Name of Model
Collaborative Couple Therapy
Synonyms
Ego Analytic Couple Therapy
Introduction
In Collaborative Couple Therapy (CCT; Wile 1981, 1993, 2002, 2008, 2011), the therapist relates to the partners collaboratively with the goal of improving their ability to relate collaboratively with each other.
“Relating to the partners collaboratively” means appealing to the couple as consultants in guiding the therapy. “Improving the partners’ability to relate collaboratively” means recognizing that the particular content of the couple’s conflicts – money, sex, childrearing practices, amount of time spent together, and so on – is only part of the problem. The additional and often more important part is how partners talk – or do not talk – about these conflicts. They fight or withdraw. Collaborative Couple Therapy is founded on the assumption that partners in a problematic exchange are in need of a conversation – a conversation of reconciliation in the case of fighting or of reconnection in...
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References
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Wile, D. B. (2002). Collaborative couple therapy. In A. S. Gurman & N. S. Jacobson (Eds.), Clinical handbook of couple therapy (3rd ed., pp. 281–307). New York: Guilford.
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Wile, D. B. (2011). Collaborative couple therapy. In D. K. Carson & M. Casado-Kehoe (Eds.), Case studies in couples therapy: Theory-based approaches (pp. 303–316). New York: Routledge.
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Wile, D.B. (2019). Collaborative 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_214
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_214
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