IBCT, Integrative Behavioural Couple Therapy
IBCT combines acceptance and change. You learn to understand your partner through their history, not through frustration.
What is IBCT, Integrative Behavioural Couple Therapy?
IBCT was developed by Andrew Christensen and Neil Jacobson. It integrates traditional behavioural couple therapy with acceptance and compassion, acknowledging that not everything can or should be changed.
A key component is empathic joining: helping each partner see the behaviour that frustrates them not as stubbornness, but as understandable given the other person's history and vulnerabilities.
How does it work?
Acceptance strategies
Partners learn to accept each other's differences and vulnerabilities rather than constantly trying to change each other. This reduces the power of chronic conflicts.
Change strategies
Where change is possible and desirable, IBCT provides concrete communication and problem-solving skills, from a foundation of mutual understanding.
What can you expect?
An assessment phase identifies the couple's negative cycles and underlying themes.
You develop a shared formulation: a compassionate understanding of how you've gotten stuck.
Acceptance work helps each partner see the other's behaviour with more compassion.
Communication and behavioural strategies are added where most helpful.
You consolidate gains and develop skills for handling future difficulties independently.
Suitable for
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Ready to get started?
Book an intake session with a provider who specialises in this approach. Together you'll look at what fits best for your situation.
Source: Christensen et al. (2004), Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology