Couple therapy

The major stages we will go through together

• The beginning of therapy: how to receive a couple? What to do from the first phone call? What elements to explore to build a secure frame?
• The therapeutic setting: therapist alone or in co-therapy? In the office or remotely? What stance to adopt towards out-of-session intrusions?
• Requests for therapy: how to differentiate a request for help from an attempt at manipulation? What are the therapist’s prejudices and how do they influence the reception of the request?
• Forms of problems: from the passionless “rational” couple to the fusional couple that has fallen out of love, via parental conflicts or existential crises.
• The system’s plasticity: can it still change? How to assess the possibilities of evolution? What rituals to prescribe to test a couple’s flexibility?
• Key concepts: notably circularity, a central lever of understanding and intervention, thought of as a genuine technique of systemic decoding.
• And when separation becomes inevitable? How to accompany the end of a bond with dignity, without failure or illusion? How to protect the children and support the transition?