Amazon.com: Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples: Harville Hendrix: Books

Amazon.com
When Harville Hendrix writes about relationships, he discusses them not just as an educator and a therapist, but as a man who has himself been through a failed marriage. Hendrix felt the sting of his divorce intensely because he believed it signaled not only his failure as a husband but also his failure as a couples counselor. Investigating why his marriage dissolved led him to start looking into the psychology of love. Marriage, he ultimately discovered, is the "practice of becoming passionate friends."

As a result of his research, Hendrix created a therapy he calls Imago Relationship Therapy. In it, he combines what he's learned in a number of disciplines, including the behavioral sciences, depth psychology, cognitive therapy, and Gestalt therapy, to name just a few. He expounds upon this approach in Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples. His purpose in writing the book, he says, is "to share with you what I have learned about the psychology of love relationships, and to help you transform your relationship into a lasting source of love and companionship."

Divided into three sections, the book covers "The Unconscious Marriage," which details a marriage in which the remaining desires and behavior of childhood interfere with the current relationship; "The Conscious Marriage," which shows a marriage that fulfils those childhood needs in a positive manner; and a 10-week "course in relationship therapy, " which gives detailed exercises for you and your partner to follow in order to learn how to "replace confrontation and criticism ... with a healing process of mutual growth and support." The text is occasionally dry and technical; however, the information provided is valuable, the case studies are interesting, and the exercises are revealing and helpful. By utilizing his program, Hendrix hopes you too will be able to solve your marital difficulties without the expense of a therapist. --Jenny Brown

From AudioFile
For 17 years the author and his wife have been writing about how couples can express frustrated childhood needs constructively, instead of acting them out and poisoning any chance for happiness. Providing exercises that get everyone's cards on the table, his approach to marital communication is widely used across the country. In a clear abridgment, Dr. Hendrix covers the essentials of long-term relationships and what it takes to get past the most common forms of relationship dysfunction. The author's resonant baritone and utter lack of pretense would serve all personal growth audios, regardless of authorship. These ideas won't save every marriage, but they're worthwhile tools that anyone can understand and try. T.W. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Getting the Love You Want: A Guide for Couples (Paperback)

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