couples therapy

Despite challenges with regulating and differentiating affect, especially shame, improvements in relationship satisfaction and trauma symptoms suggest that incorporating couple therapy into the healing process of trauma survivors may be powerful and timely. This inclusion can provide an opportunity for healing on a deeper relational level than can occur in individual therapy while incorporating the survivor's partner into the healing journey from which he or she has historically been alienated.

Link: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_200807/ai_n28083192/?tag=content;col1

An attachment injury occurs when one partner violates the expectation that the other will offer comfort and caring in times of danger or distress, and is characterized by an abandonment or by a betrayal of trust during a critical moment of need. This incident becomes a clinically recurring theme and creates an impasse that blocks relationship repair in couples therapy. The injurious incident defines the relationship as insecure and maintains relationship distress because it is continually used as a standard for the dependability of the offending partner. Personal factors might be previous specific experiences of betrayal, for example sexual abuse in childhood tends to make issues of trust and dependency particularly problematic and the nature of working models of self and other in general.

Link: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_200104/ai_n8933404

Most therapy methods for sexual abuse survivors exclude partners; this article studied the success of brief couples therapy while the survivor was in recovery, as well as the partner's perspective on the survivor's individual therapy. The 'Results' section of the article has some really good information for partners of sexual abuse survivors.

Link: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_199610/ai_n8752195

This article - Childhood sexual abuse and couples' relationships: Female survivors' reports in therapy groups - is a review of five therapy groups for female survivors of sexual abuse. It's goal is to identify the most frequent themes that arise in terms of relationship difficulties. It found that survivors who are in therapy experience a great deal of turmoil and dissatisfaction in their relationships. The two most frequent relationship issues were difficulties with emotional communication or intimacy, and polarized positions on control; those issues correlate to survivors' primary coping strategies of avoiding threatening or dangerous feelings and the management of feelings of helplessness, powerlessness, and lack of control.

Link: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_199810/ai_n8822970

This article - Couples therapy for women survivors of child sexual abuse who are in addictions recovery: A comparative case study of treatment process and outcome - talks about how survivors may be more prone to addictions (the author cites 45% of female survivors experience alcohol addiction), and the role that couples/marriage therapy plays in the recovery process. They review a number of cases and come to five assertions in their conclusion:

1 - Couples therapy is of benefit, mostly with communication skills and problem solving
2 - Marital burnout, if at high levels at pretherapy, can be improved through couples therapy
3 - The benefits of couples therapy may be compromised by high stress levels in the family household
4 - Long-lasting effects may not be evident until some time after therapy has been completed
5 - A decrease in the level of depression reported by more troubled partners is not a good indicator of couple improvement

Link: findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3658/is_200101/ai_n8943277