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John Mordechai Gottman
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The Marriage Clinic: A Scientifically Based Marital Therapy (Norton Professional Books (Hardcover)) 1st Edition

by John M. Gottman Ph.D. (Author)
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 256 ratings
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There is a newer edition of this item:

The New Marriage Clinic: A Scientifically Based Marital Therapy Updated
The New Marriage Clinic: A Scientifically Based Marital Therapy Updated
$46.99
This title will be released on July 9, 2024.
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The Marriage Clinic presents a complete marital therapy program based on John Gottman's much heralded research on marital success and failure.

Here one will find not only a wide range of succinct and useful assessment procedures, but also a highly specific, research-based, and modularized treatment program. In addition, there are dozens of questionnaires and interview protocols to be used in both assessment and intervention.

In prospective, long-term research with over 700 couples, Gottman has discovered certain factors that distinguish happy, stable couples from both unstable, ultimately divorcing couples and stable but unhappy couples. These findings, which are explained here in understandable, nontechnical language, form the basis of his Sound Marital House theory of marriage, which guides the new therapy. This therapy has two goals: changing the marital friendship and teaching couples to regulate conflict.

Despite the high aims of much marital therapy, Gottman found that most marital conflicts involve fundamentally unresolvable relationship issues called "perpetual problems." He shows how therapists can help spouses move from gridlock to dialogue on these issues. Solvable problems can be resolved more easily when the couple has a strong marital friendship. He gives therapists the tools to teach spouses five fundamental skills to develop and strengthen their friendship: softened start-up, accepting influence, repair and de-escalation, compromise, and physiological soothing.

Gottman compares his clinic to a restaurant, where clients are offered a menu of treatment formats, from psychoeducation for specific issues to extended therapy to repair a badly damaged marital friendship. Therapists, too, can choose among the questionnaires and strategies for those that fit the needs of particular couples. Whatever their choice, they will find that their practice is greatly enriched by the scientifically-based offerings of The Marriage Clinic.
Previous page
  1. ISBN-10
    0393702820
  2. ISBN-13
    978-0393702828
  3. Edition
    1st
  4. Publisher
    W. W. Norton & Company
  5. Publication date
    August 17, 1999
  6. Part of series
    Norton Professional Books (Hardcover)
  7. Language
    English
  8. Dimensions
    6.4 x 1.5 x 9.6 inches
  9. Print length
    480 pages
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"There is an astonishing wealth of assessment tools…[T]horough and insightful."
― Milton H. Erickson Foundation Newsletter

"If it isn't a classic already, it will be very soon…[R]efreshing, invigorating, and renewing"
― Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic

"[A]n important addition to the field of couple therapy...the first time that a couple therapy is developed from marital research."
― International Academy for Marital Spirituality Review

"John Gottman has done it again! The foremost researcher in the area of couple relationships has written another innovative germinal book on family relations, this time focused on therapeutic interventions for distressed couples. What distinguishes this book from other treatises on family therapy is that it is based not on clinical speculation but on scientific research findings from the hundreds of families intensively studied in Gottman's lab. This is one of the most important books on couple therapy ever written and is an essential addition to the library of every family therapist or family researcher."
― E. Mavis Hetherington, PhD, James E. Page Professor of Psychology, University of Virginia

"With The Marriage Clinic, John Gottman, the Mozart of family research, has turned his enormous talents and skills to the task of creating a new, empirically based marital therapy. Unlike previous marital therapies, this one is based on 25 years of longitudinal research on real couples―distressed, happy, and in between. Written with clarity, humor, and erudition, The Marriage Clinic propels couple therapy into the 21st century with a solid scientific and clinical foundation. Read it and get on board."
― William M. Pinsof, PhD, President, The Family Institute at Northwestern University

"This book reflects a wonderful blend of the highest quality research on marriage and practical, clear guidelines for an innovative approach to marital therapy. It reflects Dr. Gottman's unique accomplishments as a researcher, his keen ability to perceive the patterns of emotion and beliefs in marital couples, and his clear recognition of the limits of previous approaches to marital therapy."
― David Reiss, MD, Vivian Gill Distinguished Research Professor, George Washington University Medical Center

About the Author

John M. Gottman, PhD, is the cofounder of The Gottman Institute and of Affective Software, Inc., and was recently honored with 2021 Lifetime Achievement Awards by the Psychotherapy Networker. He resides on Orcas Island, Washington.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (August 17, 1999)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 480 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0393702820
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0393702828
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.84 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.4 x 1.5 x 9.6 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 256 ratings

About the authors

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  1. John Mordechai Gottman

    John Mordechai Gottman

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    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    John Gottman, Ph.D., is world-renowned for his work on relationship stability and divorce prediction, involving the study of emotions, physiology, and communication. He was recently voted one of the Top 10 Most Influential Therapists of the past quarter-century by the PsychoTherapy Networker publication. His 35 years of breakthrough research on marriage, relationships and parenting has earned him numerous major awards.

    He is the author of 190 published academic articles and author or co-author of 40 books. Dr. Gottman is the co-founder of The Gottman Institute where he currently teaches weekend workshops for couples and training workshops for clinicians. He is the Executive Director of the Relationship Research Institute, where programs have been developed for parents transitioning to parenthood and are beginning a new research project on treatment for Domestic Violence. Dr. Gottman is also in private practice in Seattle and sees couples for weekly and intensive marathon therapy sessions.

    See more on the author's page
  2. John Gottman

    John Gottman

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    World-renowned for his work on marital stability and divorce prediction, Dr. John Gottman has conducted 40 years of breakthrough research with thousands of couples. He is the author of over 200 published academic articles and author or co-author of more than 40 books, including The New York Times bestseller The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Dr. Gottman’s media appearances include Good Morning America, Today, CBS Morning News, and Oprah, as well articles in The New York Times, Redbook, Glamour, Woman’s Day, People, Self, and Psychology Today. Together with his wife Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman, he is founder of The Gottman Institute and creator of Gottman Method Couples Therapy, a research-based approach to strengthening relationships.

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
256 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Dr. B
5.0 out of 5 stars Exceptional!
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2008
Verified Purchase
At last there is an answer to the question I've been asking since beginning my studies in psychology--"Isn't there anything ELSE?" There are many schools of thought that reign in fiefdoms of psychology, including systems theory, behaviorism, Imago, and psychodynamic to name a few. Each is dogmatic, and when tested across research studies, all can benefit patients (despite zealous claims to the contrary by the priesthoods in each camp). However, until I read The Marriage Clinic, I was not aware that our field has shown such poor results in the area of marital therapy. While individual psychotherapy tends to work, Gottman sites research to show that marital therapy does not create lasting change. This is serious.

Our current state of the art in marital and family therapy tends include unsatisfying, unnatural, and even ridiculous, techniques for clinicians to use with people facing the problem of how to improve their marriage. Thank goodness for people like Gottman, who actually collect data to inform decisions, and use common sense and humanity to understand and apply those findings. I see Gottman as our field's greatest living visionary, whose research and relationship building techniques will hopefully spread to parent-child relationships and IO psychology as well.

As to this book specifically, don't get it unless you are a clinician. If you are looking to help your own marriage, I suggest The Seven Principals of Making Marriage Work, which is very user friendly. The Marriage Clinic is quite technical in parts, and can be dense, however it is a very fun read. Gottman's personality and humor come through loud and clear. I found myself laughing out loud at times. I confess I enjoy how he exposes the senselessness of so much of the techniques we currently utilize, and backs it up with meticulous research. This book begins with a solid lit review, a discussion of Gottman's basic ideology and rationale, and then goes into the nuts and bolts of how to apply his ideas.

Even if you are not a marital therapist, it will change the way you look at relationships. He teaches a new vocabulary for describing what you are observing in relationships that I find exceptionally helpful. I would recommend this to anyone conducting psychotherapy, as it will improve your ability to make inferences about your patient's relationships. I also enjoyed the case vignettes very much. If you like Gottman, I highly recommend his books on parenting as well.
67 people found this helpful
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MariS
5.0 out of 5 stars Fast shipping good quality
Reviewed in the United States on September 27, 2023
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Book was in fantastic shape and shipping was fast! Great service!
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Adriana D
5.0 out of 5 stars A classic
Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2023
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Very few people are as knowledgeable and helpful as Gottman when it comes to couples therapy.
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Ben M.
5.0 out of 5 stars The gold standard for marriage counseling
Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2022
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What an amazing book. We use the concepts in our marriage counseling to great effect. Highly recommended and thoroughly researched. Just buy it
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Brooke
5.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Couples Therapy
Reviewed in the United States on June 19, 2012
Verified Purchase
I wasn't sure about this book when I first started reading it. The logistics and mathmatical numbers were boring. Sometimes it didn't make sense to me, but once I got past those chapters I truly enjoyed reading the book. This book is actually required for my MFT college course. I really like the exercises in the book and Gottman's philosophy. One day I plan on using some of his tools and exercises into my practice of counseling couples.
2 people found this helpful
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L. Wolowitz
4.0 out of 5 stars research based couple's therapy
Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2008
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I am a clinical psychologist who bought this book to update my skills for working with couples. The heart of the book is that Gottman believes that the "old" way of working on empathic listening between couple's should not be the goal of therapy. He says that it is too hard for couples to listen to each other when they are being attacked and criticized. It put's them on the defensive. I was intrigued by this hypothesis, but it is still possible to work on listening as non-defensively as possible. However, his point is well taken that we also need to build intimacy and connection as a primary goal of couple's work. I also liked his notion that some things will not change in any relationship. These points of bad fit or mis-match can be transmuted into a situation where couple's have more acceptance and humor around issues that are not likely to change. I still think there is no substitute for evaluating each couple on an individual basis. Any research based or technique driven prescription is likely to fall short of a skilled therapist tailoring the work to that individual couple. Overall, a helpful book - but has limitations!
26 people found this helpful
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David Ezell
5.0 out of 5 stars An essential resource for any couples therapist
Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2013
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I am a licensed psychotherapist who works with couples--married and unmarried, gay and straight--and find Gottman's intake and treatment methods apply across the board. I used this book in my post-grad training and daily in private practice. While he has books for laypeople (and they are very good), this is the go-to book for professionals in the field.
One person found this helpful
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Bastel Zamani
5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this now!!!
Reviewed in the United States on April 4, 2019
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Amazing product. I highly recommend buying it if you’re in the market for it... I love mine...
4 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

Darlene Lamond
5.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointed with shipment packaged opened
Reviewed in Canada on July 27, 2019
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Albert Schmidt
5.0 out of 5 stars It's called "The Bible of Marriage Counseling"
Reviewed in Germany on May 24, 2015
Verified Purchase
...and truly, it is THE book that every marriage counselor must have read. What a coincidence that "Gottman" means "Man of God" in German. Funny but true! So Mr. Man of God wrote the Bible of marital therapy.Great, helpful, a must read!
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