Navigating the complexity and challenges of dual-career, highly mobile couples using Emotion-focused therapy for Couples

ABSTRACT

This article begins with a summary of the particularities of working with dual career, expatriate couples who undergo frequent geographical relocations related to work assignments. These couples must initially decide whose career will be prioritized (i.e. the lead spouse) and then they must manage the challenges of this power imbalance in the relationship. Leaving their country of origin brings with it numerous losses and challenges for these couples, in particular for the accompanying spouse, who in many cases experiences a loss in status and professional identity during these frequent moves. Not surprisingly, this context can accentuate existing tensions in the relationship, often giving rise to unresolved feelings of anger and pain, in particular on the side of the accompanying spouse whose pain is often unseen or invalidated by the lead spouse. This causes damage to the intimate relationship bond between the partners, and interferes with closeness, representing a type of emotional injury. Based on clinical experience using Emotion-focused therapy for Couples (EFT-C), we outline a series of suggestions for clinical practice aimed at helping the accompanying partner express their unseen pain and at helping the leading spouse empathize with this pain. We conclude with a clinical vignette.

KEYWORDS:

• Couples
• international relocation
• Emotion-focused therapy for couples
• highly mobile couples
• accompanying spouse
• expatriate dual-career couple

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).