Couples

The Unexplored Issues

Working with Cross-Cultural Couples

Cross-cultural couples face challenges that often aren’t addressed in therapy. Read more

VIDEO: Julie Gottman on Making Couples' Life Dreams Come True

The Importance of Creating "Shared Meaning"

According to renowned couples therapist Julie Gottman, one of the main predictors of a romantic relationship's success or failure is how well partners can... Read more

Affair Repair

Lessons on Changing Directions

Couples therapy can be difficult and dicey, especially when there’s an affair in the mix. To keep afloat in the emotional tumult, most therapists cling to... Read more

Is It Possible to Divorce Well?

Three Buddhist Practices for Helping Partners Split Amicably

Three simple steps from Buddhism to help hostile spouses cultivate a spirit of nonviolence, generosity, and compassion toward their ex-partners. Read more

Then, Now & Tomorrow

Oral Histories of Psychotherapy 1978-2017

A group of innovators and leaders look back over different realms of therapeutic practice and offer their view of the eureka moments, the mistakes and... Read more

Turns in the Road

Highlights from the Networker Journey

Out of all the hundreds and hundreds of articles that have appeared in the Networker over the past four decades, we’ve chosen a small sampling that captures... Read more

VIDEO: Julie Gottman on Why There's a Right Way for Couples to Argue

Breaking Down the Four Points of the "Conflict Blueprint"

Are you working with partners who can't seem to escape cycles of criticism, contempt, defensiveness, and stonewalling? According to renowned couples therapist... Read more

VIDEO: Susan Johnson on the Power of Emotion

The Secret Ingredient in Good Therapy

Emotion is the most important motivating force bringing clients to our offices in the first place. Nevertheless, therapists are often strangely queasy in the... Read more

Teaching Couples to Tap

How to Use Acupoints to Overcome Blocks to Intimacy

Could eliminating blocks in couples therapy be as simple as learning where to tap? Read more

The Five Love Languages

Translating Intention into Connection

An interview with the author of The 5 Love Languages, a book that's sold over 8 million copies, explains its remarkable success. Read more

VIDEO: Making the Case for the Emotional Man

Pat Love Explains Why We Need to Rethink the "Empathy Gap"

Have you ever wondered if some men in your practice are simply unable to listen, connect, and empathize with their partners? According to Pat Love, it’s more... Read more

VIDEO: When One Partner Wants Out

Discernment Counseling for the Mixed-Agenda Couple

In at least 30 percent of couples who come to therapy, partners enter the consulting room with different agendas---one wants a divorce, the other wants to save... Read more

VIDEO: Susan Johnson on Attachment Issues in the Bedroom

How to Help Couples Have "Hold Me Tight" Conversations

In a brief video, Susan explains how to create moments of emotional sharing so deep that they automatically translate into couples' lives. Read more

The Mystery of Eroticism

Rethinking Conventional Wisdom

It’s long been the conventional wisdom among couples therapists that if couples fix the emotional issues in their relationship, their sexual lives will... Read more

The Remarriage Triangle

Working with Later-Life Recouplers and their Grown Children

Therapists need to be prepared to go against the conventional clinical wisdom in helping later-life recouplers and stepfamilies handle the unique challenges... Read more

The Secret to Helping Agitated Couples Reel in Emotional Arousal

How Oxytocin Stimulates Trust and Connection, and Helps Relationships Heal

When clients are emotionally worked up, caught in fight-flight-freeze mode, all their hard-earned skills in empathic listening and responsible (and responsive... Read more

Lessons from the Love Lab

The Science of Couples Therapy

The pioneers who birthed couples and family therapy never paused to scienti cally study the relationships they treated. Now, after systematically observing and... Read more

Pornography on the Rise: A Growing Mental Health Problem

Wendy Maltz on the Need to Address Porn Addiction as a Public Health Threat

Nearly 40 million Americans visit Internet porn sites at least once a month. Not surprisingly, concerns about the effect of porn on individuals and... Read more

Are you a therapist that's "marriage friendly?" It's the inclination towards helping clients in good relationships stay together. Read more

At this moment in history, we seem to be in a divorce-busting mode, relatively speaking, and so fewer therapists are likely to tacitly encourage divorce as... Read more

Rowing to Nowhere

When is Enough Enough?

A therapist shares how to walk with a client couple through to their divorce and then let them go. Read more

The Intentional Divorce

Helping Couples Let Go with Dignity

The therapist's job is to help client couples close one door and open another. Read more

While many therapists are skeptical of open relationships, some believe that, with the right couple, they can work. Read more

Brave New Couples

What Can Science Tell Us about the Changing Face of Couplehood Today?

Susan Johnson, developer of Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, discusses what the science of love says about what couples can expect when they rebel too much... Read more

VIDEO: Men and Intimacy

A Relational Approach to Helping Male Clients

According to Patrick Dougherty, the biggest problem men have in psychotherapy isn’t that intimacy and the language of emotion is such foreign territory, but... Read more

Knowing When to Push

Balancing Safety and Challenge

When a client has been sexually abused, it can be difficult to find the balance between creating safety and challenging old patterns. Read more

Larger than Life

Marianne Walters Was Family Therapy's Foremost Feminist

Marianne Walters didn't invent a brilliant new therapeutic paradigm, publish a large and magisterial body of research, or establish her own unique school of... Read more

Reinventing Couplehood

Intimacy and Commitment in the Age of Consumer Marriage

Esther Perel, a couples therapist whose TED talk has had more than 5 million views, believes that it’s time to challenge the mismatch between the romantic... Read more

What’s the true nature of your feelings for your lover? An honest answer to that question is what a therapist needs in order to help a couple decide how to... Read more

The Ray Rice case evokes a discussion of the many faces of domestic violence. Read more