Auckland PSI^TM  Institute

Family or Couples Therapy tends to be more efficient than individual therapy because you get to work through your issues together, as a team, and there is less tendency to relapse because it is easier for an individual to change when the family system changes with them. Relationship or Family  Counselling offers a safe place where each person can be heard, first by the therapist, and ultimately by each other.  Sometimes the therapist acts as a translator, but never as a referee. It helps to start by exploring the strengths of each relationship, and what makes for positive mutual experiences.

In working with families, couples or other relationships, I use a combination of the effective approaches described below:

  Family Systems Therapy helps us to understand how interactions throughout the family system affect each individual. Changing the patterns of interactions can make a profound difference for the individuals concerned. This approach involves the use of a genogram- which is like an emotional family tree that maps out the family system pictorially, going up at least one or two generations to reveal generational patterns. This is a way for all present to get a history, and to see present patterns and how that all ties in.

  Somatic Family Therapy:  Incorporating bodily awareness work into family and couples therapy is very powerful and effective,  most especially for deescalating fights. This includes such things as eye contact, tone and volume of voice, physical distance, posture, facial expressions, and hand movements. For couples it is also especially helpful with sexual issues, as 90% of all communication is non-verbal. Yet most forms of therapy only concentrate on the 10% that is verbal. By paying attention to and changing non-verbal communications  between couples or within a family, deep change can occur rather quickly. This not only changes relationships, it changes one's physical and emotional experience within the couple or family.

More Approaches for Couples:

  John Gottman developed a scientifically based approach to marriage therapy from his extensive observations of and research with couples and families in his lab. One of his most
 important contributions, in my opinion, is the concept of the emotional bank account.   He explains that for every negative encounter there should be at least 5 positive encounters in the "bank account" to help the couple get through hard times.  He emphasizes ways to build up this account in preparation for when it is needed. He also talks about recurrent problems, explaining that most (he says 60% of) relationship problems are not solvable, and that it is how the couple engages in and moves through the problem each time it presents itself (again and again) that determines the success or failure of a relationship.

   Imago Therapy (Harville Hendrix) presents ways for partners to be more loving and compassionate with one another.  He says safety is the key to passion and intimacy. He suggests that we try to remember the ways we saw our partner when we first fell in love, and work through our tendencies to project our experiences with our parents onto our partners, so as to attain deep relational satisfaction. 

I combine all of these approaches, emphasizing whatever works best for each specific individual, couple or family.

In addition, when relevant, I apply the insights I have gained from my experiences and specialisations in  trauma work and in working with eating problems, to my approach to family therapy.

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        * This article does not apply to couples struggling with physical or sexual abuse. Much stronger interventions are required in those cases to first and foremost keep all parties physically safe.  Couples therapy should not be attempted in these cases until the abuse has clearly and permanently been halted. For resources on this topic, please see: http://www.womensrefuge.org.nz/need_help.asp

    (c)  2001 by Judy Lightstone
 

More Articles:

 Psychotherapy for Couples, Myths and Truths about "Happy Couples"; Relationship Issues;  Power and the family; Helping a loved one with bulimia;  Overcoming Powerlessness;  Feeding  the Family Non-Compulsively;  Domestic Violence; Techniques to Help Survivors of Childhood Abuse