Skip to main content
ABCT 2023 Annual Convention Main banner
Final Program


Program Flipbook
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Back
ViewAttendees 3

Symposia

Couples / Close Relationships

Session: From "Too Little, Too Late" to the Right Treatment at the Right Time: Toward a Stepped-Care Approach to Relationship Health

4 - (SYM 67) Initial Results from a Multi-site Implementation of Stepped Care for Couple Distress

Saturday, November 18, 2023
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM PST
Location: Clallum (701), Level 7



Background: Stepped care is a personalized, flexible, and potentially cost-effective treatment model because it adopts the principle of first offering the least intensive treatment option, that is appropriate to the client’s needs. In a stepped care model, clients progress to more intensive interventions as needed. A stepped care model for couple distress has not previously been empirically evaluated but could hold a potential to reduce help-seeking barriers, increase early treatment engagement, and extend the reach of evidence-based interventions. As outlined in theory on stepped care models, the success of such implementation depends on the following assumptions a) clients’ willingness to engage in minimal interventions at the lower steps, b) that a substantial portion of clients gain sufficiently from the lower steps, and c) that clients are willing to transition to a higher step if a lower step is not effective. 

Method: Model assumptions will be tested with couples entering a 3-step model implemented across four municipality sites in Denmark. Interventions include self-directed online learning (Step 1), guided self-help through either the web based OurRelationship Program or a course of bibliotherapy (Step 2), and couple therapy provided by municipality therapists trained in Integrative Behavioral Therapy (Step 3). On March 1st, 2023, recruitment began for a sample of 1500 parenting couples. Across the first 6 months (March 1st to September 1st), we expect 350 couples to register and engage in self-directed online learning (step 1). We expect one out of five registered couples to be clinically distressed. We expect half of all distressed couples to gain sufficiently (d > 0.5 on relationship satisfaction) from guided self-help (step 2). Finally, we expect 2 out of 3 couples in need of couple therapy to successfully transfer (to step 3).



 
RESULTS &

Discussion: Initial data from across the four sites will be analyzed to confirm or challenge these model assumptions and will be presented at the conference.