Intimate Couple

As important as intimacy is in our personal and professional lives, intimacy as a theoretical and clinical factor still remains a phenomenon. Contributors to this work examine the many definitions of intimacy, putting forth a provocative discussion of the multi-faceted topic and offering the best possible clinical methods of creating intimacy and addressing its challenges.

As important as intimacy is in our personal and professional lives, intimacy as a theoretical and clinical factor still remains a phenomenon. Contributors to this work examine the many definitions of intimacy, putting forth a provocative discussion of the multi-faceted topic and offering the best possible clinical methods of creating intimacy and addressing its challenges.

The Tenacity of the Couple-Norm explores the ongoing strength and insidious grip of couple-normativity across changing landscapes of law, policy and everyday life in four contrasting national contexts: the UK, Bulgaria, Norway and Portugal. By investigating how the couple-norm is lived and experienced, how it has changed over time, and how it varies between places and social groups, this book provides a detailed analysis of changing intimate citizenship regimes in Europe, and makes a major intervention in understandings of the contemporary condition of personal life. The authors develop the feminist concept of ‘intimate citizenship’ and propose the new concept of ‘intimate citizenship regime’, offering a study of intimate citizenship regimes as normative systems that have been undergoing profound change in recent decades. Against the backdrop of processes of de-patriarchalization, liberalization, pluralization and homonormalization, the ongoing potency of the couple-norm becomes ever clearer.

Couples and families worldwide have a constant electronic connection to others, a fact that is influencing the concerns and issues they bring to therapy. The authors of this resource help mental health practitioners to better deal with concerns such as online infidelity, online dating, internet addictions, cyber bulling, and many more by introducing the Couple and Family Technology (CFT) framework, a multi-theoretical approach that doesn’t require clinicians to change their preferred clinical approach. The CFT framework acknowledges the ways in which couples navigate their relationship with technology and a partner simultaneously, and it attends to, and in some cases incorporates the role of technology in therapeutic ways. Included in the authors’ discussion of how different technologies affect relationships is • a survey of what individuals’ motivations of usage are • an examination of the specific issues that emerge in treatment • a study of the risks particularly relevant to intimate relationships, and • an introduction of the first-ever technology-based genogram. They also examine technological usage across different developmental points in a couple’s lifespan, with attention given throughout to people from various cultural backgrounds. Along with the CFT framework, the authors also introduce a new discipline of family research: Couple and Family Technology. This discipline integrates three broad perspectives in family science and helps therapists maintain a systemic focus in assessing and treating couples where issues of the Internet and new media are problematic. Online resources can be accessed by purchasers of the book and include videos, additional case studies, glossary, and forms.

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This breakthrough handbook for mental health professionals and educators offers practical, hands-on information for conducting assessments and providing treatments that take the entire family system into account. Rich with research that shows women are abusive within relationships at rates comparable to men, the book eschews the field's reliance on traditional domestic violence theory and treatment, which favors violence interventions for men and victim services for women and ignores the dynamics of the majority of violent relationships. Thus, the author identifies and measures protocols that help practitioners make accurate assessments for both men and women and then carefully selects the treatment modality and curricula for group, couples, and/or individual work that will help clients break their particular cycle of violence while ensuring victim safety.

Until recently, domestic violence, as it has been referred to, was a problem to be dealt with inside the family. In this ground-breaking work, Hattery's unique approach provides a detailed theoretical discussion of race, class, and gender-effects on intimate partner violence and a thoughtful discussion of the interactions of these factors.

Since the 1970s the issue of intimate partner violence (IPV) has been explained through the patriarchal desire of men to control and dominate women, but this gendered perspective limits both our understanding of IPV and its treatment. Intimate Partner Violence: New Perspectives in Research and Practice is the first book of its kind to present a detailed and rigorous critique of current domestic violence research and practice within the same volume. In this challenging new text, with contributions from the UK, the US, and Canada, the subject is assessed from a more holistic position. It provides a critical analysis of the issue of domestic violence including issues that are often not part of the mainstream discussion. Each of the chapters tackles a different area of research or practice, from a critical review of contemporary topics in domestic violence research, including a critical review of men’s use of violence in relationships, a consideration of male victims, IPV within the LGBTQ+ community, perceptions of perpetrators and victims, and IPV within adolescent populations. The second half of the book examines challenges and opportunities for professionals working in the field and includes an analysis of an evidence informed perpetrator programme, the challenges faced working with male victims, and a discussion of the impact of domestic violence on children. Culminating with a series of evidence-based recommendations to bridge the divide between academic and practitioner stakeholders and to inform future working practices, this is an essential resource for students and practitioners alike.