ABSTRACT
One of the common challenges in beginning a course of couple treatment is securing the couple's shared commitment to the treatment process. Ambivalence about treatment appears in the couple's conflicting requests for help accompanied by their verbal insistence that therapy is futile. Such challenges are captured in the episodic couple treatment of Roger and Cathy, who insistently request help yet only remain for two to five sessions. They drop out of treatment and reappear some six or ten months later, again requesting help, and again demonstrating reluctance to stay engaged in the process. For the therapist, questions arise about securing a treatment agreement, understanding the couple's ambivalence, providing adequate containment for exploration, and managing countertransference feelings of frustration and failure. The author feel entangled in acting out an aspect of the couple's dynamic, rather than finding a way to place it between us for reflection and understanding.
