Client Perceptions of the Most and Least Helpful Aspects of Couple Therapy

Abstract

Couples have a unique perspective to share about the therapy they receive. The current study uses a mixed-methods design to examine what couples report about most and least helpful elements of two behaviorally-based treatments tested in a large clinical trial of couple therapy. Results indicate that responses are highly variable and fall into five main themes, which are then compared between treatment conditions, genders, and outcome groups. One interesting finding is that all groups reported wanting more discussion of sexual issues. Findings are discussed in the context of common factors research, recent developments toward unified principles of change in couple therapy, and model-specific differences.

Keywords:

• Couple therapy
• client perceptions
• mixed-methods
• Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy
• Traditional Behavioral Couple Therapy

Disclosure statement

Authors of this manuscript have no financial interest or benefit from the direct applications of this research. All methods used in the study were approved by the Institutional Review Boards of the participating universities, and all couples consented to participation in the study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health under Grants MH56223, awarded to Andrew Christensen at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and MH56165, awarded to Neil S. Jacobson at the University of Washington (UW). Portions of this manuscript stem from the unpublished dissertation of Jessica (Nelson) Mason.