What? There will only be 2 adults in the session right?
Wrong. Alongside/Inside each of the two presenting adults is an internalised inner child and an internalised parental figure.
Suddenly things are a little bit more complicated
Person 1 Person 2
Couples sometimes get stuck in the dotted lines positions, where one is having a go at the other one. (Diagram courtesy of The Context of Things)
Couples Counselling aims to get both parties relating along the solid line ie from Adult to Adult. This happens by many methods but the first stage is to realise the unhelpful patterns and why they come about