The present paper is to discuss the theoretical foundation and the techniques of the marital therapies.Three points of view on marital relationship are discussed prior to a review on he martial therapies.
Individual approach, dyadic approach and family systems approach are the major theoretical foundations of the marital therapy. Next, four different 'schools' of marital therapy are discussed : (1) psychodynamically oriented marital therapy, (2)
marital
therapy based on systems theory, (3) behavioral marital therapy, and (4) cognitive marital therapy. Unconscious issues carried over from the family in origin are the major themes in the psychodynamically oriented marital therapy. The structural
martial
therapy and the strategic marital therapy are discussed under the titla of systems theory based marital therapy. Restructuring of the dysfunctional communication patterns are the major goals of the structural/strategic marital therapy. Positive
reciprocity. Effective communicationskills, and contract skills are presented in the behavioral marital therapy. In the cognitive marital therapy, modification of unrealistic expectations and dysfunctional attributions for the marital
relationships
are
discussed. Finally, it was mentioned that premarital counseling, premarital communication skill training, marital enrichment programs, sex therapy, divorce mediation,a nd divorce therapy are the treatment tactics to deal with the various marriage
problems.
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