Edited by a renowned family therapist, this book brings together prominent marital and family therapists to explore the new challenges and opportunities facing couples and the clinicians who work with them. The volume presents a range of approaches to helping couples reconsider and reorder their life priorities around parenting, marriage, and other stages of life.

The HIV epidemic in Bolivia has received little attention on a global scale in light of the country’s low HIV prevalence rate. However, by profiling the largest city in this land-locked Latin American country, Carina Heckert shows how global health-funded HIV care programs at times clash with local realities, which can have catastrophic effects for people living with HIV who must rely on global health resources to survive. These ethnographic insights, as a result, can be applied to AIDS programs across the globe. In Fault Lines of Care, Heckert provides a detailed examination of the effects of global health and governmental policy decisions on the everyday lives of people living with HIV in Santa Cruz. She focuses on the gendered dynamics that play a role in the development and implementation of HIV care programs and shows how decisions made from above impact what happens on the ground.

Common Dilemmas in Couple Therapy addresses four common problems that couples therapists face everyday in their offices – problems that leave therapists exhausted, drained, challenged, alive, racing, and on edge. These dilemmas encompass not only the difficult challenges therapists face everyday, but also the passions and profound disappointments of human intimate partnerships. The purpose of this book is not only to explore and give case illustrations of these dilemmas, but also to give therapists strategies to use and help them understand and handle their own profound experiences while doing this work.

Real solutions to a hidden epidemic: family estrangement. Estrangement from a family member is one of the most painful life experiences. It is devastating not only to the individuals directly involved--collateral damage can extend upward, downward, and across generations, More than 65 million Americans suffer such rifts, yet little guidance exists on how to cope with and overcome them. In this book, Karl Pillemer combines the advice of people who have successfully reconciled with powerful insights from social science research. The result is a unique guide to mending fractured families. Fault Lines shares for the first time findings from Dr. Pillemer's ten-year groundbreaking Cornell Reconciliation Project, based on the first national survey on estrangement; rich, in-depth interviews with hundreds of people who have experienced it; and insights from leading family researchers and therapists. He assures people who are estranged, and those who care about them, that they are not alone and that fissures can be bridged. Through the wisdom of people who have "been there," Fault Lines shows how healing is possible through clear steps that people can use right away in their own families. It addresses such questions as: How do rifts begin? What makes estrangement so painful? Why is it so often triggered by a single event? Are you ready to reconcile? How can you overcome past hurts to build a new future with a relative? Tackling a subject that is achingly familiar to almost everyone, especially in an era when powerful outside forces such as technology and mobility are lessening family cohesion, Dr. Pillemer combines dramatic stories, science-based guidance, and practical repair tools to help people find the path to reconciliation.

Marital concord between couples from different racial and ethnic backgrounds is an issue that needs serious attention to bridge the vast chasms. America welcomes people from all over the world. People of all religions and ethnic backgrounds come here to study and migrants arrive here to work. Interracial marriages are common but the radically different background of each couple can create discords and prove to be bumps on the highway of conjugal life. This can have serious repercussions on the offspring and on the couple and their lives as well. This book seeks to investigate how cultural realities can be addressed within intercultural premarital couples counseling. Using a cultural focus approach couples’ stories around their particular culture and relationship were analyzed. Themes related to relationship, family and social ties, and parenting bi-cultural and bi-racial children were examined. Issues of religious and social influence, money, race, ethnicity, extended family, immigration, and biases in family of origin, are explored as are roles and responsibilities, communication, respect, trust, and gender-stereotyping. The book adopts a pastoral theological approach in working towards a deeper understanding of premarital relationships of partners who represent cultural difference and diversity. In conclusion recommendations to therapists and care givers for counseling intercultural couples are made.

Emotionally Focused Therapy with African American Couples: Love Heals is an essential guide that integrates emotionally focused therapy (EFT) with cultural humility. It provides a pathbreaking, evidence-based model of couples work that reinforces the bond between partners in the face of race-based distress. Guillory explores and brings a deep understanding of the legacy of racial trauma, and the cultural strengths of African American couples by using real-life case studies. The chapters in the book focus on several key clinical issues in the field, such as communication problems, anxiety, infidelity, depression, and porn. Each case study is enhanced by a consultation with EFT master therapist Sue Johnson. The book is an essential text for students and mental health professionals looking to provide culturally competent therapeutic interventions. It will also appeal to psychologists, mental health workers, social workers, marriage and family therapists, and religious leaders.

Now updated in its second edition, Handbook of Clinical Issues in Couple Therapy provides a comprehensive overview of emerging issues that impact couple therapy. Unlike other guides that concentrate more on theoretical approaches, this invaluable resource contains the latest research and perspectives that every clinician needs when dealing with the challenging issues often found in practice. Carefully referenced, it explores a range of issues that include intimate partner violence, posttraumatic stress disorder and its effect on couple relationships, divorce therapy, remarriage and cohabitation issues, cultural issues, and couple therapist training. This insightful edited volume is suitable for a wide spectrum of readers, including couple and family therapists, counselors, psychologists, social workers, pastoral counselors, educators, and graduate students.

Increase the efficacy of your treatment interventions in intercultural couples therapy The Intercultural Exeter Couples Model: Making Connections for a Divided World Through Systemic-Behavioral Therapy provides practitioners with a thorough guide to effectively treating intercultural couples. The book consists of a systematic effort to translate systemic ideas that take into account a cultural perspective into a highly useable and practical form. The Intercultural Exeter Couples Model also attempts to marry two, often distinct, forms of practice: the systemic and the behavioral. Both approaches have much to contribute to effective couples' counselling but they are often theoretically siloed. This book demonstrates the value of using both approaches simultaneously. This book provides concrete and practical strategies for implementing systemic and behavioral approaches to intercultural couples' therapy in a manner consistent with clinical best practice. Rather than ignoring the significant and complex impacts that differing cultures can have on a relationship, The Intercultural Exeter Couple Model puts those differences front and center, encouraging the therapist to engage with the cultural mismatch that can be at the core of many couples' ongoing friction. The book's chapters tackle both the model itself and a variety of interventions, covering topics including: Teaching couples how to break patterns and prepare them to establish new ones Training couples to communicate effectively Establishing new modes of behavior in couples An explanation of empathic bridging maneuvers A description of the use of life-space explorations Perfect for clinicians, students, and professors interested in or practicing in the field of couples' therapy, The Intercultural Exeter Couples Model provides readers with an in-depth exploration of an increasingly important model of couples therapy and describes, in painstaking detail, the interventions necessary to achieve positive patient outcomes.

The essential guide to successful couples therapy at every stage of the lifecycle A variety of therapeutic interventions can help couples develop the tools for a successful relationship. Yet many practitioners begin seeing couples without extensive training in couples work. To fill this gap in their therapeutic repertoires, noted couples therapist Michele Harway brings together other well-known experts in marriage and family therapy to offer the Handbook of Couples Therapy, a comprehensive guide to the study and practice of couples therapy. The book's chapters provide a variety of perspectives along developmental, theoretical, and situational lines. Recognizing the need for clinically proven, evidence-based approaches, chapters provide detailed coverage of the most effective treatment modes. Couples at different stages of the lifecycle feature prominently in the text, as do relevant special issues and treatment approaches for each stage. Subjects covered include: Premarital counseling from the PAIRS perspective (an extensive curriculum of interventions for premarital couples) The first years of marital commitment Couples with young children Couples with adolescents Therapy with older couples Same sex couples A variety of theoretical approaches, including Cognitive-Behavioral, Object Relational, Narrative, Integrative, and Feminist and Contextual Special issues and situations, including serious illness, physical aggression, addiction, infidelity, and religious/spiritual commitments or conflicts Providing a diverse set of treatment approaches suited to working with a wide range of adult populations, the Handbook of Couples Therapy is an essential resource for mental health professionals working with couples.

The SAGE Encyclopedia of Marriage, Family and Couples Counseling is a new, all-encompassing, landmark work for researchers seeking to broaden their knowledge of this vast and diffuse field. Marriage and family counseling programs are established at institutions worldwide, yet there is no current work focused specifically on family therapy. While other works have discussed various methodologies, cases, niche aspects of the field and some broader views of counseling in general, this authoritative Encyclopedia provides readers with a fully comprehensive and accessible reference to aid in understanding the full scope and diversity of theories, approaches, and techniques and how they address various life events within the unique dynamics of families, couples, and related interpersonal relationships. Key topics include: Assessment Communication Coping Diversity Interventions and Techniques Life Events/Transitions Sexuality Work/Life Issues, and more Key features include: More than 500 signed articles written by key figures in the field span four comprehensive volumes Front matter includes a Reader’s Guide that groups related entries thematically Back matter includes a history of the development of the field, a Resource Guide to key associations, websites, and journals, a selected Bibliography of classic publications, and a detailed Index All entries conclude with Further Readings and Cross References to related entries to aid the reader in their research journey