Treating Marital Stress : Support-Based Approaches

Rugel (psychology, George Mason U., Fairfax, Virginia) provides new and experienced couples therapists with a treatment manual on support-focused marital therapy, the goal of which is to increase marital satisfaction by increasing the level of social support a spouse provides to his or her partner.

Help your marital therapy clients become more supportive of their partners!

As a therapist, you see many unhappy couples who long for the loving support that used to be the touchstone of their relationship. Treating Marital Stress: Support-Based Approaches helps you restore that support, beginning with detailed descriptions of the five major patterns of marital distress and continuing with a comprehensive training manual that includes figures, case studies, and samples of possible dialogues between clients and therapists. Step-by-step discussion of the first five sessions with a hypothetical couple provide you with the tools you''ll need to help your clients learn to work together as a team, manage their anger, and communicate effectively with each other.

Treating Marital Stress shows you the best ways to:

• work with a reluctant spouse
• use empathic probing to make a connection with each client
• design homework assignments so spouses can work on individual improvements
• point out problematic behaviors within sessions through ''here and now'' interventions
• reframe conflicts to reduce defensiveness
• help clients accept responsibility for themselves and avoid placing blame

Other chapters discuss how you can assign behavioral tasks, get the couple to focus on their objectives, and predict and move beyond emotional obstacles to healing. This helpful volume also explores the outcome data from a study on support-focused marital theory conducted in a university setting.

Author Robert Rugel, PhD writes: “A spouse who is on the receiving end of support will feel loved and valued by the partner. That spouse will also know that the partner can be counted on to be there when help is needed. As a result, security and trust develop in the relationship.” You can be there to help spouses look at each other differently and learn to trust and support each other once more.

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