This issue doesn’t try to resolve all the myriad challenges of couples work. Instead, it opens up a conversation about the things couples therapists rarely talk about with clients or with each other, a conversation that we need to encourage if our profession is to keep its cultural relevance.

By questioning some of the fundamental premises of traditional marriage, couples therapist Esther Perel has become, at least for the moment, psychotherapy’s public face and most quotable voice. But what is she saying that’s so intriguing and makes her stand out from all the other relationship experts our field produces?

Esther Perel traces the development of her approach and the wider response to her ideas about sexuality and intimacy.

The election of Donald Trump and the resurgence of populism throughout the West were fueled by a renewed pull toward certain notions of traditional masculinity. Although therapists have remained largely silent about this revival of patriarchy in the culture, is neutrality really in the best interests of our clients?

Despite all the intellectual excitement it generated, the hard truth is that, so far, the systems revolution hasn’t led to very effective ways of doing therapy. Fortunately, a second revolution is quietly taking shape—a new wave of systems theory and therapy—that marries the wisdom of clinical intuition with the rigors of scientific inquiry.

Although they make up nearly a quarter of the population, children are rarely a central part of therapists’ practices. Why? The most effective interventions are based in play, an approach that seems less sophisticated than purportedly deep and transformative adult-centered talk therapies. It’s time to give play therapy the fuller attention and expanded application that it deserves.

The rise of text therapy is raising ethical questions for its practitioners.

Becoming a sport psychologist requires throwing away much of the rule book for starting a more traditional practice.

Helping families move past stalemates often means teaching parents to earn their children’s respect.

Using drugs like MDMA (aka Ecstasy) may be the new frontier of trauma treatment.

The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About Our Power to Change Others. 

After a lifetime of conflict, a son faces the question of what he owes his mother.