Marital Therapy

Behavioral marital therapy, as originally presented by Jacobson and Margolin, grew out of a social learning perspective of marital distress that focuses on the ways in which partners shape each other’s behaviors and on couples’ skills deficits. Behavioral marital therapy has two major interventions: behavioral exchange and training in communication and problem-solving skills. Behavioral exchange, through a variety of specific strategies, enables partners to engage in a greater number of pleasing and positive interactions. The therapist assists the partners in planning and carrying out mutually enjoyable activities as well as in showing their affection and caring in small everyday actions. An important part of this intervention is getting partners to switch their focus of attention from negative relationship events to positive ones by becoming more mindful of the exchange of pleasing interactions. The second major intervention is training in communication and problem-solving skills. Communication is one of the most common areas of concern and intervention; partners who communicate well are most likely to maintain high levels of satisfaction. The therapist instructs the partners in listening skills as well as in skills for brainstorming solutions to specific, carefully identified problems. The skills training is designed to help partners discuss important problems in a nonblaming fashion and to develop a specific course of action that reflects the objectives and opinions of both spouses. Concrete plans are made to try the solution on a time-limited basis, to reevaluate the plan at a specific point in time, and (if necessary) to revise and try a modified solution to the problem.

Behavioral marital therapy, with its focus on reducing negative relationship interactions and increasing positive interactions, generally emphasizes the present over the past. One goal of the clinician is to make the partners self-sufficient in solving their own future problems once therapy has ended. Partners who are more attuned to the positive dimensions of their relationship and who have had some success with resolving major conflicts are then more prepared when they are confronted with the future problems that are inevitable in any relationship.