Customer Reviews

Couples in Treatment

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Gerald Weeks and Stephen Treat present "...the basic techniques, methods, and strategies needed by the couples therapist. (p. ix)" The text is intended to be a practical guide, not a theoretical treatment, and to emphasize both growth and enhanced intimacy as goals in therapy.
Principles and strategies
Weeks and Treat begin from the premise that effective therapy can draw on a variety of systemic techniques, as well as individual interventions. They call this the "intersystems" approach to therapy. While the first half of the book draws heavily on systemic and strategic frames for the therapeutic process. The second half of the book introduces eight distinct strategies for change, including a wide range of therapeutic modalities.
The preface summarizes the contribution of each chapter in a short paragraph (pp. ix--xi). The book is divided into two parts:
Basic principles for doing couples therapy
Part 1 contains seven chapters discussing basic principles, including...
* assessment and treatment plan formulation,
* orienting couples to therapy,
* balancing interventions among individuals,
* systemic interventions (as opposed to linear),
* attending to process, not just content,
* effective focus and managing intensity, and
* including individual modalities and interventions in systemic therapy.
Standard techniques and strategies
Part 2 focuses on eight different techniques and strategies, including...
* enhancing intimacy, not just problem-solving,
* reframing as a basic therapeutic strategy,
* communication techniques and coaching,
* conflict intervention and management,
* cognitive strategies, including RET and cognitive therapy,
* styles of contracting within marriage,
* attention to feelings as a therapeutic focus, and
* use of assignments outside of therapeutic sessions.
Commentary
This book fits its description as an introduction or review of basic couples therapy. By focusing on the overall process of therapy in the first half, Weeks and Treat assure that therapists keep the main thing the main thing--helping couples make the changes that brought them to therapy. In the second half of the book, they illustrate how to incorporate a variety of systemic and individual treatment modalities into their systemic frame. By reframing these techniques as all being valid contributors to the change process, they avoid the historic criticism that each systemic thinker recasts all of therapy according to their particular lens.
Still, they find ample room to promote their own contributions, including frequent references to their own previous published works, alone and with collaborators. The identification of enhanced intimacy as an underlying goal for couples' therapy in chapter 8 seems common sense, but can easily be lost by problem- or solution-focused therapists.
Obviously there are more techniques that could be discussed, and more explicit references to the primary literature could be included. For instance, there is not much focus on...
* narrative therapies, and the use of stories, both personal and metaphorical,
* solution-focused and brief therapies, which might be contrasted by their parsimonious approach to an aggregative intersystems model,
* multi-generational and developmental perspectives, which are more longitudinal in focus rather than present-focused, or
* paradoxical double binds, with their emphasis on radical breakthroughs.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed the book, particularly as a text which engages therapists and potential therapists immediately in the pragmatics of doing marital and couples therapy, regardless of their previous exposure to theory or technique.

Working with couples is always intriguing and challenging. No matter how experienced a therapist, the uniqueness of each couple's journey brings opportunities to learn and grow additional insights as therapist. This book does that for you! If you ever wandered alone in a session and wanted some professional camaraderie, this book does that for you. It offers reassurance too! First, assess the couple, their situation, their issues. Don't let the couple's frantic desire for immediate relief stand in the way of an accurate assessment...or therapy could end too soon before given the opportunity to help. Why is this good advice? Any experienced clinician can tell you it's too easy to jump in right away and help the couple "fix" the presenting problem without delving into the issues underneath the initial problem.

The author also teaches how to work with low to high conflict couples and landmines to avoid. Not to just focus on the negatives, this book offers a wealth of positive insights and skills in working the rewarding field of couples therapy. No matter if you're a novice therapist or an experienced one, you'll be grateful to have this book to reaffirm your work and add new ideas to your healthy therapeutic tools. Gail Olson, PhD, LIMHP, NCC Omaha, NE

I have really enjoyed this book. Its a great resource for new therapists wondering what to do with a couple. The authors talk from a systemic perspective and sometimes are a little more behavioral than I prefer, but all in all, I find the book to be a useful resource. Especially useful is the offering of example of what to say, or what not to say, giving concrete meaning to what are often abstract concepts for treatment.
I highly recommend this book for beginning therapists. Also, for those wondering what couples therapy (or any therapy for that matter) entails and what the role of the therapist can be.

Very easy to read if you are not familiar with the topic. Shares a lot if important information. I would recommend this book to others.