Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

   PDF

2. Bridging Emotion, Societal Discourse, and Couple Interaction in Clinical Practice

   • Carmen Knudson-Martin, Douglas Huenergardt

   Pages 1-13

3. When Therapy Challenges Patriarchy: Undoing Gendered Power in Heterosexual Couple Relationships

   • Carmen Knudson-Martin

   Pages 15-26

4. Toward Relational Empowerment: Interpersonal Neurobiology, Couples, and the Societal Context

   • Mona DeKoven Fishbane, Melissa A. Wells

   Pages 27-40

5. How Gender Discourses Hijack Couple Therapy—and How to Avoid It

   • Jessica L. ChenFeng, Aimee Galick

   Pages 41-52

6. Expanding the Lens: How SERT Therapists Develop Interventions that Address the Larger Context

   • Julie Estrella, Veronica P. Kuhn, Cassidy J. Freitas, Melissa A. Wells

   Pages 53-65

7. SERT Therapists’ Experience of Practicing Sociocultural Attunement

   • Mayuri (Mia) Pandit, Jessica L. ChenFeng, Young Joo Kang

   Pages 67-78

8. Relational Engagement in Heterosexual Couple Therapy: Helping Men Move from “I” to “We”

   • Sarah K. Samman, Carmen Knudson-Martin

   Pages 79-91

9. Building a Circle of Care in Same-Sex Couple Relationships: A Socio-Emotional Relational Approach

   • Jason C. Richards, Naveen Jonathan, Lana Kim

   Pages 93-105

10. Couple Therapy with Adult Survivors of Child Abuse: Gender, Power, and Trust

    • Melissa A. Wells, Veronica P. Kuhn

    Pages 107-119

11. Relational Justice: Addressing Gender and Power in Clinical Practices for Infidelity

    • Kirstee Williams, Lana Kim

    Pages 121-132

12. Relational Spirituality, Gender, and Power: Applications to Couple Therapy

    • Elisabeth Esmiol Wilson

    Pages 133-144

13. Engaging Power, Emotion, and Context in Couple Therapy: Lessons Learned

    • Carmen Knudson-Martin, Melissa A. Wells, Sarah K. Samman

    Pages 145-153

This path-breaking volume introduces Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy for clinical work with troubled couples. Practice-focused and engaging, it integrates real-world knowledge of the intersections of gender, culture, power, and identity in relationships with empirical findings on the neurobiology of attraction. Case examples detail the process of therapists in the moment as they develop both their clinical skills and their understanding of the social contexts fueling couples' difficulties. Applications of the method, which can be used with same-sex couples as well as heterosexual ones, are shown in addressing infidelity, tapping into partners' spirituality, and modeling and encouraging mutual respect and support.

Among the topics covered:

• Undoing gendered power in heterosexual couple relationships.
• Interpersonal neurobiology, couples, and the societal context.
• How gender discourses hijack couple therapy—and how it can be avoided.
• How SERT therapists develop interventions that address the larger context.
• Building a circle of care in same-sex couple relationships.
• Couple therapy with adult survivors of child abuse: gender, power, and trust.

Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy opens out practical new possibilities for marriage and family therapists, clinical psychologists, social workers, and counselors seeking ideas for more meaningful couples work.

• Couples Therapy
• Mutual Attunement
• Mutual Influence
• Shared Relational Responsibility
• Shared Vulnerability in Relationship Therapy
• Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy

“The authors introduce SERT as a new model for addressing couples’ issues in therapy. They present several examples of how to integrate relational ethics, a sociocultural perspective with the role of emotions, neurobiology, and spirituality into couples’ well functioning and satisfaction. The book is written with practitioners in mind … but it can be helpful for graduate students, especially at the doctoral level, looking for the best fit model for their practices.” (Ileana Ungureanu, Doody’s Book Reviews, September, 2015)

• Graduate School of Education and Counseling, Lewis & Clark College, Portland, USA

  Carmen Knudson-Martin

• Department of Counseling and Family Sciences, Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, USA

  Melissa A. Wells, Sarah K. Samman

Carmen Knudson-Martin, PhD, LMFT, is internationally recognized for her work regarding gender, marital equality, and relational health. She is a founder of Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy, an approach that attends to the micro-processes through which couple interaction, emotion, and socio-cultural context come together in the moment by moment of clinical process. Her book, Couples, Gender, and Power: Creating Change in Intimate Relationships, weaves a link between research and practice as she makes the influence of the larger social context in couple relationships come alive and offers a step by step template to guide clinical work, with an emphasis on the political and ethical implications of therapist actions. She and her research team have published over 50 articles articulating the importance of the larger social context on issues such as marital equality, relational development, postpartum depression, women’s health, and couple therapy. Carmen is a Professor and Director of the Marriage, Couple, and Family Therapy program at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. She serves on the Board of directors of the Family Process Institute and the American Family Therapy Academy is series editor of the SpringerBriefs in Family Therapy.