Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy

This authoritative reference assembles prominent international experts from psychology, social work, and counseling to summarize the current state of couple and family therapy knowledge in a clear A-Z format. Its sweeping range of entries covers major concepts, theories, models, approaches, intervention strategies, and prominent contributors associated with couple and family therapy. The Encyclopedia provides family and couple context for treating varied problems and disorders, understanding special client populations, and approaching emerging issues in the field, consolidating this wide array of knowledge into a useful resource for clinicians and therapists across clinical settings, theoretical orientations, and specialties.

Asampling of topics included in the Encyclopedia:

• Acceptance versus behavior change in couple and family therapy
  
• Collaborative and dialogic therapy with couples and families
  
• Integrative treatment for infidelity
  
• Live supervision in couple and family therapy
  
• Postmodern approaches in the use of genograms
  
• Split alliance in couple and family therapy
  
• Transgender couples and families
  

The first comprehensive reference work of its kind, the Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy incorporates seven decades of innovative developments in the fields of couple and family therapy into one convenient resource. It is a definitive reference for therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and counselors, whether couple and family therapy is their main field or one of many modalities used in practice.

Jay Lebow is Clinical Professor of Psychology and a senior therapist at the Family Institute at Northwestern and Northwestern University. Since 2012, he has been editor in chief of the journal, Family Process. He has engaged in clinical practice, supervision, and research on couple and family therapy for over thirty years, and is board certified in family psychology and an approved supervisor and clinical member of American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. He is the author of 6 books (including the recent Couple and Family Therapy: An Integrative Map of the Territory) and 100 book chapters and articles, most of which focus on practice of couple and family therapy, the relationship of research and practice, integrative practice, and intervention strategies with divorcing families. He served for many years on the Board of Directors and as a committee chair of the American Family Therapy Academy and is a past president of the Society for Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association. He is this year’s recipient of AFTA’s Lifetime Achievement Award and earlier the Society of Family Psychology’s award for Family Psychologist of the year.

Anthony L. Chambers, Ph.D., ABPP, is the Chief Academic Officer and a Board Certified Couple and Family Psychologist on staff at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. Dr. Chambers is also the Director of Northwestern University’s Center for Applied Psychological and Family Studies and is a Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychology. Previously,Dr. Chambers has been the Director of both the Couple Therapy program and the Postdoctoral Fellowship program in Couple and Family Psychology (CFP) at The Family Institute. Dr. Chambers is the immediate Past-President for the American Psychological Association’s (APA) Society for Couple and Family Psychology, which is the premiere national organization for Couple and Family Psychologists.

Dr. Chambers completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Virginia, and completed his APA approved internship and residency at Harvard Medical School & Massachusetts General Hospital. Dr. Chambers also completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship specializing in the translation of science into practice in the treatment of couples at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. Towards that end, Dr. Chambers engages in scholarly writing, teaching and public speaking aimed at disseminating the latest knowledge about how to have a healthy relationship. He is the author of numerous book chapters, journal articles, and national presentations devoted to summarizing the science behind assessing and treating common couples’ problems (i.e., communication, trust, intimacy, parenting, conflict resolution).

Dr. Chambers’ professional accomplishments have resulted in becoming a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and its Division of Couple and Family Psychology, a Fellow of the American Academy of Couple and Family Psychology, and a Diplomat of the American Board of Couple and Family Psychology. Dr. Chambers is also on the Board of Directors of several academic and professional organizations devoted to strengthening couples and families, including the Family Process Institute. He serves on the editorial board for the journal Family Process, and is the Associate Editor for the Society of Couple and Family Psychology’s flagship journal Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice. Finally, Dr. Chambers is one of the few psychologists nationwide board certified in treating couples, and he maintains an active clinical practice where he sees approximately 20 couples per week. He is celebrating 15 years of marriage and has a beautiful daughter. 

Douglas Breunlin currently is Director of the Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy program at The Family Institute at Northwestern University. In addition, he is a clinicalprofessor of Psychology at Northwestern and holds the McCormick Tribune Foundation Chair in Marriage and Family Therapy. He is a fellow, approved supervisor and Clinical Member of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Prior to joining The Family Institute, Mr. Breunlin was the director of the Family Systems Program at the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago. He also consulted for 12 years to Cook County Hospital's Departments of Pediatrics and Family Practice, and has provided consultation to mental health centers, special education programs and residential facilities. He serves on the editorial boards of Family Process and The Journal of Family Therapy. He is co-author (with Schwartz and MacKune-Karrer) of Metaframeworks: Transcending the Models of Family Therapy; editor of Stages: Patterns of Change Over Time; co-editor of the Handbook of Family Therapy Training and Supervision (with co-editors Liddle and Schwartz). With William Pinsof, William Russell andJay Lebow, Mr. Breunlin has created and published an integrative perspective for practicing therapy known as "Integrative Problem Centered Metaframeworks." He has written more than 50 articles. Mr. Breunlin conducts workshops nationally and abroad.