GRAPHIC NOVEL "This is an original, creative way of unpicking relationship problems - worth revisiting again and again for more insights." Bel Mooney, Columnist, Daily Mail Anthony and Andrea aren't getting on. It's five weeks away from their marriage and Andrea has caught her fiance cheating on the internet, with an older woman! Share this couple's journey with their counsellor and become a fly on the wall as they journey into their most private and unknown places. Much more than a comic strip, the graphic novel Couple Therapy: Dramas of Love and Sex takes you into the hidden world of the Relate counselling room, and lets you into the private worlds of three fictional couples as they struggle to improve their relationships and their sex lives. Relate counsellor Barbara Bloomfield discusses each case with renowned family therapist, Prof. Rudi Dallos, as they share thoughts, theories and active techniques that will help each couple to understand what's gone wrong and how to make changes for the better. WITH A FOREWORD BY RUTH SUTHERLAND, CEO OF RELATE "Couple Therapy is a very innovative book exploring the private worlds of two fictional couples (plus one family) going through RELATE counselling. It is comic strip type graphic novel which highlights relationship issues in an exciting, easy and highly readable way. A 'must' read for anybody experiencing problems in a relationship." Cary L Cooper, CBE, Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology and Health at Lancaster University, UK, and President of Relate "This wonderfully creative book provides a unique insight into the Relate counselling room. It is written with clarity and integrity and I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about Relate counselling." Jenny Porter, Supervisor, Relate Cymru, and Tutor at The Relate Institute, UK "This graphic novel explores some of the problems we all face in our relationships and beautifully describes what goes on in the counselling room to solve them. I love the real feeling of being in the room that the cartoons convey and then the 'what's going on in the counsellor's head' commentary adds depth, followed by some excellent supervision of the work at the end of each chapter. There's no 'dumbing down' and the book gives real insights into the couple and family counselling process. Marvellous!" Gwilym Roberts, Chief Executive Relate Cymru, UK "This beautifully illustrated graphic novel provides an informative and accessible guide to systemic-oriented couple therapy, with accompanying comments and thoughts helping the reader to understand the way the couple feels and the therapist works with their problems. The book can be recommended to anyone who wants to get an idea of what happens in couple therapy." Dr Andreas Vossler, Director of the Foundation Degree in Counselling, The Open University, UK "Full of the drama and humanity of couple therapy, Barbara Bloomfield's thoughtful holding, interventions and reflections match the vivid characters illustrated by Chris Radley in this energetic graphic narrative that showreels fictionalised episodes from inside the confidential couple therapy room. Entertaining, reflective, moving and educational, this is a riveting read." Claire Williamson, Programme Leader, MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, Metanoia Institute, UK

The fourth edition of the bestselling An Introduction to Family Therapy provides an overview of the core concepts informing family therapy and systemic practice, covering the development of this innovative field from the 1950s to the present day. The book considers both British and International perspectives and includes the latest developments in current practice, regulation and innovation, looking at these developments within a wider political, cultural and geographical context. The fully revised fourth edition also contains new material on: EXPANDED Chapter 4 'Ideas that keep knocking on the door'-updated with applications of attachment & narrative therapy, linking these ideas to issues of developing the therapeutic alliance with families EXPANDED Chapter 5 'Systemic Formulation'- updated with a view of formulation as a core skill in many therapeutic models, and an alternative to diagnosis EXPANDED Chapter 6 '21st Century Practice Development'- updated to include cutting edge innovations in the field, such as integrative practice EXPANDED Chapter 7 'Couple Therapy'- updated to include the more recent process and outcome research in the models, making link with current systemic practice and using more illustrative examples and highlighting how Relate has changed EXPANDED Chapter 8 'Research and Evaluation'- updated with a greater range or research methods and contemporary emphasis on evidence based practice Greater focus on key family therapy skills throughout the book in the updated 'Formats of Exploration' feature in each chapter Expanded lists of key texts and diagrams, suggested reading organized by topic, and new practical examples and exercises are also used in order to encourage the reader to explore and experiment with the ideas in their own practice. This book is key reading for students and practitioners of family therapy and systemic practice as well as those from the fields of counselling, psychology, social work and the helping professions who deal with family issues.

What does every couple want? A close, honest bond with their lover? Great communication and humor? Some romance? To feel loved, passionately, by their partner? The truth is that most couples aspire to have all of these things. But how do you get it and, more importantly, how do you keep your relationship fresh, vibrant, and sexy over the years? In The Book of Love, expert sex and relationship therapist Dr. Laura Berman teaches how to become connected, communicative, stable, romantic, and sexually-satisfied, as well as how to plan for a happy, intimate, and fantasy fueled future together.

This book presents an integrative, growth-oriented approach to therapy with couples that demonstrates the dynamic interplay between partners’ emotional issues and their sexual difficulties. It offers a model for relational and sexual enhancement that focuses as much on partners’ present, nonverbal body-to-body communications as on their words. Dr. Stella Resnick draws on research from interpersonal neurobiology, sexology, positive psychology, and Gestalt therapy, and shares a rich assortment of therapy vignettes to demonstrate the transformative power of pleasure and how a focus on body-to-body intimacy can heal emotional wounds from the past and encourage greater presence, empathy, authenticity, playfulness, and sexual pleasure between intimate partners. The therapeutic process is explored in four related spectrums: the Problem-Transformation Spectrum, the Attachment-Sexuality Spectrum, the Pain-Pleasure Spectrum, and the Cognitive-Somatic-Experiential-Behavioral-Spectrum. Part I lays the theoretical foundation for the work. Part II examines the early attachment bond between parent and child and its effects on adult capacity for emotional closeness and sexual pleasure. Part III offers methods for resolving painful emotional issues underlying many sexual difficulties. Finally, Part IV describes the procedure for moving from a cognitive reframing of the problem to a somatic focus on the body and tracking present-moment emotional interactions to the repair of relational injuries that nurture transformational change. Also included is a series of process-oriented exercises and a handout that therapists can use in their own practice. Body-to-Body Intimacy will enable couples and sex therapists to expand their practices and enrich their clients’ sexual and relational dynamics. This book also contains valuable information that will be appreciated by anyone interested in a greater understanding of a growth-oriented therapeutic process for couples and what can be achieved together by gaining a deeply loving and sexually fulfilling intimate love relationship.

This title can help you to overcome your problems yourselves without paying out huge fees to therapists. It will teach you skills that can make your intimate relationships more satisfying and assist you in rekindling the fun and romance.

The greatest sexual pleasure and emotional fulfillment in a person's lifetime is possible in the middle and later years when he or she has developed a mature sense of self and found genuine intimacy with another person. That's the exciting message of this daring and pioneering work that challenges couples to work together on the sexual and emotional blocks that hold them back from total satisfaction with each other. Passionate Marriage is a respectful, erotic, uplifting, and spiritual guide dedicated to making love and intimacy a reality for every couple. It's a book to read and reread often for inspiration and enlightenment. Dr Schnarch's work is widely regarded as the most sophisticated integration of sexuality, intimacy, spirituality, personal growth, and marital therapy developed to date, and his writings have been published internationally and translated into several languages.

Am I with the right person? Will our love last? Men and women in love are haunted by these questions. Love -- especially why it blossoms in relationships and why it later dies -- is a mystery to them. Will Our Love Last? A Couple's Road Map solves this mystery by giving readers a new understanding of love -- an understanding they can actually use to evaluate the soundness of their relationships and to answer confidently the crucial questions that mystified them before. Based on hundreds of cases in his twenty-four years as a marital therapist and twenty-nine years in his own happy marriage, Sam R. Hamburg, Ph.D., explains how compatibility is the key to lasting love. He shows how compatibility on three major dimensions -- the Practical Dimension, the Sexual Dimension, and the Wavelength Dimension -- is essential to the mutual understanding and affirmation that keep love alive, and he leads readers through a simple but systematic procedure for assessing their compatibility with a romantic partner in these crucial relationship areas. Dr. Hamburg introduces a new technique, The Hand Rotation Exercise, to help readers express their degree of compatibility and then convey that visually to their partner. In addition, he presents two new original techniques for working through relationship conflicts and coming to agreement on difficult issues: His Way/Her Way and The Long Conversation. Written in a clear, direct style that is free of jargon, Will Our Love Last? empowers readers to make important relationship decisions that are intellectually and emotionally informed. Will Our Love Last? will help couples trying to decide if they should take the next step to a more committed relationship. It will aid individuals embarking on a new relationship, or who are between relationships, to evaluate the rightness of a new or prospective partner. And it will assist people who are already in committed relationships to make an honest assessment of their prospects for happiness with their current partner. People have it in their power to make sure that they truly are with the right person. Will Our Love Last? shows the way.