Couples therapy

The present study applies a Gottman Method Couples Therapy (GMCT) intervention, the Trust Revival Method (TRM), to couples' relationships following an affair, using a randomized control waitlist design. Couples (n= 84) were recruited nationally and internationally and subsequently randomized to either an immediate treatment group or a 3-week waitlist group. A 6-month post-trial follow-up was conducted for couples that completed treatment. The revised Specific Affect Coding System (Coan & Gottman, 2007) was used to code couples' interactions during a 10–15-minute conflict discussion. Significant effects were found when comparing couples' codes against treatment retention and later relationship functioning. Couples also completed various assessments three times during the study, including the 480-question Gottman Connect (GC) assessment tool. Couples on the 3-week waitlist completed one additional pre-treatment assessment before their 3-week wait commenced. Multivariate statistics with appropriate univariate follow-up procedures were employed to determine group differences between the control and experimental groups. Follow-up procedures were also conducted to investigate any differential rates of symptom reduction or treatment success. The researcher used path analysis procedures following Actor Partner Interdependence Model (APIM- Kenny et al., 2020) assumptions to examine the effects of the intervention on overall relationship satisfaction and subsequent affair recovery, revealing significant effects between assessment scores and coded behaviors. Clinical significance testing also showed significant effects in specific relationship domains. The results add to the current research literature, validating GMCT as an effective broad-based couple therapy approach to repair relationships following infidelity. Implications for clinical practice, graduate training, and research are discussed.

Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a chronic relapsing disease that afflicts 10% of the US population. Recidivism rates for SUD treatment in the United States (US) remain high. Couple therapy has be shown to be an effective treatment modality for SUD, and research consistently indicates that couple therapy is more effective than individual therapy in treating SUD. Still, most US treatment centers do not use couple therapy as a primary treatment modality. To explore the underuse of couple therapy and the barriers that prevent its use, individual, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty (N = 20) clinical directors of SUD treatment centers across the US. A theoretical thematic analysis was used incorporating Everett Rogers’ diffusion of innovations theory to assess barriers that hinder the use of couple therapy to treat SUD in addiction treatment centers. Issues related to observability, compatibility, and complexity of couple treatment were found to severely impede the implementation of couple therapy in addiction treatment centers. Recommendations include ongoing research to determine influences on agency programming, fostering pro-research environments in universities and agencies, removing barriers to access to evidence-based practice information, and promoting the federal initiative of technology transfer in SUD treatment.