Couple therapy is difficult for many reasons. Therapists must deal with two clients, often at war with each other, with differing psychologies, histories, agendas, and levels of commitment to therapy. Additionally, there are many schools of thought on how best to do couple therapy and relatively little guidance concerning how to choose among them. In this lecture, Professor Arthur Nielsen will describe his own development as a couple therapist that led to the integrative approach described in his two textbooks on couple therapy:
• A Roadmap for Couple Therapy: An Integration of Systemic, Psychodynamic, and Behavioral Approaches (2016), and
• Integrative couple therapy in action: A practical guide for handling common relationship problems and crises (2022).
Using a case history, Dr. Nielsen will describe the core research-tested interventions used by the three main approaches to couple therapy (systemic, psychodynamic, and behavioral/educational) and show how to sequence and integrate them depending on the problems that couples present. The lecture/workshop should be valuable to both beginners and advanced practitioners of couple therapy, especially as will address issues of sequencing and choice between the myriad possible interventions now available.