The Couple Therapist as Moral Agent

Partners in intimate relationships rely on each other to meet essential emotional needs. This mutual dependence creates reciprocal obligations, engendering a moral dimension to intimate relationships. This moral dimension involves questions of fairness, equity, and justice which are often central to couples' presenting complaints in treatment. This paper proposes that moral considerations in couple therapy are not only inevitable, but potentially beneficial, and illustrates how they can inform the therapist's case conceptualizations and interventions. This paper will also explore the therapist's responsible use of her moral influence through an examination of personal values. This paper utilizes concepts from psychodynamic and family systems theory to illustrate key points, but the ideas presented apply to therapists with diverse theoretical orientations.