EP09 Dialogue 07 – Marital Enhancement – Harville Hendrix, MD and Susan Johnson, EdD
Educational Objective: Given a topic, to describe the differing approaches to psychotherapy, and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
This presentation explores the biology and developmental psychology of love, sex, sexual orientation, commitment and marriage. Focus is on research and clinical applications.
Several new studies have uncovered a seismatic shift that has taken place regarding the purpose and practice of marriage. These research findings explain many of the difficulties we face behind the therapy door. Come get a research update and clinical applications for couple's therapy. Lecture, video, handouts, discussion, demonstration will be utilized.
No other aspect in the lives of couples, today as well as yesterday, generates more fascination, gossip and fear as infidelity. In our society, sexual infidelity is mostly seen as a symptom of a relationship gone awry. The revelation of an affair can trigger a crisis that shakes the very foundation of trust and connection in the couple. The purpose of this workshop is to present a multi-cultural, non-judgmental perspective to probe the meanings of affairs, rethink fidelity, and address the complexities of marriage, sex, intimacy, and monogamy. We will look at the value and the price of honesty and truth telling, and explore the circuitous ways affairs aim to stabilize a marriage and prevent the dissolution of the family.
One in three couples experience a sexual desire gap, a difference leads to infidelity or divorce. Additionally, the compelling statistic that one out of ten couples has a sexless marriage makes it apparent why so many couples are losing touch. Learn how to help couples bring passion back into marriage. Also, learn how to help couples heal from infidelity.
This lecture will posit that marriage is alive and well and evolving into a new form, replacing a personal, psychological marriage focused on the satisfaction of individual need with a partnership marriage that produces healing and evokes psychological and spiritual growth. This transition is an instance of a shift from the "individual paradigm "to the "relational paradigm."
The traditional marriage of our parents, grandparents and before was the companionable marriage. This lecture introduces a new 21st Century skill-set, relationship empowerment, which enables women to stand up for increased closeness in their relationships, while helping men understand new demands and how to meet them successfully.
It is said that one in three couples experience a sexual desire gap, a difference that often wrecks havoc in every aspect of marital life. When you add to this the compelling statistic that one out of ten couples has a sexless marriage, it's easy to understand why so many couples are losing tough both literally and figuratively. A marriage that is void of healthy intimacy and physical connection risks divorce and/or infidelity. Learn what you can do to help couples bridge the desire gap and bring passion back to marriage, and also help couples heal from infidelity.
The Gottmans will review research that shows that when the first baby arrives, up to 67% of couples go through a tragic deterioration in the quality of their relationship, which usually begins the cascade toward divorce. Their research outlines the consistent phenomena in this transition, and how the minority of marriages do manage to succeed in avoiding this tragedy. The Gottmans will describe a new approach to the problem and present the results of randomized clinical trial preventative intervention with one-year follow-up data on that intervention.