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Proponents of evidence-based treatments (EBTs) have directed complaints of potential unethical practice against psychotherapists who refrain from using EBTs as first-line interventions for a range of psychiatric disorders on the grounds that these treatments should be given priority because of their exceptional scientific backing. This article counters these claims and highlights core ethical concerns associated with the research and practice of EBT itself; namely, the appropriateness of saturating the field with short-term models of psychotherapy and the questionable assumption that these can yield meaningful and lasting change; the uncertain relevance of the results of EBT investigations for psychotherapists working with real-world clients; the foreclosure of opportunities to address clients' unmet developmental needs and self-fragility posed by the directive/didactic therapeutic stance inherent in EBTs; and, the reduced quality of psychotherapy offered to the public at large and threats to the clinical competence of early-career mental health professionals caused by overemphasizing training in EBTs over the acquisition of relational skills in graduate schools and postgraduate training sites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is an emerging consensus that satisfaction among intimate partners does not presuppose the absence of conflict, or even utilization of prescribed conflict resolution skills, but entails mutual desires to take wholesome reparative steps to recover from heated disagreements and to be overt in one's appreciation, gratitude, and affectionate gestures. A dialogical existential approach to couples therapy is uniquely suited to sensitize clients to the communicative goodwill and reciprocal fairness that mitigates the frequency and volatility of conflict stemming from reactive prideful monologue, while engendering an appreciation for the constructive role of guilt, apology rendering, and responsiveness to the other constitutive of humble dialogue. Existentially informed couples therapy can help demystify the extravagant expectations people expect from intimate relationships, normalize the inescapable mundane aspects of conjugal life, and create urgency for change by referencing the preeminent value of loving relationships and the anticipatory guilt and dread associated with insufficiently loving a cherished spouse or life partner in the context of that person's mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Irony and a sense of the absurd are notable topics for discourse by philosophers in the existential tradition but under-utilised for therapeutic purposes by psychotherapists of this ilk. The use of humour in couples therapy can potentiate clients' mirthful negotiation of the myriad dilemmas and disappointments arising in intimate partnerships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]