There is a growing demand for psychotherapy and consultation for entrepreneurial couples, who have their own unique concerns and problems, Kathy Marshack, Ph.D., said at the annual meeting of the Academy of Organizational and Occupational Psychiatry.

Dr. Marshack, executive director of the Associated Psychotherapists of Oregon and Southwest Washington in Vancouver, warned that consulting to entrepreneurial couples is much different from consulting to corporations or offering corporate psychotherapy.

"Family systems are much stronger than business systems. The family will stay together at the expense of the business, so you have to take a look at what these personal relationship are like first," said Dr. Marshack, who specializes in family business consultation.

In general, may of these couples are naïve about what it takes to run a business together. Often they don't understand that it takes more than just love to run a business with your spouse.

They assume that because they love each other and are married, they will be good business partners. They don't have a clue that this requires planning ahead, defining who is going to handle what, and being respectful of each other, said Dr. Marshack.

Furthermore, many couples don't realize how much of their work they will be bringing home with them every night - how much they will be "talking shop in the bedroom," she said.

Many of these couples need intervention, and this is an area in which occupational psychiatrists can be highly effective. "A business system's function is to be competitive and to make money; a family's system's function is to nurture and protect the family members. So you have these two systems working . against each other," said Dr. Marshack. "It is marriage and family work in the corporate setting."