Marriage Counseling

by Worthington, Everett L., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780830817696
• ISBN10: 0830817697
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1989-06-01
• Publisher: Ivp Academic

Summary

Marriages are in trouble today. That is clear. Effective mothods of combating this trend are less evident. Counselors, pastors and social workers need more than mere theories or mere moralizing. They need a practical and comprehensive model for understanding couples and their problems. They need a throughly Christian perspective that is biblical, compassionate and human.Everett Worthington provides this in an integrated, biblically based theory of marriage and marriage therapy with analysis at three levels: the individual, the couple and the family. The model he has constructed, with techniques drawn from the major psychological schools, is standard enough to guide counselors in actual interventions and powerful enough to produce change.A thoroughgoing overview of the assessment process includes practical, workable guidelines for: creating realistic, mutually-agreeable goals for counselor and clients; estimating the number of sessions needed to reach those goals; and planning the actual assessment, intervention and termination sessions.Next Worthington offers specific techniques for enhancing cooperative change, intimacy, communication, conflict resolution and forgiveness within the marriage. But keeping couples from slipping back into old patterns is one of the counselor's most difficult tasks. So Worthington concludes with suggestions for solidifying change and effectively concluding the counseling relationship.Here is a text that will be a standard for counselors, pastors and mental health professionals in the years to come.

Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Tables

Preface

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Need for Marriage Counseling by and for Christians

Understanding Marriage

Individuals and Their Coupling

Principles of Marriage within the Family

The Marriage throughout the Family Life Cycle

Early Phase of Counseling Troubled Marriages

Overview of Counseling: Assessment, Invtervention and Termination

Joining the Marriage

Assessing the Marriage

Setting Goals

Conducting Assessment and Feedback Sessions

Changing Troubled Marriages

Promoting Change Through Counseling

Changing Intimacy

Changing Communication

Changing Conflict

Changing Hurt, Blame and Sin

Promoting Commitment

Consolitdating Changes

Termination

Commitment of the Counselor

Appendix: Current Theories of Marriage Counseling

Notes

Subject Index

Author Index

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