This Reading Course will examine both sides of the controversy surrounding the therapist's role in helping couples make the decision whether or not to divorce.William Doherty examines the importance of therapists spelling out their values about marriage to both their clients and themselves. Barry McCarthy focuses on the importance of not assuming that all marriages can be saved. An interview with Judith Wallerstein looks at the profound effect of her 30 year research study, while Jay Lebow puts her work in the context of other divorce researchers. Jerome Price investigates the common phenomenon of couples officially divorced but emotionally married.
Course Readings
Couples on the Brink: Stopping the Marriage-Go-Round by Marian Sandmaier
The Fatally Flawed Marriage by Barry McCarthy
Getting Uncoupled: Anger Can Bind A Marriage Long After Divorce by Jerome Price
The Marriage-Preservation Debate: Reexamining the Research on Divorce by Jay Lebow
Judith Wallerstein and the Great Divorce Debate by Rob Waters
Creating the Good Divorce by Maria Isaacs
When Same-Sex Couples Divorce: For Gays and Lesbians, Splitting Up Can Create a Crisis of Self-Doubt by Laura Markowitz
Learning Objectives
1. Name three common but harmful responses by therapists to couples on the brink
2. Discuss three factors that keep divorced couples attached
3. Describe the unique issues of same-sex couples considering divorce




By Rich Simon As therapists, many of us practice in two different worlds. In the first, we see polite, well-behaved, articulate clients with solid values. They engage fully in therapy, talk cogently about their problems, listen attentively to our responses, make reasonably good-faith efforts to follow our suggestions, and sooner or later get better. No wonder we genuinely like these people!
By Rich Simon A thousand years ago, during the palmy days of generous insurance reimbursement, therapists could maintain the illusion that, since therapy was paid for by an unseen hidden hand, clinical practice was somehow untouched by the tacky subject of money. Even the style of therapy reflected this disjunction: 

