Therapeutic Intervention for Couples Experiencing Infertility: An Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Approach

Abstract

The psychological and societal intersectionalities of infertility may give way to a complicated pattern of grief, anxiety, depression, and trauma for couples. Current literature on specific interventions for mixed gender couples undergoing infertility treatments notes significant improvements for couples who enact meaning-based coping mechanisms and who have more effective dyadic communication. Emotionally focused couples therapy provides an avenue to engage meaning-based coping strategies proposed by current research while also expressing the partners’ unique emotional experiences through their own stories. This article presents a specific, emotionally focused counseling approach for couples experiencing infertility; it also lists general implications for practice and makes recommendations for future research.