Clinical consultation with highly conflictual couples

Journal title RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA
Author/s Giancarlo Tamanza, Marialuisa Gennari, Carles Perez Testor
Publishing Year 2019 Issue 2018/4
Language Italian Pages 16 P. 713-128 File size 200 KB
DOI 10.3280/RIP2018-004010
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The contribution, through the presentation and discussion of a clinical case, il-lustrates an approach to the couple’s consultation considered a form of specific clinical intervention. The basic elements that define it conceptually are the focus on the relational nature of the crisis and the prevailing attention to the bond of the couple, observed in its generational articulation. In this perspective the prima-ry objective of the consultation lies in the unveiling of the psychological dynam-ics underlying the crisis / problem, ie a re-reading of the symptoms of distress and suffering that allows access to the meanings and to a more complex and articu-lated knowledge of the relationship problems and their nature.This way of think-ing and carrying out the clinical consultation with the couple is based on a specif-ic theoretical-methodological system and qualifies as a form of "collaborative assessment" that is characterized by the need to build a real sharing between the partners of the problem and therefore of the ways to deal with it, so that the cou-ple can together take an active position and a joint planning to cope with the dif-ficulties. The challenge of a couple’s clinical counseling is therefore to build a shared working environment, participated constructively by both partners. This aspect assumes an even more significance since usually the characteristic of the presented problem sees the two opposing partners and actors of a more or less manifest conflict.

Keywords: Couple consultation, collaborative assessment, relational diagnosis.

  1. Boszormenyi-Nagy, I., & Krasner, B. (1986). Between Give and Take. A Clinical Guide to Contextual Therapy. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
  2. Bowen, M. (1979), Dalla famiglia all’individuo. Roma: Astrolabio.
  3. Caprara, G., Scabini, E., Pastorelli, C., & Regalia, C., (1999), Autoefficacia percezioni familiari e adattmento psicosociale. Età Evolutiva, 62, 25-33.
  4. Cigoli, V., & Gennari, M. (2017). Di nuovo famiglia: sfide e risorse, in Clinica del divorzio e della famiglia ricostruita. Bologna: il Mulino.
  5. Cigoli, V., & Scabini, E. (2006). Family Identity. Ties, Symbols, and Transitions. New York: Taylor.
  6. Cigoli, V., & Tamanza, G. (2009). L’Intervista Clinica Generazionale. Milano: Raffaello Cortina.
  7. Cigoli, V., Margola, D., Gennari, M., & Snyder, D.K. (2014) (Eds.). Terapie di coppia. L’approccio integrativo e l’approccio relazionale-simbolico (pp. 336). Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  8. Di Nuovo, S. (1998). Q.A.I.: un test di adattamento interpersonale. In S. Di Nuovo, G. Lo Verso, M. Di Blasi, & F. Giannone (Eds.), Valutare le psicoterapie: la ricerca italiana (pp. 281-287). Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  9. Davins-Pujols, M., Pérez-Testor, C., Salamero-Baró, M., et al. (2012), Personality Profiles in Abused Women Receiving Psychotherapy According to the Existence of Childhood Abuse. Journal of Family Violence, 27(2), 87-96,
  10. Farnè, M., Sebellico, A., Gnugnoli, D., & Corallo, A. (1991). POMS. Profile of Mood States: Adattamento italiano. Firenze: Organizzazioni Speciali.
  11. Gennari, M., & Tamanza, G. (2017). Parental alienation (PAS) and Child Custody Evaluation: Clinical suggestions from some cases’ analysis [Alienazione Genitoriale (PAS) e procedimenti di Consulenza Tecnica d’Ufficio: Evidenze cliniche dall’analisi di alcune valutazioni], Maltrattamento e Abuso all’Infanzia, 1, 13-27. DOI: 10.3280/MAL2017-001002
  12. Gennari, M., Tamanza, G., & Molgora, S. (2018), Intimate partner violence and child custody evaluation: a model for preliminary clinical intervention. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1471.
  13. Nichols, W. (2001), La terapia integrata di coppia. In F.M. Dattilio & L.J. Bevilacqua (Eds.), Psicoterapia di coppia. Modelli a confronto (pp. 161-183). Milano: McGraw-Hill.
  14. Norsa, D., & Zavattini, G.C. (1997). Intimità e collusione. Teoria e tecnica della psicoterapia psicoanalitica di coppia. Milano: Raffaello Cortina.
  15. Ranieri, S., Molgora, S., Tamanza, G., & Emery, R.E. (2016). Promoting Coparenting After Divorce: A Relational Perspective on Child Custody Evaluations in Italy, Journal of Divorce and Remarriage, 57(5), 361-373. DOI: 10.1080/10502556.2016.1185204
  16. Scharff, D.E., & Scharff, J.S. (2000). Object Relations. Couple Therapy. Northvale, NJ: Jason Aronson.
  17. Tamanza, G. (2017). Interventi clinici con la coppia in separazione. Bologna: il Mulino.
  18. Tamanza, G., & Gennari, M. (in press). Questionario sulla fiducia interpersonale. Laboratorio di Psicologia Clinica, Università Cattolica S.Cuore.
  19. Whitaker, C. (1982), Le funzioni del matrimonio. In M. Andolfi (Ed.), La crisi di coppia. Una prospettiva sistemico-relazionale (pp. 3-11) (trad. it. 1999). Milano: Raffaello Cortina.

  • The Clinical Generational Interview. An instrument for family assessment Giancarlo Tamanza, Marialuisa Gennari, in Frontiers in Psychology 1361028/2024
    DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1361028
  • Assessing family relationships through drawing: the Family Life Space Marialuisa Gennari, Caterina F. Gozzoli, Giancarlo Tamanza, in Frontiers in Psychology 1347381/2024
    DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1347381

Giancarlo Tamanza, Marialuisa Gennari, Carles Perez Testor, La consultazione clinica con coppie altamente conflittuali in "RICERCHE DI PSICOLOGIA " 4/2018, pp 713-128, DOI: 10.3280/RIP2018-004010