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Brief Behavioral Marital Therapy

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Handbook of the Brief Psychotherapies

Part of the book series: Applied Clinical Psychology ((NSSB))

Abstract

An impressive body of evidence has accumulated in recent years implicating marital problems with physical health problems (Kiecolt-Glaser et al., 1987; Levenson & Gottman, 1985) and a variety of major psychiatric disorders, including depression, agoraphobia, alcoholism (Jacobson, Holtzworth-Munroe, & Schmaling, 1989), and behavior problems in children (Emery, 1982; Margolin, 1981b). Marital disruption is one of life’s most stressful events (Bloom, Asher, & White, 1978; Holmes & Rahe, 1967), and individuals who are experiencing mar ital difficulties are more likely to report a family history of marital problems (Overall, Henry, & Woodward, 1974). Thus the cost of marital distress to society is enormous, and it is therefore not surprising that there has been great effort spent on developing interventions and techniques designed to alleviate marital distress.

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Whisman, M.A., Jacobson, N.S. (1990). Brief Behavioral Marital Therapy. In: Wells, R.A., Giannetti, V.J. (eds) Handbook of the Brief Psychotherapies. Applied Clinical Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-2127-7_15

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