Outlines conceptual distinction among avoidance, cooperation, and competitive conflict resolution strategies used by marital partners. Couples (N=43) were audiotaped as they discussed previous disagreements. Found the temporal aspects of speech, including turn-taking and interruptions, need to be considered in the study of couples' conflict…

Offers a conceptual approach to resistance in marital therapy. Aimed at beginning marital clinicians, provides an understanding of the natural existence of resistance to therapeutic change. Presents a model which can aid the clinician in assessing each individual's willingness to improve throughout therapy. (Author)

Presents the dynamics, implications and treatment of extramarital sex. Discusses historical and cultural perspectives, various types of infidelity experiences, marital styles as they relate to infidelity, and family therapy implications. Offers recommendations for treatment and a brief consideration of extramarital relationships as a healthy…

Presents a discussion of issues which may be unique in therapy with divorcing clergy, focusing on the overlap between the minister's marital and occupational roles, and the extent to which such overlap influences the divorce and adjustment process. Special concerns of the divorced clergy are described. (Author)

Presents techniques for concealing ignorance from clients and colleagues and making correct excuses for failure to them. Provides information for the therapist who is ignorant about how to change a marriage relationship and wishes to sound knowledgeable and appear to know what s/he is doing. (Author/BEF)

Presents a conceptual framework for the family's reorganization after a divorce, viewed as a crisis of family transition. Social workers must be prepared to help a couple with the complex process of terminating spousal roles but continuing and redefining parental roles, which is central to family redefinition. (Author)

Reports on the development of a satellite center for marriage and family development in married housing. The background and development of the center are discussed. Models employed include the single parent group, the couples' growth group, divorce adjustment groups for children, premarital counseling, and parenting sessions. (RC)

Delineates and examines the psychodynamics of the paranoid wife syndrome and its concomitant characteristic intrapsychic and interpersonal dynamic phenomena. Diagnostic indications and treatment modalities and strategies are noted. (Author)

Describes approach to marriage counseling based on cognitive behavioral therapy and structural and strategic marital therapies aimed at Christian couples. Uses shared Christian values between counselor and clients to promote increased marital commitment, marital satisfaction, and personal spiritual growth. Maintains marital satisfaction might be…

Seventeen depressed, married women were assigned to marital therapy or a waiting list control group. Couples received 10 sessions of Enhancing Marital Intimacy Therapy (EMIT), a structured technique involving the self-disclosure of personal constructs. Comparisons revealed a significant reduction in the experimental group's depressive…

The tenets of traditional sex therapy based on dysfunction and pathology are critiqued, and a feminist model proposed. Recognizing that equity and power issues, particularly in heterosexual relationships, are basic issues, women and issues of gender are at the center of the model. Three cases illustrate the model. (Author/EMK)

In this article, we present an analysis and comparison of published articles in the "Journal of Marital and Family Therapy" (JMFT) between 1990-1995 and 1996-2000. This study focused on trends in author gender, highest degree, and professional affiliation, and article content on issues of cultural and family diversity (race/ethnicity, class,…

Journal articles published by faculty in Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) programs from 1998 to 2002 were analyzed to determine patterns regarding the amount and type of research conducted by this group. Fifty-eight percent of the articles were identified as research. Slightly more than 10% of these…

Marriage mentorship is one of the most effective methods through which a couple can enrich their marriage. A good mentorship relationship is based on feelings of warmth and affinity between mentors and mentees. When a relationship of trust is established, the mentees feel more freedom to express their deeper feelings and to explore new paths of…

The effects of divorce on children have been greatly disputed among therapists. Since the perceived harmfulness of divorce may affect how marital counseling is done, this study examined how therapists' beliefs about divorce consequences are related to their intervention preferences. A two-part questionnaire was devised to be administered to…