A divorce is less likely to seriously traumatize the dissolving family when both the legal and emotional issues of divorce are addressed. Attorney-therapist teams are proposed as an effective vehicle to help minimize the stress of the divorce experience. (Author)

Supports marital enrichment as an effective intervention technique with couples. Linear letters can enhance the enrichment process and can be assessed more effectively by the instruments used to measure change in this study than can change induced through the paradoxical letters. (Author)

Fifty-five couples served in the study using a between-subjects design, additional response measures, and additional positive communication training. The reciprocity counseling produced significantly more improvement than the discussion-type counseling for the three marital adjustment measures after four sessions. (Author)

A marital group intervention was developed to address communication, conflict, forgiveness, and reconciliation. This article reviews the history of marital group intervention and presents a description of an 8-week marital group intervention. Results indicated improvement in forgiveness skills, anger expression, and marital satisfaction at…

Discusses the borderline/schizoid marital constellation as the prominent constellation among borderline patients on a long-term inpatient unit. Contends that treatment of this marital constellation requires application of the concept of the holding environment as an essential treatment construct with the therapist as manager of the holding…

Examines cognitive strategies used in marital treatment. Describes major targets of cognitive marital assessment and treatment. Focuses on use of strategies with rural clients experiencing economic and psychological stress due to farm crisis. Describes selected techniques of behavioral marital therapy used as adjunct to cognitive marital therapy.…

Cultural sensitivity, cultural relativism, and the cultural defense are defined and described. Each concept is addressed in terms of its relationship to couple and family counseling. The role of counselor must be broadened and deepened to include the role of cultural broker. (Author/EMK)

Offers techniques on how to work with male cross-dressers using solution focused therapy. Solution focused therapy is discussed as a way to work with male cross dressers and their partners. A case study of a male cross dresser and his wife is presented and possible directions are suggested for marriage and family therapists. (BF)

This meta-analysis summarizes results from 30 randomized experiments that compare behavioral marital therapy with no-treatment control with distressed couples. Results showed that behavioral marital therapy is significantly more effective than no treatment (d=.585). Although behavioral marital therapy research studies tend to be conducted under…

Infidelity is a common issue with which distressed couples and their therapists grapple. However, there are no data on the efficacy of commonly used therapies to treat couples in which there has been an affair. In the present exploratory study, the authors examined the therapy outcomes of a sample of infidelity couples (n=19) who had participated…

This article describes a method for creating highly contextual assessments of couples therapy interaction using concepts from Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL). According to SFL, talk in interaction serves three primary functions: to mediate social relations, to negotiate representations of reality, and to organize and structure the event as…

In this article, we briefly review the etiology of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and describe the most current scientifically supported theory about the nature of this disorder. Based on the research literature, several organizations have established standards of care for its diagnosis and treatment, which involves a multimodal…

Many couples who come in for family counseling report that financial difficulty is a factor contributing to their current struggles. Yet few therapists spend much time, or even feel qualified to help couples in this critical area. The purpose of this study was to interview subjects who were married or who are married to discern their financial…

In vivo exposure is the most commonly used and generally the most effective behavioral treatment for agoraphobia. Follow-up studies are difficult to interpret because additional treatment does not necessarily indicate relapse and non-treatment does not necessarily indicate non-relapse. Relapse rates are difficult to estimate because of lack of…

Although psychotherapy traditionally has been thought of as talking therapy, written communication can be used as an effective supplement, across a range of theoretical approaches and therapeutic stages. Writing can aid clients in deepening awareness and enable them to use their inherent resources for becoming whole persons. For example, one…