Further experience in conjoint psychotherapy of marital pairs

Conjoint therapy of marital partners is a technique that lends itself to the counseling efforts of health professionals. Its growing use has, however, brought with it seemingly inevitable pitfalls, such as inadequate assessment of individual needs and psychopathology, overzealous application and disregard of certain contraindications, management problems and goal definition that may be unclear to patients or more related to the therapist's personality than to an objective view of the marriage dynamics. Despite the difficulties and pitfalls of this relatively new field, conjoint therapy can be the treatment of choice when the primary difficulties are related to the inability to cope in the marital situation, even though functioning in other social roles is adequate.