Therapeutic Assessment with Couples (TA-2)

This chapter demonstrates the Therapeutic Assessment with Couples (TA-2) model, summarizing its rationale and the literature on its development and effects. It also reviews research on partner selection and its evolution into long-term "couple dances." Couple dances are patterns through which partners manage their psychological conflicts at the expense of rigid, dissatisfying couple relationships. Based on the mechanisms underlying couple functioning, the chapter describes the aims and the basic steps of the TA-2. First, the couple and assessor collaboratively formulate questions to be answered through the assessment process. TA-2 toggles between individual sessions and couple sessions. Individual sessions, composed of tests and collaborative processing of the testing experience, allow partners to gain insight and develop a new comprehension of their relational problems supported by the assessor. The insights and shared understanding that emerge are discussed and reviewed in the summary session, which aims to answer both the individual's and the couple's assessment questions. In the end, the assessor sends the couple written feedback, including answers to their assessment questions and test results, which is discussed during the summary and discussion session. This chapter illustrates the TA-2 model with a real case in which partners dealt with intolerable affect states due to their upbringing and the consequences of severe stressors they suffered due to rigid projective identification. The couple exemplifies the "avoidant-pursuer" dance. The TA-2 allowed both partners to become aware of the origins of such dance and become more able to tolerate intimacy.