Interpersonal Problem Areas

There are four interpersonal problem areas that lead to depression. All of them must be treated in therapy. They include interpersonal loss, interpersonal role dispute, interpersonal role transition, and interpersonal deficits. Interpersonal loss is when a loved one dies or someone losses a relationship. During therapy the therapist encourages the client to explore their relationship with the dead person or the relationship. Most of the time the people experience delayed grief. The goal of therapy is that over time they discover new ways of remembering the dead person and to help them reestablish new interests and relationships. For example Amanda recently went through a divorce and no longer has Ben in her life. She is frozen in the past relationship with Ben and a therapist could help her examine the relationship and to move past that relationship and to expand her social life in an attempt to continue on with her life.

Another problem area can be interpersonal role dispute. This occurs when two people have different expectations of a relationship and the roles they should play to make the relationship work. The therapy focuses on the disputes and the issues that are leaving the relationship stalled and than offers ways to improve making it better. The therapist helps them to identify the dispute, make a plan of action, and work towards making changes to make the relationship better. For example before the divorce Amanda and Ben experienced role dispute. They argued about little things like who would take care of the clothes, and who would unload and load the dishwasher. This caused a role dispute and a lot of stress in the relationship. A therapist could help one or better both partners to examine the dispute, put it into perspective, express how they feel about this dispute and then make a plan such as taking turns or sharing jobs like one do the dishes and the other partner do the laundry in equal distributions.


The third is interpersonal role transition. This occurs when a major life change happens like divorce. They will feel overwhelmed by the role changes that occupancy the life changes. The therapist attempts to help the person develop social supports and new skills that due to the divorce has created. The therapist helps the person assume new roles. For example Amanda went through the divorce and moves into an apartment. She has problems adjusting to the new role transition. Her old partner always did certain things for her like taking out the garbage, and vacuuming the rug. But that person is no longer in her life so now she has to adjust to a role transition of doing the chores herself. A therapist could help her work through the stressors of adjusting to the role transition.


The fourth problem area is interpersonal deficits. The deficits could include such factors of lack of social clues, expressing oneself in a socially acceptable manner or over coming awkward in a unfamiliar surroundings. In the situation of extreme lack of social clues might prevent a person from having intimate relationships. The therapist will help them to recognize the deficits and teach appropriate social skills to improve social interactions. This therapy focuses on past relationships, the present relationship and ways to form new relationships. Perhaps some of the stress of Amanda and Ben was that Amanda would interact with Ben’s family and friends by saying insulting comments to their faces. Amanda seemed to not realize the impact her comments had on Ben’s family and friends. This interaction of lack of appropriate social clues could very well he added enough stressors so that Ben dissolved their relationship.