Narrative Clinical Review. This page provides the verified citation, abstract, and full-text PDF for the journal article.
Clinical boundary: Conjoint work is not neutral when disclosure may trigger retaliation. Coercive control, violence, sexual coercion, safeguarding concerns, suicidality, and substance-related risk require separate assessment.
Publication Details
- Author: Christian Jonathan Haverkampf
- Journal: The Journal of Psychiatry Psychotherapy and Communication
- Publication date: 2025-06-30
- Volume, issue, pages: 14(2), 31–40
- Article type: Narrative Clinical Review
Recommended citation: Haverkampf, C. J. (2025). Couple Counselling: Assessment, Communication, Safety, and Relational Change. The Journal of Psychiatry Psychotherapy and Communication, 14(2), 31–40.
Abstract
Couple counselling addresses distress that is expressed between partners, but safe and effective treatment requires more than communication-skills training. This narrative clinical review examines assessment, shared formulation, therapeutic alliance, communication, emotion, behavior, intimacy, individual mental health, treatment models, outcome monitoring, and safety. Evidence available through 30 May 2025 indicates that established couple therapies improve relationship satisfaction and several relational outcomes on average; benefit is not universal, and some couples deteriorate. Integrative behavioral and emotionally focused approaches illustrate different but overlapping routes to change: altering reinforcement and acceptance, making vulnerable emotion communicable, and revising interactional cycles. The clinically useful unit is neither one partner nor an abstract relationship but a sequence in which each partner’s meaning and action changes the options available to the other. Communication is therefore an assessment method, an intervention, and an outcome. Alliance must be considered with each partner and with the couple as a working unit; imbalance can weaken treatment even when the therapist feels close to one person. Screening for coercive control, fear, violence, sexual coercion, child safeguarding concerns, suicidality, and substance-related risk is essential. Conjoint therapy is not neutral when disclosure may trigger retaliation. Couple counselling should increase safety, agency, reciprocal understanding, and workable choice—not preserve a relationship at any cost.
Keywords
couple counselling; couple therapy; communication; therapeutic alliance; relationship distress; intimate partner violence
Full Text
The PDF is searchable and preserves the journal layout and pagination used in the citation.
Related Information
Health Information and Safety
This journal article is educational and research-oriented. It is not a personal diagnosis, treatment plan, medication instruction, crisis service, or substitute for assessment by a suitably qualified clinician who knows the person’s circumstances.
Do not start, stop, or change medication or another treatment solely because of information on this page. New, severe, persistent, or worsening symptoms, or uncertainty about risk, require individual professional assessment.
If there is immediate danger or a risk of harm, contact local emergency services or urgent support. In Ireland, see:
- HSE urgent mental health help
- Mental Health Commission urgent help and support
- Mental health help and support routes
- Website disclaimer
Website copy first made available on 26 August 2026. The journal citation retains the article’s issue date.