Conclusion
Homework is an important component of many approaches to couple therapy and an integral part of cognitive-behavioral couple therapy. It extends the impact of therapy into the couple’s daily life and allows them to implement changes in their relationship under the more complex and challenging conditions of the home environment and other aspects of real life. Feedback that the couples give the therapist about their successes and failures with homework assignments is crucial information about ways that therapeutic interventions need to be tailored to the needs of each couple. The success of homework tasks depends on multiple factors concerning the characteristics of the tasks, how the therapist relates to the members of the couple and presents homework goals and methods, and characteristics of the members of the couple such as their goals for their relationship, attitudes about input from outsiders, degree of motivation to take personal responsibility for relationship problems and their solutions, and their comfort with proposed changes in the relationship. Therapists and couples can use homework as a major resource in achieving progress.
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Epstein, N.B., Baucom, D.H. (2007). Couples. In: Kazantzis, N., LĽAbate, L. (eds) Handbook of Homework Assignments in Psychotherapy. Springer, Boston, MA . https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-29681-4_12
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