Developmental Prerequisites of Intimacy

SUMMARY

There are prerequisites that must be achieved developmen-tally before individuals are capable of co-creating healthy intimacy in adult relationships. Thus, therapists often have to work to help client systems overcome failures of maturation. In these kinds of therapeutic encounters the therapist acts as a developmental partner. By designing compensatory experiences, the therapist can help partners fill gaps in early development and education that operate to sabotage loving relationships. This paper offers examples of how levels of moral development and social-perspective taking can be utilized within a transpersonal approach to help couples achieve more satisfying intimate connections.

Key Words:

• Healthy intimacy
• cultural context for intimacy
• developmental prerequisites
• ego strengths
• developmental partnering
• developmental deficits
• structure building
• moral development
• social perspective taking
• spiritual component
• transpersonal approach