CC25 Workshop 11 - Helping Individual Clients Whose Partners Don’t Want Couple Therapy - William Doherty, PhD

Many couples therapists treat individuals with troubled marriages when the spouse will not participate in couples therapy. Often the therapy has started out as individual work and then serious relationship complaints surface. But we lack explicit models for helping these individuals, and it’s all too easy to start colluding with the client against the partner who’s absent from the room—a stance that’s counterproductive to improving the relationship and helping the client learn from its difficulties. The challenge is to maintain a systemic, relational perspective even when we are seeing only one partner. This workshop will provide specific tools and guidelines for helping individual clients in the context of their relationship.

1. Identify challenges in working with individuals when their partner does not participate in couples therapy.
2. Describe common mistakes therapists make with these clients
3. Discuss strategies and techniques for helping clients achieve their personal therapy goals and improve their relationship if that is their goal.