THEORIES AND THERAPIES OF MARRIAGE COUNSELLING

Marriage counselling should not be done haphazardly. The act of helping troubled couples and dysfunctional families requires a systematic procedure on the basis of tested hypotheses. It requires the development of solid intellectual premises for explaining how marriages function, why they disintegrate, and what can be done to stem the tide of instability in the family. The formulation of premises and postulations for understanding the structure and function of marriage and family life has been done by intellectuals from different disciplinary perspectives. Some marriage and family life theorists have a psychology background while others have a sociological orientation. Others are historical and anthropological in the way they conceive marriage while others are theological.

In this book, we shall examine the theories and therapies of marriage counselling from the multi-disciplinary perspective. We shall examine the relationship between theories and therapies, the different theoretical foundations upon which marriage counselling can be done, the advantages and disadvantages of specific theories and their therapeutic efficacy in handling marital problems.