Dropping out of marriage and family therapy: Intervention strategies and spouses' perceptions

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Abstract
Marriage and family therapy dropouts and completers were contrasted on the interventions they were exposed to over the entire course of therapy and during the initial session. Spouses' perceptions of their lives and marital relationships prior to therapy were also studied. Families who completed therapy were more frequently exposed to such interventions as firming up appropriate boundaries, escalating conflict, establishing individual boundaries, and advice giving over the entire course of therapy, and such interventions as escalating conflict, paradoxical interventions, advice giving, defusing conflict, restructuring dysfunctional boundaries and homework prescriptions during the initial session. Husbands and wives in families who completed therapy reported greater life happiness and marital happiness prior to the initiation of therapy than did spouses in families who dropped out. The implications of these findings for practice and further research are discussed.