Short-Term Object Relations Couples Therapy: The Five-Step Model

Brief therapies have become popular-indeed a necessity-in today's managed care environment. Perhaps because it is one of the more complex psychoanalytical models, object relations theory for couples has not been adapted to a short-term model until now. In this volume, James Donovan provides a model for short-term object relations couples therapy, while at the same time offering an easy-to-read primer on object relations that gives the practitioner a step-by-step model replete with examples for using object relations in practice. The goal of this short-term therapy is that couples emerge with an awareness of these internalized object relations and their significance. This book builds on previously successful couples work by advising the therapist to focus on the core, recurring impasse that threatens the couples relationship and stirs old wounds, and gives detailed intervention strategies that focus on the mediation and resolution of the core fight. The five-step model outlines the ways to dismantle the conflict at the levels of the individual and the couple. Donovan integrates aspects of other successful couples therapies into his model in order to broaden its applicability to a greater diversity of treatment situations.