THE INTERPERSONAL DYNAMICS AND TREATMENT OF DUAL TRAUMA COUPLES

Many trauma survivor dyads pose intense challenges for couples and marital therapists. Interpersonal reactivity, transference, emotional withdrawal, and associated responses complicate these difficult yet often rewarding cases. Unique aspects and interpersonal dynamics of these couples include specific themes, characteristics, and patterns. Treatment approaches focus on the systemic influences of trauma on interpersonal dynamics and offer interventions to challenge disruptive interactions, attend to the original traumas, and develop healthy relationship patterns.