Couple Therapy (3^rd Ed.) Theory and Effective Practice

This new edition of Couples Therapy tackles four challenges currently facing the field: (1) accountability and the increasing demands for demonstrating effectiveness as a condition for reimbursement, (2) the need for practitioners to reconfigure their practice patterns in an ever-involving health-care system, (3) training mental health practitioners who have not completed marital and family therapy (MFT) programs, and (4) integrating new couples approaches and interventions into everyday clinical practice.

The book offers a focused vision and successful strategies for working effectively with couples, both today and tomorrow. It incorporates the best insights from the neurosciences as well as new couples theories, research, and evidence-based interventions, introducing approaches including psychoanalytic, systemic, cognitive behavioral, Adlerian, constructivist, third wave, integrative, and mindfulness-based. Chapters also present practical applications and professional considerations, with a comprehensive look at how to work with diverse issues in couples therapy, such as substance abuse, domestic violence, sexual dysfunction, infidelity, aging, and much more.

This third edition of Couples Therapy is an essential resource for students as well as mental health practitioners, social workers, and family counselors who are keen to better meet the needs of couples and the demands of the changing healthcare landscape.

INTRODUCTION: THE PRESENT PRACTICE OF COUPLES THERAPY 1. Psychological and Contextual Factors in Couples Relationships SECTION 1: SCIENCE AND COUPLES RELATIONSHIPS 2. Biological and Neurological Factors in Couples Relationships3. Functional and Dysfunctional Couples Relationships SECTION 2: THEORIES OF COUPLES THERAPY 4. Psychoanalytic Approaches to Couples Therapy5. Cognitive Behavioral Approaches to Couples Therapy6. Structural and Strategic Approaches to Couples Therapy7. Adlerian and Constructivist Approaches to Couples Therapy8. Third Wave and Integrative Approaches to Couples Therapy SECTION 3: THE PRACTICE OF COUPLES THERAPY 9. Assessment and Case Conceptualization in Couples Therapy10. Interventions in Couples Therapy11. Professional and Ethical Practice of Couples Therapy 12. Substance Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence13. Sexual Dysfunction and Infidelity14. Aging, Separation, Divorce, and Remarriage CONCLUSION: THE FUTURE PRACTICE OF COUPLES THERAPY 15. Preparing to Practice Couples Therapy in the Near and Distant Future APPENDIX: Codes of Professional Ethics Relevant to the Practice of Couples Therapy

Len Sperry, MD, PhD, is Professor at Florida Atlantic University, AAMFT Clinical Fellow, Editor at American Journal of Family Therapy, and author of Recovery of Intimacy in Love Relationships, Family Assessment, Family Therapy Techniques, The Intimate Couple, and The Disordered Couple.

Paul R. Peluso, PhD, is Professor and Chair at Florida Atlantic University, Past-President of the International Association of Marriage and Family Counseling, author of A Family Systems Guide to Infidelity, coauthor of Principles of Counseling and Psychotherapy, and Series Editor of Family Systems Counseling: Innovations Then and Now.