Cognitive Maps and Couples

Cognitive maps are mental representations of our emotions and behaviors that inform how we navigate situations within our environment, whether the situations concern moving through physical space or engaging in interpersonal interactions. In the context of a couple relationship, cognitive maps are representations of each partner’s internal thoughts and feelings that inform the way they engage in relationships. Albert Brok is a psychodynamic therapist who uses cognitive maps to help partners construct and articulate what he refers to as their “internal vision” of the other and the couple relationship. The restoration therapy (RT) model, developed by Terry Hargrave, is a family systems approach that uses cognitive maps as a tool to help partners identify their internal processes of reactivity and to understand how these processes ...