Like gardens, all relationships require care, patience, and nurturing to flourish. Because we are beset with the demands and frustrations of daily life, however, we often put off the hard work and care that are needed to ensure bountiful and harmonious marriage. As a result, seemingly minor tensions and problems that simmer beneath the surface can become major difficulties that affect the stability of the union. Written by an experienced marital therapist, How's Your Marriage? is an indispensable guide that can help you and your partner build a lasting, healthy relationship while easing tensions and resolving troublesome issues. Using the insight gained from over two decades of practicing couples therapy, Dr. Michael Myers examines common difficulties -- sex, life-cycle changes, infidelity, drinking, mental illness, and concerns about children -- and how these difficulties can affect your marriage. He offers sage advice and guidance on how you can resolve these problems while at the same time enhancing communication with your spouse, an essential part of a solid, loving, and fulfilling relationship. Dr. Myers also uses numerous case examples and question-and-answer sections to illustrate common complaints and ways to resolve them. He examines the role gender plays in developing the different perceptions and misunderstandings that lie at the root of so many relationship problems and offers practical solutions to these differences. How's Your Marriage? explains how you can detect the warning signs of possible marital woe and the steps you can take to resolve these problems at their source. To allay the anxiety that you may have regarding marital therapy, Dr. Myers discusses therapy in great detail. He describes the different therapeutic techniques and the types of therapists who use them. He also includes lists of suggested readings, self-help groups, and national associations for marriage therapists that can help you take the right steps to resolving problems or troubles in your marriage. Armed with this advice and guidance, you and your partner can work together to strengthen and improve your relationship, to weather the inevitable troubles that will occur over the course of your marriage, and to create a loving, lasting, and harmonious union. You will come away from this book with new understanding, courage, and hope. This is truly a book that you and your partner cannot be without.
Introduction. Communication. Marriage and the life cycle. Sexual problems. Extramarital relationships. Excessive drinking in marriage. Psychiatric illness and marriage. The role of children in marital disharmony. What about separation and divorce? What you can do to help yourselves. Basic information about marital therapy. Marital therapy: benefits and barriers. The outcome: expectations and reality. Index.
