Real-World Couple Counseling and Therapy: An Introductory Guide

Real-World Couple Counseling and Therapy: An Introductory Guide provides practitioners with an inclusive exploration of the unique features, challenges, and opportunities of contemporary couple counseling. Integrating CBT, existential, and systems approaches, and based on best available research, the text offers guidelines for beginning couple therapists along with breadth and depth of coverage. Comprehensive and pragmatic, it examines the essence of the field: assessment, ethics, treatment planning, effective interventions, pitfalls, and best practices.

Rich with lively examples, vignettes, and dialogues throughout, several unique features are synthesized throughout the text: a perspective from almost a century of experience doing and teaching graduate-level couple therapy, a unique connection between stages of development and appropriate interventions, an integrated exploration of the effects of culture and gender, a unique focus on male clients in couple work, and the "point-counterpoint" perspectives of CBT and existential approaches.

Real-World Couple Counseling and Therapy contains essential information for 21st century practitioners and is ideal for graduate courses and practitioners in counseling, therapy, and social work.

Jerrold Lee Shapiro, Ph.D. , is a professor of counseling psychology at Santa Clara University, a retired licensed clinical psychologist, and a Fellow of the American Psychological Association. He earned a B.A. at Colby College, a master’s degree from Northwestern University, and his doctorate from the University of Waterloo. Dr. Shapiro has been leading groups and studying group process for over fifty years. He has authored and coauthored numerous publications within the field of psychology, including 13 books, over 150 journal articles and book chapters, and videos and software programs. He has won awards for teaching, writing, and research and is a frequent presenter at professional conferences.

Terence Patterson, Ed.D., ABPP is a licensed psychologist, an APA Fellow, and Board-certified in Couple & Family Psychology. He has been a tenured professor at the University of San Francisco, president of two couple and family therapy organizations, and a frequent presenter, author, reviewer, and blogger on professional ethics and couple therapy.