Sociocultural Attunement to Vulnerability in Couple Therapy: Fulcrum for Changing Power Processes in Heterosexual Relationships

Abstract

Increasingly, couple therapists are called to promote equity in their clinical practice, yet little research illuminates the intricacy of doing this work. The purpose of this study was to clarify the clinical processes involved when therapists facilitate a more equitable balance of power in couple relationships while utilizing a sociocontextual frame of reference. It is part of larger research explicating Socio‐Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT), an approach that places equity and social justice at the core. The sample included 72 SERT sessions with nine heterosoexual couples in which there was an observable power difference between partners. Using Charmaz’s (2014, Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis, Sage) grounded theory coding, theoretical sampling, and interpretive methods, we examined therapist/client responses over multiple sessions to explain shifts in the couples’ power balance. Analysis identified sociocultural attunement to vulnerability as the core clinical process and detailed five sociocultural expressions: socialized vulnerability, socialized invulnerability, reactive (in)vulnerability, reactive vulnerability, and shared vulnerability. Shifts in power involved each of three therapist stances: (a) identification of the societal power context of vulnerability, (b) therapist leadership and responsive persistence, and (c) facilitating mutual sociocultural attunement to vulnerability to promote shared relational responsibility and influence. Implications address the connections between power and vulnerability in couples work and what therapists can do to more effectively facilitate relational equity.

The third shift: Addressing emotion work in couple therapy

“…Without attending to the political dimensions of emotions, therapists may unwittingly support sociocultural and relational dynamics that privilege and value some people and disadvantage and invisibilize others and their labor. Partners doing “less” could be asked to attune (Knudson‐Martin et al, 2021) to their partner's experience of being overburdened by emotional responsibilities. Attunement probes might include the following: “What do you think it's like for your partner to constantly orient to and manage your feelings?” They can also be invited to assume more responsibility or “step up” in the domain of emotion work by considering their undiscovered capacities for, and the benefits of, such work: “If you wanted to reciprocate and attend more to your partner's emotions and moods, how could you do it?…”

“…To develop our analysis, we also draw on feminist care ethics scholarship (e.g., Daniels, 1987; Dean et al, 2022; DeVault, 1999, 2011; Kolehmainen & Juvonen, 2018; Lynch, 2020; Oksala, 2016; Weeks, 2007). The paper is also informed by work on gender in couple therapy (e.g., Knudson‐Martin et al, 2021; McDowell et al, 2023; Smoliak, Rice, et al, 2022). For example, Smoliak and colleagues discussed the political dimensions of men's emotional vulnerability (Smoliak, LaMarre, et al, 2022) and the gendering of care in couple therapy (Smoliak, Rice, et al, 2022).…”

“…For example, Smoliak and colleagues discussed the political dimensions of men's emotional vulnerability (Smoliak, LaMarre, et al, 2022) and the gendering of care in couple therapy (Smoliak, Rice, et al, 2022). Knudson‐Martin and colleagues developed Socio‐Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT) (e.g., Knudson‐Martin et al, 2021) to address gendered and other norms and power dynamics that hinder emotional vulnerability and responsiveness, including cultural messages regarding women being emotional “experts” or responsible for caring and maintaining relationships. Their SERT model explores inequalities in four domains of couple relationships and mutual care: vulnerability, relational responsibility, attunement, and influence (Knudson‐Martin et al, 2021; McDowell et al, 2023).…”

Learning to Embody a Social Justice Perspective in Couple and Family Therapy: A Grounded Theory Analysis of MFTs in Training

“…We follow McDowell's (2015) definition of power as "the ability to prevail over another and impose one's will" (p. 6). From a relational perspective, power is not a personal property, but may be viewed as the relative influence of one person or group on another and the interpersonal patterns that arise from inequitable social and cultural contexts in which some interests and sources of knowledge are deemed more credible and important than others, and individuals internalize these contextual messages about themselves (Knudson-Martin et al, 2021;Stone & ChenFeng, 2020). From this lens, power positions can be identified by noticing whose needs and interests are supported by relational dynamics even when they go unstated.…”

“…The SERT process begins by socioculturally attuning to relational power inequities (positioning). Therapist interventions shift in-the-moment power processes (interrupting), and help clients create new ways of relating and practicing shared responsibility (practicing) (Knudson-Martin et al, 2021).…”