Cognitive Behavioral Family Therapy

Main assumptions

Explore how patterns of behavior interact and reinforce each other

More direct with teaching and coaching

Emphasis on parental training

Assess at baseline, identify thoughts and behaviors, education on patterns, replace and retrain

Gottman – based on longitudinal and observational research

Functional analysis

review context, antecedents, and consequences

Communication

All couples experience positive and negative communication, the goals is to increase the ratio of positive to negative communication

Contempt and defensiveness predict divorce

Quid pro quo characterizes bad marriage

Therapy space

Positive affective experience

Primarily dyadic experience

Emotional learning

Easy and non-idealistic

Four horsemen

defensiveness, contempt, stonewalling, criticism

assessing for divorce

four horsemen, negative affect reciprocity, harsh start-ups, repair attempts and bids for connection, distance/isolation cascade, accepting influence

happy marriages

Volatile – more emotional expression and passion

Validating – moderate emotional expression with strong marital friendship

Conflict avoidant – minimize problems in favor of strengths

Therapeutic Relationship

Educator and expert

Maintains distance

Empathy and warmth as a tool

Therapist as coach

Empowerment to take responsibility

Interventions / techniques

Sound relationship house

Structured session format

Negotiating power

Soft start-ups

Dreams within conflict

sound relationship house

Love maps

Fondness and admiration

Turning towards

Positive sentiment override

Making dreams come rue

Creating shared meaning

dreams within conflict

Ask each partner about deeper meaning and dreams; speaker and listener