Marital therapy as a method of prevention of dysfunctions of family

This article is aiming at a presentation and critical analysis of selected concepts of marital therapy. Permanent conflicts between partners influence generalized life quality of every member of a family system (spouses as well as children). According to clinical research results presented in the text, there is a strong link between marital conflicts between parents and depression, eating disorders, and behavioral disorders among children and youngsters. That is why marital therapy can be considered to be a method of prevention of above mentioned disorders. The author compares seven schools of marital therapy: psychodynamic, behavioral-cognitive, systemic, narrative, process-oriented, rational- educational and values-oriented in order to single out main changes in philosophy of therapy concerning explanations of disorders, roles of therapist and clients as well as methods of work