Behavioral Couples Therapy (BCT)

Behavioral Couples Therapy (BCT) is a treatment for couples in which one partner has an alcohol and/or substance use disorder. BCT brings the non-substance-abusing partner into treatment in order to help initiate and maintain abstinence for the substance abuser while also improving the relationship which may have been damaged by substance abuse.

Several important features of BCT make it particularly promising as a treatment for substance-abusing clients:

• A brief therapy easily applied to most clinical programs

• A structured, skills based treatment

• Can serve as a 'stand alone' treatment or as an adjunct to individual treatment

• A clinically proven effective substance abuse treatment

• BCT has been shown to provide greater abstinence, fewer relapses, better relationships and fewer separations

• BCT has been shown to reduce family violence, have favorable effects on couples' children, and very favorable cost-benefit results.

• Family involvement is associated with better compliance and treatment outcomes for substance-abusing clients.

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