**4. Possible mandates and motives for consultation in CBCT**

The first step a CBCT therapist undertakes is to question partners' objectives and expectations with regards to therapy. Poitras-Wright and St-Père [22] have proposed three main therapeutic mandates in couple therapy: alleviation of distress, ambivalence resolution and separation intervention. According to Tremblay and colleagues [23], therapeutic mandates can also be reliably classified and revised during the course of treatment to take into account the specific needs of couples which may change over time. The following sections describe how these different mandates are conducted in CBCT, with an additional section allocated to crisis intervention.
