AUTHOR=Capozzi Francesca 

TITLE=A research-driven flowchart to approach change in couples

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 15 - 2024

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1438394

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1438394

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=In most cases, couple therapists systemically see couples’ distress as the result of reciprocal maladaptive patterns to which each partner contributes. Yet, therapists can struggle to share with the couple such a relational understanding of their distress and identify goals for change accordingly, as structured, step-by-step methods are not available in the extant literature. This perspective paper reviews research across various domains of relationship science to summarize cohesively the best practices for goal identification in a step-by-step flowchart. The flowchart is divided into three main areas, derived from the available literature: establishing couple therapy appropriateness, determining general goals, and conceptualizing specific goals from a systemic perspective. Aimed at facilitating training, the resulting recommendations will broadly support a goal-focused approach to systemic assessment.