Comprehensive Couples Therapy: what is it and how does it work?

Relationships are not always easy. Conflicts often appear within them that are difficult to resolve without professional help. For this, there is traditional behavior therapy for couples, which focuses on promoting changes that increase the well-being of the relationship.

After her appears the Integral Therapy of Couple (TIP), created by Jacobson and Christensen (1998). This type of therapy includes, in addition to the promotion of change, the emotional acceptance of the other as an essential component. We are going to see what its characteristics, components, strategies are, as well as the empirical evidence that supports it.

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What is Integral Couples Therapy?

The Integral Therapy of Couples (TIP), also called Integral Behavioral Therapy of Couples (TICP), was developed by Jacobson and Christensen (1998), and represents an evolution of couples therapy traditional. Specifically, These authors baptized it as Integrative Behavioral Therapy of Couples.

Jacobson and Christensen observed that traditional couples therapies, focused on promoting a change in the partners, produced positive therapeutic results only in 50% of the couples These traditional therapies used positive behavioral exchange strategies and problem-solving and communication training.

The authors opted for a new model of couples therapy, Integral Couple Therapy, which, in addition to including all of the above (especially the promotion of change), introduced a new element: the emotional acceptance of the other.

Characteristics

We have already seen how Integral Couples Therapy was born. But what exactly does it consist of and what are its characteristics?

This type of therapy is based on the idea that the differences between the partners do not have to be obstacles in the relationship. Furthermore, these differences do not have to be intolerable. On the other hand, accepting the other will be an important step during therapy, which will be achieved when the person stops fighting to change the other person or to get them to be as they want.

The Integral Therapy of Couple, in addition, considers it important to visualize the conflicts in the relationship as possibilities to promote intimacy between the couple. As one of the central elements of Integral Couple Therapy we find the natural reinforcers of the couple, that is, those things or aspects of the relationship that produce well-being and pleasure in the partner.

These reinforcers can be found in the couple's day-to-day life, in their context and in their communication, and favor empathy between the members of the couple, increasing well-being within the relationship. For its part, empathy is also another of the central elements Integral Couple Therapy, and is used as a tool for acceptance and change.

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Areas of intervention in love relationships

This type of therapy focuses on two areas of intervention: the area that promotes acceptance and tolerance of the other, and the area that promotes change.

1. Acceptance and tolerance

This first area focuses on two types of strategies: those that promote the acceptance of the members of the couple, and those that promote tolerance of the other.

The first ones that are applied are those that promote acceptance, since the objective of Integral Couples Therapy is that the two members of the couple accept each other as they are; In the event that this is difficult or impossible to achieve, the second type of strategy is committed, those aimed at ensuring that the members of the couple, at least, tolerate and respect each other.

1.1. Acceptance

When we talk about the acceptance promoted by Integral Couples Therapy, and by extension, the therapist who develops The same, we do not mean that the members of the couple must accept absolutely everything from the other, unconditionally.

Rather, we speak of an acceptance of the other as he is, with his defects and virtues, as long as the virtues that we appreciate in him / her, are superior to the defects, and that therefore it is worth investing in that person.

That will always be a personal decision (the balance we are talking about), but acceptance as well helps to see the positive aspects of the other, valuing him as he is, an imperfect being that he is also wrong, but that he is willing to love us as we are. In other words, Integral Couple Therapy is committed to a realistic vision of the other, and promotes emotional acceptance as a tool that favors therapeutic change.

1.2. Tolerance

As for the strategies that promote the tolerance of the other, these are applied when the previous ones have not worked. Thus, Integral Couples Therapy pretends that we can tolerate our partner as he is, especially in those aspects that we do not like so much or that initially cause us some rejection. They also promote respect for the other.

2. Promoting change

The strategies for promoting change are focused, as the name suggests, on promoting a change in both members of the couple. This change (or changes) will help to understand the other, as well as to promote a healthier relationship and increase mutual well-being.

Many times, to move forward it is necessary to review what is happening in the present, and observe how past events have affected the relationship to facilitate that change that resolves current conflicts and improves communication in the couple.

Within the change strategies of Integral Couple Therapy, we find two types of components:

1. Behavioral exchange

Behavioral exchange is a type of strategy that has the objective of modify dysfunctional behaviors that appear in the couple's relationship. Their modification will be aimed at establishing positive and adaptive behavioral patterns.

This type of intervention is carried out by means of instructions, carried out by the therapist through a fairly directive role.

2. Communication and problem solving

The second component within the area of ​​change is training in communication and problem solving. This type of training aims to improve communication in the couple, previously analyzing how it communicates through its verbal and non-verbal language.

On the other hand, the training also includes problem-solving strategies, which are intended to give the members of the couple tools that allow them to manage their conflicts in a healthier way, without getting into absurd fights or especially intense.

It's about listening and understanding before reaching the conflict. For this, dialogue will be used a lot, and importance will be given to listening, to putting oneself in the place of the other, to empathize, to understand, to learn to communicate without reproach, etc.

Empirical evidence

Integral Couple Therapy is a therapy that has empirical evidence for the resolution of couple conflicts and the increase of the well-being of its members, although further investigation is required, since the studies that are available are rather scarce.

Specifically, it was Jacobson and Christensen, along with other collaborators, who carried out a series of studies to test the effects of Integral Couple Therapy. These studies indicated that Comprehensive Couples Therapy is just as effective as traditional couples therapy (Traditional Behavior Therapy). In other studies that they carried out, they also determined that the long-term efficacy of Comprehensive Couple Therapy was superior to traditional therapy.

Bibliographic references:

• Mañas, I. (2007). New psychological therapies: the third wave of behavior therapies or third generation therapies. Psychology Gazette, 40: 26-34.
• Morón, R. (2006). Comprehensive couples therapy. Journal of Psychology and Psychopedagogy, EduPsykhé, 5 (2): 273-286.