💬 Couples Therapy Research Newsletter – Issue 1/2025
21 recent studies – summarized clearly and with practical relevance
Dear colleagues,
Welcome to the latest issue of the Couple Therapy Research Newsletter! In this edition, I’m sharing 21 recent studies from the international literature – many of which offer direct insights for therapeutic practice. I’ve organized the studies by theme and provided a brief overview of each one: What’s it about? What were the findings? And most importantly – how is it relevant for couple therapists?
You’ll also find a few reflective pieces at the end – perhaps less directly applicable, but valuable for your professional mindset and positioning.
💢 Conflict, Aggression & Emotion Regulation
A clinical case study showing how Integrative Behavioral Couple Therapy (IBCT) can be applied in cases of mutual, situational aggression – with emphasis on responsibility, differentiation, and safety.
Couples where one or both partners act impulsively under emotional stress tend to show more conflictual communication. Reappraisal skills matter – especially in escalation-prone dyads.
A grounded theory study on how emotional and behavioral control manifests in intimate partnerships. Offers nuanced insights to help distinguish toxic patterns from those with growth potential.
💬 Communication, Attachment & Satisfaction
Couples who agree on daily issues and actively meet each other’s needs tend to show stronger commitment – and higher satisfaction.
A critical test of Chapman’s model shows no evidence that a match between “love languages” increases satisfaction. Popular, but scientifically questionable.
Especially for women, genital self-image and sexual knowledge predict attachment and sexual satisfaction. Men benefit from better understanding female sexuality.
❤️ Emotional Intimacy, Trust & Vulnerability
A narrative-constructivist technique for exploring inner dynamics: therapists “interview” an internalized attachment figure to foster empathy and perspective-taking.
Clients who feel solely responsible for their relationship failures may benefit from systemic reframing and exploration of loyalty, fairness, and values.
A reflective essay on how trust, fairness, and justice intersect in cross-cultural relationships. Offers valuable food for thought for culturally attuned practice.
🧠 Mental Health & Trauma
Explores the experiences of non-offending partners living with someone convicted of sexual crimes – themes of shame, identity conflict, and autonomy.
Belonging and affirming therapeutic relationships protect against suicidal ideation in gender-diverse clients – especially when facing internalized stigma.
In couples with infants, past trauma predicts lower satisfaction – mediated by co-parenting alliance. Highlights the importance of trauma sensitivity in early parenthood.
🧘♀️ Health, Body & Couple Dynamics
Couples with high relationship strain and low education face higher cardiometabolic risk – suggesting that relational wellness is also a health issue.
Shared family rituals reduce burnout and improve parental wellbeing. A useful concept for therapeutic work with overwhelmed parents.
🔄 Transitions, Separation & Reconnection
A practical framework for single-therapist reunification work with children and parents after estrangement – structured, flexible, and evidence-informed.
Offers practical advice for parents post-divorce on how to talk to children about a new relationship – in a developmentally safe and respectful way.
🧘♂️ Spirituality, Resilience & Resources
Shared religious/spiritual practices can enhance satisfaction – but only when reported by female partners. ACEs mostly influence baseline satisfaction levels.
A scoping review summarizing what helps couples face cancer together – with recommendations for psycho-oncological couple therapy.
🧠 Theory & Reflection
A comprehensive review of the process-outcome literature – showing what we know (and still don’t) about therapeutic change mechanisms.
How therapists can recognize and amplify subtle opportunities for relational healing – even in “small” client remarks or micro-shifts.
What does it mean to be quietly subversive as a therapist? This qualitative study explores how clinicians integrate social justice into everyday work.
Want to learn more?
If you’d like further details on any study – feel free to reach out. And if you know colleagues who might benefit from this newsletter, please share it!
Warm regards,
Doc Philipp
Couples Therapy Research Newsletter 2/2024
The research in the university library has once again paid off. In addition to the usual journals like Family Process and the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, I stumbled upon many studies on Researchgate, particularly from Iran. These studies mainly focused on the efficiency and effectiveness of various therapy forms as well as comparisons between therapy forms. While there was little directly applicable for everyday couple therapy, those interested can find more here. If anyone has an explanation for why there is so much published on this topic in Iran, I would appreciate a brief response; I’m curious about that.
For this newsletter, I made sure that the studies mentioned are either open access or that the full text can be requested from the authors via Researchgate.
Two studies focused on the topic of „power in relationships“. One addressed how we can address power in couple therapy, and another on the topic of handling money in relationships and how it can lead to aggression in relationships.
A study from Saudi Arabia optimized the Divorce Predictions Scale (DPS) with algorithms to reliably predict the likelihood of divorce. I wasn’t aware of this scale until now, and I’m still undecided whether and how such a scale would be helpful or hindering in practice, but I find the idea and development worth reading. Here is the study.
Since I’m interested in the topics of online couple therapy and the use of digital tools in couple therapy, I present two studies on these subjects. One study examined the effectiveness of online tools such as apps, while the other explored how couple therapy changed during the pandemic.
Particularly interesting for daily practice was a study by two Belgian researchers that shed light on how the search for emotional closeness in couple therapy can trigger shame reactions in the partner. The study also provides insights into how we can better manage the process in such cases.
Also from Belgium is a study where women whose partners had an affair were interviewed. The results show that the healing process is more oscillating, with partners fluctuating between closeness and distance.
A study from the USA and Mexico explores how we can help couples with significant political differences in couple therapy. Read the study here.
A study that compares various assessment tools shows how assessment tools can help in working with multicultural couples in couple therapy.
In couple therapy, we also encounter couples who are challenged by complex traumas. This study provides an interesting introduction to how we can approach these traumas.
I hope that with this, I have provided some inspiration for our professional development.
