What Is Couples Therapy: Types, Benefits & Effectiveness

Difficulties in a relationship can affect both partners physically and mentally. Experts believe that communication is the key to building a successful relationship. Although there are many different ways to address and solve the problems in a relationship, couples therapy is found to have a significant impact on improving relationships.

Read on to know the types and benefits of different types of couples therapies.

Couple therapy is the psychotherapeutic process of making a couple understand each other’s expectations in the relationship and aims to improve their interpersonal communication. A therapist engaging in couples therapy seeks to gain a thorough insight into the terms of a relationship and the factors which cause conflict.

The sustenance of any relationship depends on how open and transparent the partners are. However, occasional quarrels and fights damage the intricate bond between two people. For example, the journey from couplehood to parenthood might be too overwhelming for some couples.

A licensed therapist follows a definite pathway to address and solve relationship issues. Some key highlights of their process include:

• Understanding Relationship Issues: It is necessary to know the nature of the issue disturbing the relationship. For example, problems may include barriers to physical intimacy, jealousy or internet addiction, etc.
• Counting the Relationship as a Single Entity Is Crucial: Therapists concentrate on both the partners equally and together as a unit.
• Effective Planning: Chalking out a rough outline of the treatment objectives is essential.

Any kind of relationship will be ideal for undergoing couples therapy to improve the current complications. The following kinds of relationships can seek such therapy:

• Interracial relationships.
• Young teen or college relationships.
• Straight or homosexual relationships.
• Couples with large age differences.
• Couples who are dating, engaged or married.

Couples therapy is known for bringing better understanding between partners. This is ideal for any couple, whether they have started dating recently or have been married for a long time. These are likely to help you improve your situation and enhance your relationship quality.

You must be wondering why it might be beneficial to consider couples therapy. Even ideal relationships experience problems like conflict, distress, or mistrust. Such therapies might be essential for improving the quality of a relationship. You should consider it for the following reasons:

• It helps you overcome trauma or grief over losing close ones.
• You can rebuild trust after infidelity or other deceit.
• It can help you go through a big move, like parenthood.
• Such therapies help you analyse a situation from the ends of both partners.
• You can manage substance use disorders.
• It also helps you gain stability in your relationship.
• Such therapies help rekindle a lost spark in your relationship.
• It can resolve conflicts in a rational manner.

Couples seeking treatment from a registered therapist must understand their primary reason for seeking therapy. There are various techniques in couple therapy, each meant for different scenarios. Six different types of couple therapy techniques include:

1. Reflective Listening

A lack of proper communication between partners may make them drift apart. The practice of active listening allows the other person to express their feelings and emotions clearly.

However, when partners become impatient or too full of emotions, things might turn sour. Reflective listening guides a couple through the process of holding symmetric conversations and not counterarguing every point the other makes. A healthy discussion eventually helps couples to understand each other better.

2. Solution-based Therapy

When couples approach therapists to solve a particular problem that is negatively affecting their relationship, it is referred to as solution-based therapy. This technique aims to address short-term relationship problems and solve them in a therapist’s presence.

3. Gottman Solution

To develop a deeper understanding of a conflict, therapists often suggest couples undergo Gottman therapy. Therapists believe that partners tend to engage in conflicts when their friendship ends. Therefore, a private Gottman session observes a couple and their behavioural changes when presented with a contradictory situation.

4. Imago Relationship Therapy

Sometimes, traumatic experiences during one’s growing years may affect a relationship from its core. An imago therapy session helps partners to excavate the primary causes of childhood trauma which causes relationship anxiety. As a result, it imparts empathy and strengthens the bond.

5. Ellen Wachtel’s Approach

It is a strength-based approach used in couples therapy. Here, couples get to focus on the positive aspects of the relationships and observe their strengths over the negative aspects. They get activities to reflect upon their own activities and avoid blaming their significant others.

6. Psychodynamic Couple’s Therapy

This is another powerful approach taken in couples therapy. Here, you get to explore the underlying hopes and fears associated with your relationship. You can compare how these motivate you and your partner, which will be beneficial for you to understand each other better.

7. Behavioural Therapy

This approach allows the therapists to evaluate the behaviour of the partners in a relationship. They try to reinforce positive behaviours after finding the sources of negative attitude. This helps to enhance the stability and positivity in a relationship, eliminating the negative behaviours.

8. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

This approach in couples therapy aims at identifying the behavioural patterns between the partners and their thoughts that exert a negative influence on the relationship. Once the therapists identify negativities in thoughts and behaviours, they try to change these by building mutual trust and understanding.

In general, therapists aim to understand the causes of relational misbalance by studying the partners’ ways of holding a conversation among themselves. Relationship roadblocks can grow bigger unless these issues are addressed with care. Certain practices that therapists follow are:

• Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT): This therapy is based on Bowlby's attachment theory. The theory states that comfort and safety are the basis of any relationship and that partners might reflect behavioural traits adopted in childhood. EFT focuses on the factors that drive our emotional response. Therapists practising EFT try to dig deep into the sensitive parameters that affect a relationship.
• Discussing Issues Systematically: An aggressive stance during a conversation may make someone defensive when a counter-issue is presented. Couple therapists advise partners to master the art of listening carefully before raising an issue. This reduces the chances of couples fighting over trivial matters.
• Simplifying Past Experiences: Unfavourable past experiences like bad breakups, the death of an individual or pet, or being subject to bullying or harassment can seriously affect a relationship. Experts believe that traumatic circumstances trigger negative behavioural patterns. Therefore, identifying these traits is crucial for maintaining a healthy relationship.
• Alignment: Aligning a discreet relationship allows partners to relive all those sensations and pleasurable experiences that form the basis of the relationship. Couples therapy practitioners recommend navigating difficult moments with ease to bring a relationship back to life.

Couples therapy increases relationship satisfaction and helps partners restore trust in each other. Some benefits of couples therapy include:

• Better Understanding: You can explore love, compassion and feelings for your partner within a few sessions of couples therapy. Partners can share their hopes, frustrations, values and beliefs with the therapist during sessions of the therapy.
• Identifying Relationship Issues: Couple’s therapy identifies common relationship issues like repeated conflicts, mistrust and feelings of disconnection. It then applies its techniques to resolve these issues eventually.
• Improves Communication and Ends Dysfunctional Behaviour: An experienced therapist can pinpoint communication errors in a relationship and advice partners to share more with each other. They can also use certain techniques to end adverse behavioural changes, such as substance addiction or past traumas.
• Resolves and Handles Conflicts: Couples therapists aim to identify the sources of conflicts and then resolve them with proper communication and discussions. They help both partners to adjust in resolving these issues.
• Strengthens Friendship: These therapies can develop a sense of friendship, attachment and bonding between the two partners. This way, the problems and troubles seem to reduce between them.
• Improves Satisfaction of the Relationship: These therapies can improve the quality of a relationship, thereby enhancing the satisfaction of being in one. They help you identify dysfunctional behaviour and get rid of them for a better future.

The effectiveness of couples therapy sessions depends on the partners’ willingness to mend a relationship. Statistics show that up to 75% of couples recover from bad phases with the help of couples therapy, while 90% of all couples successfully improve their communication after applying certain communication techniques.

However, techniques like Behavioural Couple Therapy and insight-oriented couple theory can do the opposite. Psychotherapists claim that there has been a rise of 30% in divorce rates after applying these techniques. However, emotionally-focused therapy shows much fewer divorce rates.

Couple therapy can often prove to be a viable solution for shaky relationships. Here are the steps that you can follow to get started with couple therapy:

Step 1: First, partners should consider talking to their counterparts about considering therapy sessions to defend their relationship.

Step 2: The next step involves searching for a licensed therapist or practitioner whose availability suits the purpose of either partner. Suggestions for choosing one may come from friends or family.

Step 3: Checking the therapist's schedule is essential.

Step 4: The final step involves providing the necessary details that the therapist wants to know. This may include simple information about the relationship and the partners' expectations from the therapy.

The duration of couples therapy depends on the current status of the relationship and the intensity of the problems. Moreover, the willingness of the partners to put in the extra effort also plays a part. In some cases, a couple of sessions can be sufficient to get a clearer picture of the problem. In other cases, the sessions might stretch for months.

People often start getting frustrated if their problems persist even after six sessions of couples therapy. They might wish to give up on the relationship. Therefore, the therapists need to ensure to start showing differences within 2-3 sessions. They need to encourage the partners to be more active and make efforts.

In the first place, individuals need to ensure that their partners are willing to participate in couples therapy. If they are not willing, their partners need to convince them to do so, explaining the benefits of such a therapy. Otherwise, you can also take the therapy alone and try to work on your relationship by yourself.

In some cases, you might find that you and your partner need separate therapy sessions based on your needs and requirements. Here, you need to consider some external factors, like a history of substance abuse or depression. These factors will determine the kind of therapy you need.

Couples therapy can be an effective tool for sorting out and solving relationship problems. In the long run, it helps partners develop feelings of compassion, love and respect for each other. Always remember that symmetric communication lays the foundation stone for an inseparable relationship.