The Vulnerability Cycle: Working With Impasses in Couple Therapy

Michele Scheinkman · Mona DeKoven Fishbane

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Counseling, Therapy, and Family Dynamics Attachment and Relationship Dynamics Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications

Abstract

In this article, we propose the vulnerability cycle as a construct for understanding and working with couples' impasses. We expand the interactional concept of couples' reciprocal patterns to include behavioral and subjective dimensions, and articulate specific processes that trigger and maintain couples' entanglements. We consider the vulnerability cycle as a nexus of integration in which "vulnerabilities" and "survival positions" are key ideas that bring together interactional, sociocultural, intrapsychic, and intergenerational levels of meaning and process. The vulnerability cycle diagram is presented as a tool for organizing information. We suggest a therapeutic approach for deconstructing couples' impasses and facilitating new patterns through deliberate modes of questioning, a freeze-frame technique, stimulation of calmness and reflection, separating present from past, and elicitation of alternative meanings, behaviors, empathy, and choice. This approach encourages the therapist and couple to work collaboratively in promoting change and resilience.

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References

1978Family Therapy in Clinical Practice 1979Family Therapy in Clinical Practice 1999Strengthening family resilience 1996Narrative Therapy: The Social Construction of Preferred Realities 1993Therapy as social construction 1992The client is the expert: A not-knowing approach to therapy.1999The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work 1989The Changing Family Life Cycle: A Framework for Family Therapy

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