Marriage and Couples Therapy
Instead of one individual diagnosed with a specific psychological problem, couples therapy can be seen differently from psychotherapy because the relationship is the focus of attention. The psychological problems involve the symptoms of both individuals and changes within the interpersonal relationships. Even though, couples therapy focuses on the current problems and conflicts existing in the relationship between two people, the relationship problems involve individual symptoms (e.g. behavior, emotions and thought processes) that stem often from unresolved childhood issues.
It has been said that current conflicts and struggles in between two people are caused by 20% of what is going on at the moment and the other 80% are triggers that stem from unresolved childhood issues. For example, if a wife is constantly feeling criticized by her husband, and he is mainly trying to help her doing things less complicated, she might be triggered by "old memories that stem from her parents who always criticized her". If in response the husband overreacts to his wives defenses, he might be triggered by his childhood issues, "having his opinion never counted for or acknowledged from his parents". In this example, the couple is being triggered by unconscious events of old and each partner acts towards the other like enemies .....
California Counseling has been working with and successfully applied the concepts and methods of Imago Relationship Therapy that was created by Harville Hendrix, who wrote the book "Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples".