Couples in Treatment: Techniques and Approaches for Effective Practice

by Gerald R. Weeks

This third edition of Couples in Treatment helps readers conceptualize and treat couples from multiple perspectives and with a multitude of techniques. The authors do not advocate any single approach to couple therapy and instead present basic principles and techniques with wide-ranging applicability and the power to invite change, making this the most useful text on integrative, systemic couple therapy.
Throughout the book the authors consider the individual, interactional, and intergenerational systems of any case. Gerald Weeks’ Intersystems Model, a comprehensive, integrative, and contextual meta framework, can be superimposed over existing therapy approaches. It emphasizes principles of therapy and can facilitate assessing, conceptualizing couples’ problems, and providing helpful interventions. Couple therapists are encouraged to utilize the principles in this book to enhance their therapeutic process and fit their approach to the client, rather than forcing the client to fit their theory.

Genres: Psychology

354 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 1992

Reviews

[K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, excellent, excellent. I learned so much from this book, to the point where even though the information was specifically geared toward couples counseling, I feel that much of it would be useful in individual sessions.

The authors say in the afterword: "The goal was to provide the reader with an easy to use guidebook for working with couples without presenting too much theory, supporting research, or jargon. We wanted to provide clinicians at all levels who are learning to work with couples with easily digested principles and techniques that would be effective." (I wish more psychology authors thought this way!)

The authors definitely accomplished their goal. I think it's good to come to this book, and to practicing couples counseling, with a previously acquired solid grounding in marital and family therapy theory to help you conceptualize couples' cases in a meaningful way (I used Nichols & Schwartz's book on Family Therapy when I taught, and found it excellent for that purpose); however, for the actual hands-on work that you do in the office, this book is terrific. It provided information on topics which are universally relevant to couples work, such as enhancing intimacy, communication techniques, conflict resolution, etc., as well as specific areas of focus such as working with highly reactive and narcissistically wounded couples and treating the extramarital affair. I found all of it highly relevant and practical.

[Joshua · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent resource to refer back to. Imminently practical, and with many great suggestions for the systems and strategic minded couple's therapist.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Couples 554

[Christina Beebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a valuable read in terms of common couples issues, why they happen, and how to apply therapy.

[Brennan · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was sent this book by the publisher to consider adoption for my couple therapy class. So I read it in preparation for my class this semester. I will not adopt it for my students. It's just not worth their time or energies. There are much better books out there. It did provide me with some good insights on maintaining a balance in therapy between both partners. Otherwise, the information is just an amalgam of information without a real theoretical background or framework. And it is actually quite dense and not very insightful nor accessible or practical. The more I write about it, the more I am realizing how much I disliked it after all - so in light of that, I just changed my review from 2 starts to 1.