Since the pandemic began, many of us have been meeting with clients virtually, peering into their lives through the window of a screen. But what happens when the Zoom call ends, the laptop closes, and clients are left to deal with raw, complicated feelings in close proximity to the very person whose presence stirs up those feelings?

Hendrix and Helen Hunt's new book, out this spring, lays out how clinicians can use Imago to help couples focus on what the authors call the space-between—clients’ unmet needs from childhood and their unfulfilled yearnings within their marriage.

The Networker's senior writer, Lauren Dockett, sat down for a live conversation and Q&A with psychiatrist, therapist, and program consultant at the IFS Institute, Frank Anderson. They discussed parenting during a pandemic, using an IFS approach to talk with children, and much more.

There’s a profound change occurring in our relationship to space. In working remotely, it feels at times like we’re doing home visits. In video calls, we enter each other’s intimate spaces: kitchens and messy bedrooms. We’re not working from home—we’re working with home.

For the roughly 23 percent of married couples who don’t share a political affiliation, disagreements over a party or candidate can easily escalate into personal attacks that threaten an otherwise healthy relationship.

Couples therapist and bestselling author Esther Perel explains how life in quarantine is changing the dynamics of romantic relationships, and what this means for couples therapy.

Week after week, a client’s sessions focus on her issues with her partner. Her therapist thinks couples therapy would be tremendously helpful, but the partner refuses to attend. The therapist worries her client is just spinning her wheels in individual therapy, since all she talks about are the changes she wants to see in her relationship, and isn't sure how to help her. Five therapists share how they'd proceed.

It’s important to recognize that a trauma bond doesn’t have to play out as overt, obvious toxicity or abuse. So many people in relationships have learned to be loved in ways that are transactional—“If you do this for me, I’ll comfort you,” or “If you play this role, I’ll show you affection”—and it's now exhausting them. Therapist and researcher Laura Copley shares how to help clients interrupt these unhealthy, even dangerous, relational patterns.

I’ve spent a long time doing therapy with conflict-avoidant men. Working with them isn’t always easy, but I’ve developed a three-part road map that’s helped me expedite what can often be a lengthy and difficult process. This is the story of a particular couple that fundamentally shaped my approach.

What does Attachment Theory tell us? That emotion is the most powerful force in the therapy room, says couples therapist Sue Johnson, developer of Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). Here, she explains how to establish a safe, supportive connection with the client and facilitate that same connection between partners in treatment.