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COUNSELING COUPLES IN CONFLICT: A RELATIONAL RESTORATION MODEL. James N. Sells and Mark A. Yarhouse, Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2011. Pp 299.
After teaching a graduate psychology course on conflict management for several years, two things have become very clear to me: (a) conflict is inevitable in all relationships, and (b) counselors generally dislike dealing with conflict in any form. Obviously, this becomes problematic when clients seek counseling because of conflict in their lives. Couples counseling can be especially problematic for clinicians because couples often bring their conflicts to their sessions, increasing the intensity of the counseling experience.
James Sells and Mark Yarhouse seem quite aware of this predicament; therefore, their new book, Counseling Couples in Conflict: A Relational Restoration Model, is designed to help pastors and Christian counselors be more successful when working with couples who are experiencing destructive conflicts. According to Sells and Yarhouse:
We approach this task with you as two psychologists who work with families and who seek to integrate our Christian faith with the practice of therapy. Our goal is to offer our knowledge of the therapeutic process, drawn from multiple family systems theories, including Contextual, Emotion Focused and Object Relations Family Therapy. Beyond knowledge,...