The Effectiveness of Couple Therapy and Relationship Support (ECoT)

University of Helsinki

Status: Invitation-only

Conditions: Healthy Adult

Treatments: Behavioral: Standard Face-to-Face Couple Therapy (Treatment as Usual); Behavioral: Manualized Short-Term EFT-Based Couple Intervention; Behavioral: Peloton Parisuhde (eng Fearless Relationship) Online Course; Behavioral: Self-Help Program for Couples

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07604740

nro 20/2024

Details and patient eligibility

About

This randomized and controlled study investigates the effectiveness of relationship counselling and couple therapy in improving couples' relationship satisfaction and overall well-being. It compares four intervention groups both with each other and with a waitlist control group. The groups are:

1. HUS Self-Help (Mielenterveystalo.fi): Participants independently complete online self-help tasks based on couple therapy, developed by Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) Psychiatry and Väestöliitto.
2. Peloton Parisuhde (eng. Fearless Relationship) Online Course: Based on Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFCT), this course by EFCT trainers Eklund-Mikola & Pinomaa uses online lectures and exercises to help couples identify negative interaction patterns and strengthen their emotional connection.
3. Short Manualized Emotionally Focused Couple Intervention: Five face-to-face sessions with a couple therapist.
4. Face-to-Face Couple Therapy (Treatment As Usual): 1 to 10 sessions, with the therapeutic approach varying depending on the therapist's training.

The study is conducted at the Relationship Counselling Unit of the City of Helsinki's Social Services in Finland, which provides counselling and family guidance under Section 26 of the Social Welfare Act to couples with children living in Helsinki. A total of 200 couples from the unit's treatment queue will be invited to participate and randomly assigned to one of the interventions or the control group, with 40 couples in each group.

Participants will complete questionnaires at the beginning and end of the service, and at a 4-month follow-up. The questionnaires measure relationship satisfaction and well-being, among other things. The study also examines how individual, couple-level, and treatment-related background factors influence and mediate the effectiveness of the interventions.

In addition to the questionnaires, registry data, therapist assessments, and ongoing treatment feedback collected within the unit is utilized. The results will provide new scientific insights into the effectiveness of short interventions and their suitable target groups and can be used to develop relationship counselling work both within the unit and nationally.

Enrollment: 400 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Parents (couple) and blended families, and at least one of the parents is resident of Helsinki
• Couples expecting their first child. The couple is experiencing one or more of the following (1) severe relationship conflict, (2) a serious threat of separation, (3) significant challenges in forming a family or navigating a blended family relationship.
• couples eligible for treatment at the couple counselling faculty of Helsinki

Exclusion criteria

• Inadequate Finnish written language skills (the questionnaires are only available in Finnish)
• if both spouses do not complete the baseline questionnaires within the given deadline.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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400 participants in 5 patient groups

HUS Self-help for Couples

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Self-Help Program for Couples

Peloton Parisuhde (eng Fearless Relationship) Online Course

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Peloton Parisuhde (eng Fearless Relationship) Online Course

Manualized Short-Term EFT-Based Couple Intervention

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Manualized Short-Term EFT-Based Couple Intervention

Standard Face-to-Face Couple Therapy (Treatment as Usual)

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Standard Face-to-Face Couple Therapy (Treatment as Usual)

Waitlist (control group)

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in this group do not receive any intervention during the initial two-month study period. After the waiting period, they are offered Treatment as Usual. This group serves as a comparison to assess the effectiveness of the active treatments.