Education and Therapy: A great combination together. .
Why choose couple education to enhance your therapy?
Why choose couple education to enhance your therapy? Education is different than therapy. For many of those who come to our site education is not enough to help them get past hurts, be motivated for change, and develop the skills to improve their relationships. Education does many of those things, but without therapy many of the underlying emotional issues in a marriage or family never get addressed. Education motives and teaches skills. It can even help a person see a new way of being towards others. However for most of you who are stuck into old patterns that have caused emotional pain therapy is needed. The best results come from a combination of Education and therapy.
Therapy is absolutely required when there is drug or alcohol abuse, domestic violence, infidelity, or a couple is nearing divorce.
What
is the difference between therapy and education?
Dr. Bill Doherty has published a set of guidelines which was adopted by
the
National Council on Family Relations. These guidelines are in
five
levels. Levels one through four are in the spectrum of
education.
Levels four through five are therapy.
Level one: lecture format. Information is
given with no
interaction between the educator and the student. Examples
are podcast,
MP3, books, and videos.
Level two: information and
advice. The educator gives and
receives feedback from the students.
Level Three: hypothesis and assessment.
Evaluation of the couple
or family and personalized education is provided
Level Four: Brief focused intervention. A
structured intervention
is created to help increase awareness and judgment. The
intervention is
designed to empower couples to change their way of interacting.
Level Five: Therapy. All work at
this level is considered
therapy and should be only entered into with a qualified licensed
therapist in
your state.
Other issues to consider:
Couple Education (online):
Convenient-
Because our couple education is online you can do it anywhere you have
an internet
connection. You do not have to travel to an office, take time
away from
work. Couple education is flexibility to meet your
schedule.
Anonymity –
Because you are online you are not seen by a therapist. You
can
participate and not worry about having to see your educator out in
public. This level of anonymity can sometimes create more
open and honest
discussions of what is going on in the relationship.
Accessibility -
You can access these services anywhere. For those who are
time deprived
and would not attend therapy, for those in rural areas, busy, and
remote
users.
Cost effective –
Education is more cost effective. You can do 15, 30 or 50
minutes at a
time. You decide.
Goal oriented -
Couple education is goal, solution, and self oriented and not focusing
on
pathology. Education is focused on the short
term.
There are many new services that offer online therapy or “E-Therapy”. There are many issues with online therapy. Most state boards are stating that unless you are working with a therapist who is licensed in your state then you maybe working with a therapist that is not qualified to treat you. This is illegal. You also can not verify the credentials of the person you are working with. Additional therapist can not pick up on the visual aspects of the case. As online therapy services grow in demand we will most likely see a clarification of rules and laws. As of now couple education is the better choice than online therapy.. It gives a couple the opportunities to work on improving their relationship in an affective way. Because therapy is often needed we will ask that you use a qualified marriage and family therapist in your area. We recomend using the site Therapist Locater. It is run by the AAMFT orginatiion.