Case Study - Page 4

Case Commentary

By Ronald Potter-Efron

Robert Nay presents a patient, thoughtful, and practical approach to the difficult task of working with angry couples. He's quite thorough in his three-phase technique, and recognizes that a major concern in working with such couples is getting them to stick with the therapeutic program long enough to develop new habits of respectful communication. Brain research on neuroplasticity suggests that it takes at least six months of practicing new behavior to create permanent change.

My major critique of Nay's approach is that it isn't truly systemic in the classic sense of that term. Rather, he begins by separating the parties and working with them individually for several sessions. In my own work, I try to avoid individual sessions, because all too often, clients use them to share potentially explosive secrets—"I just want you to know that I'm having an affair with my secretary, but don't tell my wife." Individual sessions increase clients' tendency to try to make the therapist their ally against their partner. At a deeper level, I believe that holding separate individual sessions implies that the real issues are individual, rather than systemic.

I prefer to keep the couple together in sessions so that they can focus on how they're mutually creating their miseries. One approach I use helps couples chart the details of their here-we-go-again arguments—the fights that have occurred so frequently that both parties know all the lines, but still become so emotionally flooded that they seemingly can't stop these conversations from happening. It's critical, I believe, for the couple to realize that they're mutually responsible for these minidramas. Although either partner can derail the scene by refusing to say the lines, these fights in reality usually don't end until both parties decide to quit. Until that happens, most partners tell me that even when they try not to get sucked in, they quickly return to their habitual roles when their partner plays out the old drama.

It appears to me that, instead of a truly systemic approach, Nay does what I call side-by-side individual work. In essence, his goal is to help each partner inoculate himself or herself from their partner's provocative words and deeds. His Stop method certainly will help them do exactly that, but I don't see how it'll lead to a significant change in the system.

This is most apparent in the individual approach Nay uses to elicit the couple's sharing of personal visions of a presumably brighter and more constructive future. This attempt to get them out of their current quagmires and help them look ahead to a more positive future is certainly valuable, but, from a pure systemic perspective, I believe that much more emphasis should be placed on having partners craft a mutual vision together—a shared dream that offers a more cooperative direction.

In summary, I'd say that, despite his useful insights into the struggles of angry couples, Nay's case description offers a side-by-side therapy approach, rather than truly systemic counseling.

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