Couple/Intimate Relationships

If you are facing challenges in your marriage or relationship, you are not alone:

• The marriage rate continues to decline in the US, declining over 50% from 1970 to 2010.
• For four decades, perceptions of marriage quality have been steadily declining. Only about 63% of married men and 61% of married women describe their marriages as “very happy.” 
• The American divorce rate is nearly double what it was in 1960.
• Approximately 40-50% of recent marriages will end in separation.
• Approximately 24% of children experience the divorce of their parents by age 12, which is associated with decreases in academic success, physical health and future stability in their own relationships.

But for many, marriage and serious relationships can be very rewarding.  For those in the United States who have been married over ten years, 40% report being very intensely in love (O’Leary, Acexedo & Aron, 2012).  And of those who have been married less than ten years, even more couples report being very intensely in love.

To have a successful marriage or relationship, couples need to develop the ability to accept the unchangeable and change what can be changed…

At the KPC, we provide specialized individual and couple treatments for a variety of couple problems, including:

• Communication problems
• Dissatisfaction with the relationship
• Inability to cope functionally with couple/family stressors
• Parenting issues
• Sexual problems/disorders/dysfunctions
• Intimate partner violence

Our integrated Cognitive Behavioral Therapy models, including Integrative Couple Therapy (ICT), help spouses/partners change their dysfunctional communication patterns (e.g., conflict management) and ways of thinking and acting that lead to distress and destructive behaviors in the relationship.

Thus, we teach couples to:

• Communicate effectively
• Deescalate conflict
• Use problem-solving skills
• Increase their acceptance and understanding of each other
• Enhance intimacy through acceptance
• Build tolerance for difference
• Increase caring behaviors in the relationship
• Strengthen individual and dyadic coping skills.

We help to create a context in which spouses or partners can accept in each other what cannot be changed, change what they can and realistically and compassionately recognize the difference.  Relationship Therapy can help couples in distress.  Many studies have shown that Cognitive-Behavioral Marital Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) help both men and women to become more satisfied with their relationships.