Marriage/Couples' Counseling:
1) Psychoanalytic Theory:
Based on the theory of object relations. This theory focuses on generational relationship development. The objects are parents such as a mother-daughter bond formed during early childhood development. These early developments and bonds formed with parents are brought into adulthood and subsequently enter into marriages. Therapy for couples with this theoretical focus involves the counselor gaining crucial insight into each person's parental relationships. Each person then transfers reorganized thoughts based on reactions, expectations, and perceptions of themselves and others onto the therapist. The counselor may also use dream work, interpretation, and resistance analysis in their therapeutic technique. The outcome of this theoretical approach is typically that catharsis will occur for couples by allowing them to acquire nascent insights into their lives, which creates space for altering the behaviors that probably caused the couples to seek therapy to begin with (Newsome & Gladding, 2014).
2) Social-Learning Theory:
Newsome and Gladding (2014) describe social-learning theory as "learning through modeling and imitation." Essentially, the theory says that we learn a lot of what we know by observing the behaviors of others and couples who seek therapy have too many or too few important behaviors. An example of not enough is someone not knowing how to resolve arguments with their partner and an example of an excess is oversharing things that one person thinks the other person wants to know. One of the counseling goals utilizing this theoretical approach is to work on building skills in the moment. To help couples, the counselor uses communication-enhancement exercises, homework, and contracts. This theory is rooted in linear cognition.
3) Rational Emotive Behavior Theory:
REBT focuses on the idea that couples give more credence to thoughts rather than occurrences. Newsome and Gladding (2014) note that couples who think irrationally are more apt to becoming neurotic about the goings-on of their relationship, which then causes upheaval in relationships. To cope with disruptions in their relationships, couples should attempt to resolve and alter their ways of thinking and feeling about particular events. By focusing on the individuals in the relationship, the counselor can help the couple as a unit. This theory is also known as double systems therapy because of the focus on changing the individual within a family system.
The theory I find most appealing is the rational emotive behavior theory because it treats the individual as well as the couple. I think sometimes people can lose their sense of self in their relationships so having this theory bring the focus back onto the individual and allowing them to rationalize their feelings in the context of the relationship seems to be something I would use in my own practice. If we evaluate our own internal issues we might see that our relationships can be directly affected by the way we think about things that happen within them and help us avoid turmoil or at least manage it more effectively.
References
Newsome, D. W., & Gladding, S. T. (2014). Clinical Mental Health Counseling in Community and Agency Settings (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.