Hope-Focused Marriage Counseling - A Guide to Brief Therapy by Everett L Worthington Jr

Hope-Focused Marriage Counseling - A Guide to Brief Therapy by Everett L Worthington Jr

Guiding troubled couples is so difficult because divorce is so easy. But it can be done. Everett Worthington, one of today's most widely respected and widely published Christian counselors, offers a comprehensive manual for assisting couples overcommon rough spots and through serious problems in a manner that is compassionate and effective yet in a brief amount of time.His hope-focused (rather than problem-focused) approach enables couples to see that change is possible and gives them a newoutlook on the future. Combining this with a brief approach that addresses the realities of managed care and tight budgets, Worthington shows how to be strategic in each counseling situation by including teaching, training, exercises, forgiveness, modeling and motivation.At the heart of the book are dozens of interventions and homework assignments a counselor can choose from, including

• drawing on central values
• promoting confession and forgiveness
• strengthening communication
• aiding conflict resolution
• changing patterns of thinking
• developing intimacy
• cementing commitment

With over one hundred options presented, counselors, pastors and social workers are given the flexibility they need to address the specific situation of each client. Moving couples closer to what God intended their marriage to be is not easy, but it is possible.

L. Everett Everett L. Everett L. Ever Professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University, Worthington Jr. has a Ph.D. from the University of Missouri. He is a former executive director of the Templeton Foundation's A Campaign for Forgiveness Research and a certified clinical psychologist. Since the 1980s, Worthington has been researching forgiveness and has published over 200 articles and papers on forgiveness, marriage and family, psychotherapy, and virtue in a number of journals and magazines. He served on the editorial boards of numerous professional publications and was the founding editor of Marriage and Family: A Christian Journal.

He's appeared on Good Morning America, CNN, and The 700 Club, as well as in award-winning forgiveness documentaries including The Power of Forgiveness and The Big Question. He is the author of seventeen publications, including Forgiving and Reconciling, Hope-Focused Marriage Therapy, and Handbook of Forgiveness.