Skip to main content

Couples Group Therapy

  • 99 Accesses

Introduction

Couples group therapy is a treatment modality founded on integrating principles from group dynamics and family therapy. A small group structure employing insight-oriented therapy is used to promote healing and growth for couples. Concepts are drawn from distinct but compatible sectors: family and couples therapy, group therapy, psychological assessment, and psychoeducation. This combination of modalities constitutes a unique approach which emphasizes each individual and the couple as a unit.

Theoretical Framework

Couples group therapy has drawn on major contributors to group and marital therapy, including existential work by Irvin Yalom (1985), psychodynamic work by Rutan and Stone (1984), attachment theory by John Bowlby (1969), John Gottman’s communication model (1994), and Yvonne Agazarian’s system model (1981). Conceptual origins in systems theory are drawn from the worlds of biology (Von Bertalanffy 1968) and social psychology (Lewin 1951). An intergenerational frame...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

References

  • Agazarian, Y., & Peters, R. (1981). The visible and invisible group: Two perspectives on group psychotherapy and group process. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and loss (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coché, J. (2010). Couples group psychotherapy: A clinical treatment model (2nd ed.). New York: Taylor and Francis.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coché, J., & Coché, E. (1990). Couples group psychotherapy: A clinical practice model. New York: Brunner/Mazel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottman, J. M. (1994). What predicts divorce: The relationship between marital processes and marital outcomes. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, K. (1951). Field theory in social science: Selected theatrical papers. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rutan, J. S., & Stone, W. N. (1984). Psychodynamic group psychotherapy. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sullivan, H. S. (1953). The interpersonal theory of psychiatry. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Bertalanffy, L. (1968). General systems theory: Foundations, development, and applications. New York: George Braziller Inc..

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitaker, C. A., & Keith, D. V. (1981). Symbolic-experiential family therapy. In A. Gurman & D. Kniskern (Eds.), Handbook of family therapy (pp. 187–225). New York: Brunner/Mazel.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yalom, I. D. (1985). The theory and practice of group psychotherapy (3rd ed.). New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Judith Coché Ph. D., A.B..P.P., C.G. P. .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

About this entry

Cite this entry

Coché, J. (2016). Couples Group Therapy. In: Lebow, J., Chambers, A., Breunlin, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_575-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_575-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-15877-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Chapter history

  1. Latest

    Couples Group Therapy
    Published:
    20 October 2017

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_575-2

  2. Original

    Couples Group Therapy
    Published:
    29 December 2016

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-15877-8_575-1