the needs of marriage and family therapy go beyond just the instruments, in fact “Snyder, Heyman, and Haynes (2005) noted that more individuals reported seeking treatment for marital problems than any other single type of problem, with a majority of individuals surveyed identifying significant periods of turmoil within their marriage. Given the numbers of individuals experiencing marital issues at some point or another within their relationship, as well as the number of individuals seeking couples therapy, couple and family therapists must be familiar with instruments that may be used to assess specific problems and the quality of the relationship” (p. 89). Myers says that he likes to help people, but really wants to be able to remain their pastor and will counsel briefly with people, but if the trouble they are having is more extensive from his assessment, then he will refer them to one of the highly qualified counselors of the

Marriage and family therapists believe that the family patterns may affect an individual’s psychological and physical well being and therefore need to be part of therapy. During a therapy session even if only one person is being interviewed, the therapists focuses on a set of relationships that the person is embedded in. The entire family is involved in solving clients problems regardless of whether the issue in individual or family.

There are plenty of other objectives and intervention techniques that the Hope-Focused Counseling approach offers to couples who are struggling. The above mentioned areas were addressed, because the area of communication and conflict resolution are two very important areas that couples need to be clear and effective in to promote a long lasting marriage relationship. Luckily, Olympia and Chris seemed dedicated and committed to one another and doing whatever they need to do in order make the marriage

The two therapy techniques that are being questioned this week are Emotional Focused Couple Therapy and Hope Focused Couple Therapy. Both techniques are effective in marital and couple therapy and both systems can be utilized effectively, however, I think comparable to other techniques the results depend on the people and the therapist. Hope focused therapy is centered around the brain and how couples perceive where their marriage is and where they want it to go. Watson (2017) states, “The approach is oriented around hopefulness and strengths, helping couples assess their strengths and create a positive narrative around them and their relationship to combat the discouragement and hopelessness that couples typically bring into counseling,”

Marriage and family therapists are very much needed and are growing in demand. The stigma of seeing a therapist for marital and family problems is disappearing thus making people more likely to seek help for issues they cannot resolve on their own. There has also been an increased recognition of the field of marriage and family therapy (http://www.bls.gov). Over half of managed health care providers and employee assistance programs employ or contract with MFTs and 91% of graduates in 1992 from COAMFTE accredited programs were employed not long after graduation (http://www.aamft.org). According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the field of marriage and family therapy is expected to see a growth of 30% by 2016 making it one of the fastest growing of all occupations (http://www.bls.gov).

It takes very special people to want to make a difference in people’s lives, to want to help them to be better. Some people seek to become counselors after overcoming a most important life challenge. The individuals that seek the profession of marriage and family therapy do not think of this work as a job or career, more typically a constellation of life experiences that demand explanation and a sense that others seek one out for assistance and emotional sustenance become driving forces leading one to counseling profession (An Invitation to Counseling Work).

Now that you have discovered the various degrees and licensing a therapist can have, it's time to look at the counseling itself. In some cases, marriage counseling is temporary in nature, lasting only as long as it takes a couple to work through and issue. Although the term "marriage counseling" is being used, marriage counseling can help couples of all types, whether they are married or not.

But it is not the traditional type of counseling that most couples do. They still attend a 'Couples Retreat' and the one that they go to has a 90 percent success rate with repairing marriages.

Lebow (2006) stated that currently couples therapy is on a roll more than it was 20 years ago, as it has become more accepted by the general public. It would be important to know the advances made in the field of couples counseling research. Competency and professional advancement due to this research is also important. Research within the field of couples counseling is very limited for various reasons.

According to Kreider and Fields (2002) the chances of divorce among first marriages ending in divorce 40-50%, and within a 40-year period divorce in first marriage ranges between 50-67% (Gottman & Levenson, 2002). As such, some couple seek marital therapy when things are not working as they hope or before it get breaking up. Tam and Lisa is a couple seeking professional guidance because they felt their marriage is drifting apart and they want to improve their marriage.

In looking at the PAIRS website, it seems that the website promotes a couples retreat. The downfall or negative to that is that while I believe that every couple would benefit from a program like this, I do not believe that every couple can afford a retreat. I also think that if couples were not comfortable in group therapy, this would not work. Not everyone enjoys airing their dirty laundry in front of a group. PAIRS is set up more like a class and does not get involved in the personal issues between the couples, it merely woks on strengthening the relationship by encouraging couples to find their own solutions. If a marriage is in serious trouble and the couples need therapy in order to concentrate on their individual problems, PAIRS is not the enrichment program for them.