ABSTRACT
This paper explores five differentiated facets of relationship involved in coupling and couples therapy. These are the person-to-person aspect, the transferential aspect, the working alliance, the reparative aspect, and the transpersonal aspect. It is suggested that these five facets tend to be present in most permanent couples relationships in varying degrees and at different times. This integrative framework is offered to assist couple and couples therapists in the assessment, treatment, and growth of mature, loving human relationships.
This chapter explores five differentiated facets of relationship involved in coupling and couples therapy. These are the person-to-person aspect, the transferential aspect, the working alliance, the reparative aspect, and the transpersonal aspect. The chapter suggests that these five facets tend to be present in most permanent couples relationships in varying degrees and at different times. This integrative framework is offered to assist couple and couples therapists in the assessment, treatment, and growth of mature, loving human relationships. S. Peck refers to this facet of relationship when he defines love as ‘The will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another’s spiritual growth’. In a couple’s relationship between two equal human beings, where both have intense and profound needs for and of each other, transferential patterns are most likely to interlock and become mutually reinforcing. Good relationships may exist which do not encompass all of these facets or any one of them to their fullest potential.
