‘Process Focussed Approach to Couple Therapy’ What is it and how do you get it?

Over years of training relationship therapy in Australia and internationally, we have listened to many therapists’ questions centring on how to better understand the multiple and complex levels of processes involved from the beginning to the end of therapy; questions on how to support a couple to have deeper, more authentic, and real conversations to heal their relationships; and questions about how therapy can ultimately lead a couple to emotionally corrective experiences that create understanding, healing and change.

To explore these questions and more, RIA are pleased to announce our new two day training program, ‘Process Focussed Approach to Couple Therapy’. This training will unpack the deep process orientation of relationship therapy from the initial contact through to the follow up and relapse prevention phases.

Understanding the various models of couples therapy and the range of interventions that these models offer can be very helpful when working with couples, however, without understanding the therapeutic process needed to support relationship recovery, your interventions can feel shallow, lacking deep and direction, that can leave both the therapist and the couple feeling unsatisfied, confused and frustrated. Process focussed approach to therapy is the pathway to relationship healing that enables the deeper expression of more vulnerable and intimate experience and emotions in a carefully constructed safe and supportive therapeutic environment.

Done well, your therapeutic process can support, deepen, strengthen, and consolidate your therapeutic approach and interventions.  Conversely, when not done well it can work to undermine and neutralise your therapeutic approach and interventions.

What do we mean when we talk about therapeutic process?

Everything you do as a therapist is process oriented. It consists of all and every interaction and communication that takes place between a client or clients and therapist and/or their representative, both during therapy sessions and outside of those sessions. All interaction with a couple is intentional and deliberate with a strategic outcome in mind.

Therapeutic process begins the moment the client makes their initial enquiry.  How are they treated when their call is taken?  What is communicated to them about the therapeutic service?  How are their questions, concerns, uncertainties dealt with?  How do they feel about these interactions?  How are their experiences of these interactions related to their decision to either move forward with therapy or to seek help elsewhere?, A process focussed orientation moves through all stages of therapy such as conducting detailed assessment, formulation and feedback, the deeper processing of past relationship injuries, the identification and reshaping of negative interaction patterns and gridlocked perpetual problems and creating a shared future together. Relationship therapy is an interactive journey with a couple that requires strategic intention, processing affect and clear insight into the space that exists between the couple.

If we accept that therapeutic process is contained in all interactions and communications between therapist (and their representatives) and client, then this results in several process stages that can vary depending on the therapeutic approach. 

In couple therapy the phases we identify are:

1. Enquiry and onboarding phase;
2. Initial meeting and assessment phase;
3. Formulation and feedback phase;
4. Treatment planning and goal setting phase;
5. Early therapeutic stage – healing the past phase;
6. Middle therapeutic stage – attuning in the present phase;
7. Late therapeutic stage – creating for the future phase;
8. Relapse prevention and therapeutic termination phase.

As we take a closer look at each phase, we can identify several strategic goals that we might want our process to achieve for us.  For example, one strategic goal of the enquiry and onboarding phase might be to provide the information the client needs to make the decision to commit to therapy; a second strategic goal might be to ensure the client has a warm and welcoming experience in obtaining this information.

In couple therapy, a process focus holds both the content and the affect of the dialogue between the couple. That is to say, a process is concerned with not only the content but the meaning, stories and feelings the dialogue is having on the couple. The therapist encourages couples to move the dialogue to a more authentic and real exchange where vulnerability, emotions, values and dreams can be expressed and heard.

Each phase of therapy has its own strategic goals and therefore its own distinct process considerations and actions.  Some of which become quite complex and require the therapist to develop additional skills to successfully apply the right process at the right time within the therapeutic stage.

We consider all these process aspects as layers that progressively deepen the therapeutic experience for the client. 

Identifying the strategic goals and then developing the therapeutic process to achieve those goals within your therapeutic approach will ensure the client has the most rewarding experience of therapy and provides the best opportunity for successful outcomes.

Over the past 25 years of conducting couples therapy we have engaged in a great deal of reflection, study, and discussion about therapeutic process, identifying what seems to work and what doesn’t; working on a way to both articulate and make process more tangible, known, and explicit; testing out our hypotheses and refining our processes.

To learn more about this Process Focussed Approach to Couple Therapy join us for two days of exciting and engaging experiential learning.