Integrated Model of Couples Therapy

Article published in Clinical Social Work Journal, Vol. 20, No. 4, Winter 1992: “Toward Development of an Integrated Model of Couples Therapy.”  Co-authored with Marion Solomon, Ph.D.

In This Issue:
LC 73-643802
ISSN 0091-1674
CSWJB 20(4)355-470(1992)
A Sell-Psychological Approach to the Cult Phenomenon • Doni P. Whitsett
Integration of Daniel Stern’s Developmental Theory into a Model of Couples
Therapy • Marion F. Solomon and Nancy Weiss
Group Therapy with Sexually Abused Boys: Notes Toward Managing
Behavior • Wayne Scott
Countertransference Issues for the Consultant When a Colleague is Critically Ill (or
Dying) • Claire E. Philip and Elaine V. Stevens
Issues of Confidentiality When Working with Persons with AIDS • Muriel Yu and
Brenda O’Neal
Structurally Based Theories and Self Psychology: Questions of Compatibility and
the Integration of Theory • Gregory Bellow
Volume 20, Number 4, Winter 1992
Clinical Social Work Journal
Vol. :.!0, No.4, Winter 199:l

INTEGRATION OF DANIEL STERN’S DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY INTO A MODEL OF COUPLES THERAPY
Marion F. Solomon, PhD
Nancy Weiss, LCSW

ABSTRACT: Therapists commonly use a combination of techniques derived from psychodynamic, cognitive and systemic approaches in their attempts to treat the resistant patterns brought into therapy by couples. In this paper we utilize Dan Stern’s concept of RIGS (Representations of Interactions that have been Generalized) to generate an integrative model of conjoint therapy. The model presented here presents a framework within which these modalities can be effectively integrated.

Anyone who has treated a couple in therapy is well aware of the “stubbornness” of the symptomology which plays itself out in the field of the relationship. Couples seeking therapy are often enmeshed in repetitive, bewildering, painful patterns of interaction. In this·light, the therapy is successful only if there arc behavioral changes and corresponding changes in the affects and belief systems (cognitions) that guide those behaviors. This is no easy task. Effecting change in these patterns is complicated by the fact that we are simultaneously treating the couple system and the two individuals.

Understanding what keeps dysfunctional patterns of behavior intact and intervening in a couple’s interactions requires that we attend to several different levels at once. These include: the specific dysfunctional transactions and the consciously held beliefs which support those behaviors; the unconscious developmental and historical (intrapsychic) elements that each individual brings into the marriage; the ways in which the intrapsychic features of the two individuals interlock to form an overall systemic homeostasis; and the external system itself-the community and culture of the couple.

Indeed, no one conceptual position is effective in treating couples on all the levels noted above. However, it is the position of this paper that Stern’s concept of the internal representational model can serve as a tool in bringing together these disparate treatment activities. Internal Representational Models or RIGs, <Stern 1985) arc organized according to a blueprint designed through a series of interactions with caretakers and other important figures throughout life. There is a developmental hierarchy (sec Figure 1) that includes moments of lived experiences, memories (including distortions) of these experiences, and predictions of future interactions, that become the basis of a couple’s dynamics…. READ MORE.

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