Cognitive-behavioral couple therapy for same-sex female couples: A pilot study

Despite comparable levels of relationship satisfaction and intimacy, same-sex couples break up faster and more often than different-sex couples, highlighting a need for quality couple therapy. Research suggests that culturally tailored services are desired by same-sex couples and may be more effective and better received. Although efficacious couple therapies exist to treat relationship distress, they have been overwhelmingly studied with different-sex couples. Sexual minority (SM) affirming couple therapies have not been systematically developed or evaluated. The current study involved developing and pilot testing a couple therapy tailored for distressed same-sex female couples. This treatment integrates the SM stress model with the empirically supported cognitive-behavioral couple therapy framework and is the first culturally tailored couple therapy for same-sex couples to be empirically evaluated. Therapists delivered the treatment in an open-trial format to a pilot sample of 11 same-sex female couples experiencing relationship distress and SM stress. Treatment was delivered with high adherence to the treatment manual. Participants reported high treatment satisfaction. As hypothesized, participants experienced significant decreases in relationship distress and improvements in couple coping with SM stress from pre- to post-therapy. Limitations precluded clear conclusions regarding anticipated improvements in individual mental health. Participants experienced comparable or stronger improvements in relationship functioning compared to couples in a similar benchmark study. Given this is a small pilot study, results are interpreted with caution. Implications for culturally tailoring evidence-based couple therapy for marginalized groups are discussed.