Name of Theory
Couple therapy
Introduction
Couple therapy is a concept that has been around since the twentieth century, but the practice of working with couples together in therapy is a much newer concept. Psychotherapy was originally developed to focus on the individual. However, the first notions of couple therapy began in Germany in the 1920s as a part of the Eugenics movement (Kline 2001) – a movement that attempted to improve the genetic qualities of mankind. In the United States, “institutes for marriage counseling” were first seen in the 1930s. The counseling was commonly offered to individuals separately, and treatment consisted of advice and information about values and obligations of marriage (Gurman and Fraenkel 2002).
Couple therapy, what was then called marriage counseling, continued with this format of treatment until psychoanalytic therapists began to consider bringing each member of the couple into the therapy room. This went against fundamental analyst beliefs, and...
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Sudano, L., Banker, J., Goren, N., Zessin, C.E. (2019). Couple Therapy. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_573
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