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RELATIONSHIP PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPY 1

500509802
PPP-1010

Addressing Marriage Relationship Issues Through Psychological Therapy

Bangor University
RELATIONSHIP PSYCHOLOGICAL THERAPY 2

Addressing Marriage Relationship Issues Through Psychological Therapy

Different types of therapy can be related to marriage relationships, but they all have a

similar purpose: to enhance or improve a marriage relationship (Allen, 2013). A marriage can

be tested when stressful conditions affect the couple in general or even one of the partners.

The endless illness of an individual, for example, can affect the well-being of both partners

(Corey, 2015). Other common marriage problems include financial problems, limits to

communication, routine conflicts, passionate separations, sexual proximity issues and lack of

trust (Wampold, 2012). From time to time, marriage itself can be a mystery to those

people who are not married when one of the partners has to marry or is subject to social or

family tensions, and the other partner is undecided or not prepared at all (Messer, 2012). It is

the view of this essay that a relationship psychology therapy is helpful to a marriage

relationship even though sometimes it can fail.

Following the Duck's phase model of relationship breakdown (Duck,2010), he

suggested there are four phases leading people to breakdown their relationship. The first

phase is called the intra-psychic stage. This was the early stage when a person recognised, he

or she is dissatisfying with his or her partner. The person spends much time to think about

what the reasons caused the dissatisfaction and what will possibly happen in the next step.

They tend to force themselves into a threshold of believing they have had enough and cannot

stand their partner. The person then moves on to the second phase which is called dyadic

phase, the person faces his or her partner and complains about the partner then the threshold

turns to the person initially thinks about to end up the relationship and will be justified by the

withdrawing. Once people think about end the relationship, they tend to involve in the social

phase, which seeking for help from their family and friends. Duck (2010) proposed that the

couple reaches to the social phase stage, it is hard to fix their relationship because both of

couple’s families and friends are not professional therapists, but they would like to step in
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and give some advice about their relationship. Non-professional advice such as “take control

of his or her phone” or “check the bank statements” will make the reconciliation more

difficult and irreversible damages of the relationship. The relationship shifts to the grave-

dressing which is the final phase. People wish and prepare to start a new relationship because

they often maximise their partners’ faults and minimise theirs. Finally, people experience the

resurrection phase to move forward and recover from any pains associated with the previous

relationship and find themselves growing up much more than before. Professional

relationship therapists aim to help them to solve these problems and tend to turn it to a

positive attitude (Corey, 2015).

First, marriage partners are often involved in common examples of behaviour or

figurations such as thoughts of suicide, some become hostile, and others undergo stress and

depressions, which may lead them to reject the general plan of their relationship (Castonguay,

2013). A couple may have a vulnerable side on how they will add to the relationship as they

focus on what their partner is "doing wrong" (Wampold, 2012). A relational therapist will

allow the couple to return and have a progressive view of the relationship as a rule, just like

the particular problems they encounter during counselling (Corey, 2015). Høglend (2014)

conducted separate discussions with eight focus group with married young women and mothers

and fathers of married women. Furthermore, he conducted 11 key informant interviews with service

providers and stakeholders to understand how marriage is affected when one or both parties think

about mistake. He found out that, it increased tension and conflict between the couple. When he

asked them to stop thinking about mistakes in the marriage and start working as a group to

deal with their problems, and he found out that it worked well.

Contrastingly, psychological therapy may not be successful when couples go to the

session when they have not recovered exclusively from the abuse and trauma of the past

(Wampold & Budge, 2012). With the exception of emotion-centred couples’ therapy, most
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marriage counsellors demonstrate to the couple how they should execute interpersonal skills

towards each other since some partners do not execute with sincerity. Corey (2015) found out

through interviewing 250 couples, who have been though interpersonal skills in which they

were taught on how to use peaceful communication, indivisible attention, and exchange

methodologies during the counsellor’s practice, that most of them had a happy relationship

since they understood each other better and they knew how to relate (Potter, 2013). The

theory of state-dependent learning, which involves training of individuals and then testing

them and later making in respect to training conditions, clarifies this point (Høglend, 2014).

It is difficult to recover the acquired learning in a relaxed and safe state and to use it in

conditions of strong sensation (Lambert, 2013). The psychological therapy of powerful

couples must exercise a deliberate influence on the game, giving the confrontation the

opportunity to create to the point of activating the partners.

The information provided in a free and safe state is difficult to recover, and it can only

be used in conditions of strong sensation (Wampold, 2012). In case people have to deal with

interpersonal skills while working with insider information, couples’ therapists are able to

encourage skills in a similar state of enthusiasm where they are needed (Lambert, 2013). For

the treatments in vital pairs, they must intentionally influence part, giving the comparison the

possibility of creating the point to activate the partners (Roos & Werbart, 2013)

John Gottman endeavours to inspire accomplices to develop the proportion of positive

or negative communications (Rutan, Stone & Shay, 2014). Sue Johnson after examining the

effects of emotional connection in a relationship urges couples to express their basic feelings

of apprehension and connection based on John Bowlby’s attachment theory which states that

children are pre-programmed to form attachments in this world because it will help them

survive (Potter, 2013). However, the formation of new reactions that are based on the health

theory of couple behaviour may not coordinate what a specific couple needs or should do
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(McLeod, 2014). Increasing positive associations, informing about fears of connection and

need, or peaceful communication may be useful for new practices for some couples;

however, they are not adapted to the new relationship estimates of each accomplice that

enters the treatment procedure (Lambert, 2013). Greenberg (2014) in his study, through

interviewing 182 coupes, found out that communication is the foundation of each

relationship, whether it be unusual words, gestural communications, instant messages or

emails or non-verbal communication. In order for a relationship to prosper, both members

must share their feelings. If people have gotten comforting dimension in sharing personal

thoughts and feelings, there is a fundamental dimension of communication that should

strengthen a healthy relationship (Corey, 2015).

A relationship psychological therapist is very important in society. This is because

they help relationships in finding better ways of communications and also, they help people

understand each other even though others can fail due to some other factors. This is enhanced

by the wide knowledge of relationship psychological therapists on different personalities.

Through their findings over several research activities, they can help couples succeed

marriage relationship issues. A relational therapist will help couples communicate the

emotions they fear or, at first, they will feel uncomfortable offering each other.

Communication is essential to ensure repairing and maintain a decent relationship. In

addition to encouraging couples to share their feelings, couples also need to understand how

to talk in general usefully. Despite the couple's training on tough matches and the pitfalls to

avoid during exchanges, the therapist can advise clients to improve their interpersonal skills.

Attention here is not just about transmission, but about successful transmission, which

requires unshakable attention and compassion.


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References

Allen, F. H. (2013). Psychotherapy with children. Routledge.

Castonguay, L. G. (2013, March). Psychotherapy outcome: An issue worth re-revisiting 50

years later. In Annual meeting of L’Ordre des Psychologues du Québec, Nov, 2010,

PQ, Canada; This article is based in part on a keynote address presented at the

aforementioned conference. (Vol. 50, No. 1, p. 52). Educational Publishing

Foundation.

Corey, G. (2015). Theory and practice of counselling and psychotherapy. Nelson Education.

Education.

Duck, S. (2010). Rethinking relationships. Sage Publications. 

Greenberg, L. (2014). The therapeutic relationship in emotion-focused therapy.

Psychotherapy, 51(3), 350.

Høglend, P. (2014). Exploration of the patient-therapist relationship in psychotherapy.

American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(10), 1056-1066.

Holmes, J. (2014). The search for the secure base: Attachment theory and psychotherapy.

Routledge.

Lagutina, L., Sperlinger, D., & Esterhuyzen, A. (2013). Addressing psychological aspects of

physical problems through sandplay: A grounded theory study of therapists’ views.

Psychology and Psychotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, 86(1), 105-124.

Lambert, M. J. (2013). Outcome in psychotherapy: The past and important advances.

McLeod, J. (2014). Doing research in counselling and psychotherapy. Sage.

Messer, S. B. (2012). The real relationship in psychotherapy: The hidden foundation

of change.

Potter, J. (2013). Discursive psychology and discourse analysis. In The Routledge handbook

of discourse analysis (pp. 130-145). Routledge.


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Roos, J., & Werbart, A. (2013). Therapist and relationship factors influencing dropout from

individual psychotherapy: A literature review. Psychotherapy Research, 23(4), 394-

418.

Rutan, J. S., Stone, W. N., & Shay, J. J. (2014). Psychodynamic group psychotherapy.

Guilford Publications.

Shelton, K., & Delgado-Romero, E. A. (2013). Sexual orientation microaggressions: The

experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer clients in psychotherapy.

Wampold, B. E. (2012). Humanism as a common factor in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy,

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Wampold, B. E., & Budge, S. L. (2012). The 2011 Leona Tyler Award Address: The

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