The Couples Psychotherapy Treatment Planner may be just what you need if you are writing treatment plans for marital and family therapy. It is formatted to be used much the same as The Complete Adult Psychotherapy Treatment Planner and can come with the same kind of software to be used with TheraScribe 3.0. This one is not as thorough as CAPTP – I’m looking forward to the second edition – but still very useful.

The problem areas it covers are: alcohol abuse, anger, anxiety, blame, blended-family problems, communication, dependency, depression independent of relationship problems, depression due to relationship problems, disillusionment with relationship, eating disorder, financial conflict, infidelity, intolerance, jealousy, job stress, life-changing events, loss of love/affection, mid-life crisis, one partner unwilling to attend therapy, parenting conflicts – adolescents, parenting conflicts – children, personality differences, physical abuse, psychological abuse, recreational activities dispute, religious/spirituality differences, separation and divorce, sexual abuse (within the relationship), sexual dysfunction, and work/home role strain. Quite broad ranging but happens to miss several areas that I work a lot with. In the next edition I hope they will at least add: cultural differences and conflicts, infertility, child death, traumatic event for 1 partner, and traumatic event for family. Certainly what is included can be used to cobble together your own in the meantime.

My biggest complaint about the book is the treatment of partner violence. The sections on physical, sexual, and emotional abuse are good (although the sexual and psychological abuse sections should include specific therapeutic interventions of “in individual sessions, assess for other forms of abuse and control in the relationship.” I’m not sure what assumptions the authors are making about the depth of assessment that may occur before couples therapy begins, but when alcohol abuse, anger, dependency, depression, intolerance, and particularly JEALOUSY are important presenting complaints, it’s crucial to assess for physical abuse individually as early in the treatment process as possible. I do it on the phone before agreeing to provide conjoint therapy. There is substantial evidence that many family and couples therapists miss clear evidence that partner violence is occurring. This endangers the victimized partner; if you doubt this call up a battered women’s shelter, talk to a counselor, and ask about the effects of revealing domestic violence in a couples counseling session; there is often a heavy price paid later even if the batterer seems supportive during the session. If the violence is never revealed, the therapy is unlikely to be effective.

When a pattern of physical or sexual violence is disclosed (especially if the violence is increasing over time and absolutely if there have been any recent injuries or a weapon may be in the home) , the victimized partner should leave the session with community resource referrals and a safety plan (developed without the batterer in the room, of course) without exception. Too many women continue to die at their partners’ hands for any other practice to be ethical. The CPTP should address this important issue more thoroughly in any future additions.

Of course, the CPTP is not advocating any particular mode of therapy. While there is room for improvement, the current version will definitely deliver easier quicker treatment planning for couples therapy.

Categories: Psychotherapy, MentalHealth, Relationships

Keywords: planning, treatment, software