Relationships are not always easy. Many times conflicts arise within them that are difficult to resolve without professional help. For this reason, there is traditional couple’s therapy, of a behavioural nature, which focuses on promoting changes that increase the well-being of the relationship.

This is followed by Comprehensive Couple’s Therapy (TIP), created by Jacobson and Christensen (1998). This type of therapy includes, in addition to promoting change, the emotional acceptance of the other as an essential component. We will see what its characteristics, components, strategies, as well as the empirical evidence that supports it, are.

What is Comprehensive Couple’s Therapy?

Comprehensive Couple’s Therapy (IPT), also called Comprehensive Behavioral Couple’s Therapy (ICTP), was developed by Jacobson and Christensen (1998), and is an evolution of traditional couple’s therapy. Specifically, these authors baptized it as Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy .

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

The authors opted for a new model of couple’s therapy, Integral Couple’s 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 Couple’s Therapy was born. But what exactly is it and what are its characteristics?

This type of therapy is based on the idea that differences between partners need not be obstacles in the relationship . These differences, moreover, do not have to be intolerable. On the other hand, accepting the other person will be an important step during therapy, which will be achieved when the person stops fighting to change the other person or to make him/her as he/she wishes.

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

These reinforcers can be found in the everyday life of the couple, in their context and in their communication, and they favour empathy between the members of the couple, increasing the well-being within the relationship. On the other hand, empathy is also another of the central elements of Integral Couple’s Therapy, and it is used as a tool for acceptance and change.

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 encourage acceptance of the partners, and those that encourage tolerance of the other.

The first ones that are applied are those that promote acceptance, since the objective of Integral Couple’s Therapy is that both members of the couple accept each other as they are ; in the case that this is difficult or impossible to achieve, the second type of strategies is chosen, those oriented so that the members of the couple, at least, tolerate and respect each other.

1.1. Acceptance

When we speak of the acceptance that Integral Couple’s Therapy promotes, and by extension, the therapist who develops it, we do not mean that the members of the couple should accept absolutely everything about each other, unconditionally.

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

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

1.2. Tolerance

As for strategies that promote tolerance of the other, these are applied when the previous ones have not worked. Thus, Integral Couple’s Therapy aims to enable us to tolerate our partner as he is, especially in those aspects that we do not like so much or that initially cause us some rejection . It also promotes respect for the other.

2. Promoting change

Strategies to promote change are focused, as the name suggests, on encouraging a change in both partners. Such change (or changes) will help to understand the other, as well as promote a healthier relationship and increase mutual well-being.

Many times, in order 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’s Therapy, we find two types of components:

1. Behavioral exchange

Behavioral exchange is a type of strategy that aims to modify the dysfunctional behaviors that appear in the relationship. The modification of these behaviours will be aimed at establishing positive and adaptive behavioural patterns.

This type of intervention is carried out by means of instructions, which the therapist carries out 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, by analysing previously how the couple communicates through their verbal and non-verbal language .

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

It is about listening to and understanding each other before arriving at the conflict. To do this, dialogue will be used a lot, and importance will be given to listening, putting oneself in the other’s place, empathizing, understanding, learning to communicate without reproaching, etc.

Empirical evidence

Comprehensive Couple’s Therapy is a therapy that has empirical evidence for resolving couple’s conflicts and increasing the well-being of their members, although further research is needed , since the studies 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’s Therapy. These studies indicated that Integrative Couple Therapy is just as effective as traditional couples therapy (Traditional Behavioral Therapy). In other studies they also determined that the long-term effectiveness of CPT was superior to traditional therapy.

Bibliographic references:

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