Troubled Relationships: A Retrospective Study of How Couples with Histories of Trauma Experience Therapy

Abstract

In the present study we aim to increase our knowledge of the relationship between childhood trauma and outcome in couple therapy. We sampled participants based on their suboptimal responses to treatment as well as one member of the dyad having reported experiences of childhood trauma. Six participants constituting three couples were included. All data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Our main finding was that when couples are not able to agree on the goal of their therapy and this is not handled adequately by the therapist, the alliance tends to split. The therapy thus becomes more individually focused at the expense of the couple relationship. Generally, participants did not themselves assess their past traumas as having negatively impacted therapy giving instead credence as to how it has impacted their self-knowledge. In the future, longitudinal studies should be conducted to explore if there is an association across treatment between trauma and the therapeutic relationship, and the influence it might have on outcome. The findings of this study further support the already existing literature on the importance of alliance and elaborates upon how split alliances occur, develops, and constrains therapy. Supplemental data for this article is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15332691.2022.2053262.