Research directions
Evaluation of couple and family interventions
This area of research involves process and outcome research on couple and family psychotherapy. The aim is to develop evidence-based interventions that are useful for training and clinical practice and advance science of treating couples and families.
The latest SNSF project was a pragmatic, randomized controlled trial to assess the efficacy of an integrative brief systemic intervention (IBSI) combining therapeutic work on romantic and coparenting relationships compared with systemic therapy as usual. We developed the IBSI at the University of Lausanne in collaboration with clinicians from the Department of Psychiatry (CHUV). It is a six-session couple intervention whose basic premise is that, for couples with children, therapeutic work on their coparenting relationship (i.e supportive alliance or conflict between adults raising children) can serve as a lever, as both parents may be particularly motivated to improve their relationship for their children's benefit. This intervention integrates recent empirical knowledge about the impact of coparental functioning on child development and on the romantic relationship.
Couple, family and parenthood
This area of research involves studying couple and family relational dynamics at different life stages and in several family forms. For example, studies are conducted on:
- coparental dynamics, in families from pregnancy to the baby's early months, and in adolescence
- family interactions (micro and macro observations of the couple and the family)
- types of families (e.g. families created by assisted reproductive technologies, non-clinical families with an adolescent child, stepfamilies, migrant families, and families in the third and fourth age).
