From the country’s leading couple therapist duo, a practical guide to what makes it all work. In 10 Principles for Doing Effective Couples Therapy, two of the world’s leading couple researchers and therapists give readers an inside tour of what goes on inside the consulting rooms of their practice. They have been doing couples work for decades and still find it challenging and full of learning experiences. This book distills the knowledge they've gained over their years of practice into ten principles at the core of good couples work. Each principle is illustrated with a clinically compiled case plus personal side-notes and storytelling. Topics addressed include: • You know that you need to “treat the relationship,” but how are you supposed to get at something as elusive as “a relationship”? • How do you empathize with both clients if they have opposite points of view? Later on, if they end up separating does that mean you’ve failed? Are you only successful if you keep couples together? • Compared to an individual client, a relationship is an entirely different animal. What should you do first? What should you look for? What questions should you ask? If clients give different answers, who should you believe? • What are you supposed to do with all the emotional and personal history that your clients stir up in you? • How can you make your work research-based? No one who works with couples will want to be without the insight, guidance, and strategies offered in this book.

How do couples get beyond the reactivity and blaming that destroy self-esteem and good will? How can couples sort out the multiple layers and complexities in their relationships? Is it possible to move from impasse to dialogue? Here, in one brief volume, are the answers to these questions and many others. Doing Couple Therapy will be a lifesaver for family therapy students and beginning therapists. In a straightforward manner, the authors sift through years of family therapy theory to draw out for readers a a treasury of ways to sort out the many factors, past and present, that crowd couples' relationships. These include family-of-origin issues, previous relationships, secrets, children, in-laws, unresolves lodes, job demands, financial worries—to name just a few. The authors' framework, built from the major influential theories of family and marital therapy, will enable therapists to work effectively and briefly, though not superficially, with couples. The book not only presents theory but also links theory with practice. An extraordinary contribution is the presentation of a typical case from beginning to end, through tender moments, rough spots, family-of-origin work, revelation of deeply held secrets, alcohol abuse, ultimatums, and finally, renewal of commitment to the relationship. This practical, real-life guide to couple therapy will give both students and seasoned therapists a new take on the demanding work of couple therapy.

Facilitating change in couple therapy by understanding how the brain works to maintain—and break—old habits. Human brains and behavior are shaped by genetic predispositions and early experience. But we are not doomed by our genes or our past. Neuroscientific discoveries of the last decade have provided an optimistic and revolutionary view of adult brain function: People can change. This revelation about neuroplasticity offers hope to therapists and to couples seeking to improve their relationship. Loving With the Brain in Mind explores ways to help couples become proactive in revitalizing their relationship. It offers an in-depth understanding of the heartbreaking dynamics in unhappy couples and the healthy dynamics of couples who are flourishing. Sharing her extensive clinical experience and an integrative perspective informed by neuroscience and relationship science, Mona Fishbane gives us insight into the neurobiology underlying couples’ dances of reactivity. Readers will learn how partners become reactive and emotionally dysregulated with each other, and what is going on in their brains when they do. Clear and compelling discussions are included of the neurobiology of empathy and how empathy and selfregulation can be learned. Understanding neurobiology, explains Fishbane, can transform your clinical practice with couples and help you hone effective therapeutic interventions. This book aims to empower therapists— and the couples they treat—as they work to change interpersonal dynamics that drive them apart. Understanding how the brain works can inform the therapist’s theory of relationships, development, and change. And therapists can offer clients “neuroeducation” about their own reactivity and relationship distress and their potential for personal and relational growth. A gifted clinician and a particularly talented neuroscience writer, Dr. Fishbane presents complex material in an understandable and engaging manner. By anchoring her work in clinical cases, she never loses sight of the people behind the science.

Techniques for the Couple Therapist features many of the most prominent psychotherapists today, presenting their most effective couple therapy interventions. This book provides clinicians with a user-friendly quick reference with an array of techniques that can be quickly read and immediately used in session. The book includes over 50 chapters by experts in the field on the fundamental principles and techniques for effective couple therapy. Many of the techniques focus on common couple therapy processes such as enactments, communication, and reframing. Others focus on specific presenting problems, such as trauma, sexual issues, infidelity, intimate partner violence, and high conflict. Students, beginning therapists, and seasoned clinicians will find this pragmatic resource invaluable in their work with couples.

Grounded in a deep understanding of what makes intimate relationships succeed, this book provides concrete guidelines for addressing the complexities of real-world clinical practice with couples. Leading couple therapist Ellen Wachtel describes the principles of therapeutic interventions that motivate couples to alter entrenched patterns, build on strengths, and navigate the “legacy” issues that each person brings to the relationship. She illuminates the often unrecognized choices that therapists face throughout the session and deftly explicates their implications. The epilogue by Paul Wachtel situates the author's pragmatic approach in the broader context of contemporary psychotherapy theory and research.

A session by session guide book for mental health practitioners on how to conduct evidence-based couples counseling. The book guides the therapist step by step through twelve sessions, and covers everything from the very first client phone call all the way through termination.

To have a successful marriage, couples need to develop the ability to accept the unchangeable and change what can be changed. This realistic premise is at the heart of integrative couple therapy, the first approach to embrace both techniques for fostering acceptance and techniques for fostering change. The book offers rich clinical detail on how to develop a formulation encompassing the couple's disparate conflict areas, enhance intimacy through acceptance, build tolerance for difference, and improve communication and problem-solving. The clinical implications of diversity in gender, culture, ethnicity, class, and sexual orientation are taken into account, as are issues related to domestic violence, infidelity, depression, and drug and alcohol addiction. Integrative couple therapy creates a context in which partners can accept in each other what cannot be changed, change what they can, and compassionately, realistically recognize the difference.