Reference no: EM133403958

Questions: In the first section of the paper, describe the couple or family in question by presenting the problem

a. Discuss what brought the couple/family to therapy?

In the second section of the paper, you will discuss a couple/family therapy theory from this course, and how you applied it to your mock video couple or family. What is your conceptualization and treatment plan? Conceptualization refers to how a therapist working within that theory would define the problem in the family - using that theory's concepts, what would the therapist say is "the problem," or the reason things aren't working well currently.

I started by ( and I am not sure about my work till now and I feel stuck, do you have any comments, adds or suggestion?)

Case Study: Presenting Couple Problem

Alex and Carol a married couple. Alex is a 40-year-old artist and high school teacher who grew up in Halifax, and Carol, is a 42-year-old high school art teacher from Toronto. The couple has been married for 7 years; they work and live in Ontario. Carol reports that Alex has been spending a lot of time on his computer, staying up until 2 or 3 in the morning, and neglecting housework. When Carol asks Alex about his long hours on the computer, Alex says he is working on students' assignments and doing some work for school. However, Carol logged onto Alex's computer and found that Alex had been visiting a chatroom and deleting the history frequently. Carol has asked Alex to join her in couples therapy, as Carol has noticed a change in Alex's behaviours lately, and she is concerned about these findings.

Theoretical Framework

Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFT) designed by y Drs. Sue Johnson and Leslie Greenberg in the 1980s (Beasley & Ager, 2019). EFT" is a brief attachment-based couple therapy that draws on humanistic and systemic principles to help couples improve their relationship functioning by creating a more secure attachment bond in their relationship" (Johnson, 2004, as cited in Wiebe & Johnson, 2016, p. 1). EFT is recognized as one of the most researched and effective approaches that help in changing distressed marital relationships. It showed that individuals' emotions are the primary factor that significantly affects the interaction between couples and families (Johnson et al., 1999).

The role of the EFT is to help couples or individuals to be aware of their emotions, accept and understand them to know how to deal with them, which assists the couples with new coping strategies and managing their emotions better, which will affect their problem management and relationship. The EFT contains nine steps that fall within three stages. Stage one consists of four steps, focusing on assessing and de-escalating the couple's conflict. Stage two consists of three steps that focus on reforming the relationship bond to change the negative cycle. Stage three consists of two steps, and couples develop new healthier cycles of interacting and adopt new positions when dealing with their old problems (Beasley & Ager, 2019; Greenman & Johnson, 2012).

In the end, it is essential to mention that the primary goal for the EFT is to build a secure relationship with couples, understand and validate their underlying emotions and needs from an attachment perspective (L. Greenberg, 2006).