Hope, Forgiveness, and Positive Psychology in Couple Therapy

Knowing how to recover from life’s inevitable disappointments and emotional injuries is an essential skill for successful relationships. Worthington and Ripley offer a practical, sensitive, and evidence-based approach for helping couples to recover from relationship wounds and pursue a joyful life together. This marvelous new text provides step-by-step interventions for promoting hope and forgiveness and is an indispensable resource for every couple therapist.
Douglas K. Snyder, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University (College Station). Co-author of Getting Past the Affair, Co-editor of the Clinical Handbook of Couple Therapy

Here is a book with a difference. The Hope-Focused Couples Approach (HFCA) is packed with more practical suggestions than one could hope for and it creates hope in both couples and therapists. It is technique-heavy and can be integrated with virtually any approach to couple therapy. You can select those techniques that fit into your treatment and add new methods of positive psychology are deigned to promote forgiveness, humility, gratitude, and hope. HFCA provides authoritative coverage of forgiveness and reconciliation for couples based on the authors’ extensive research and practice on these processes. I believe you’ll find this book a hands-on, practical resource.
Leslie Greenberg, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, Dept. of Psychology, York University, Toronto Ontario

After 30 years practicing couple therapy, I would describe it as a challenging but deeply rewarding adventure, and one that definitely requires a good “map.” In this book, Worthington and Ripley have provided an outstanding map based on their Hope-Focused Couple Approach drawing on a textured theoretical framework, solid research evidence, and a flexible set of interventions for effectively engaging couples’ strengths and values toward healing and growth. I grew to love doing couple therapy using an early version of this approach during my graduate training, and I continue to benefit from the clinical wisdom and strategic clarity of these authors as their model has evolved. I consider this book essential reading in the field of couple therapy."
Steven J. Sandage, Ph.D., LP, Boston University

This book offers an indispensable roadmap for forming, growing, maintaining, and repairing the emotional bond. Covering topics ranging from how to get couples to do homework, to understanding what to do when the emotional bond is severely strained, to immensely practical strategies to tackle such big and potentially overwhelming constructs like hope and forgiveness, this is a fantastic tool box for both new therapists and seasoned ones alike. I learned many new strategies that I look forward to implementing in my own practice. One of this book’s greatest contributions to the literature is the concept of hope, which is an overlooked virtue in couple relationships. As long as couples have hope and commitment, they can surmount daily fluctuations in their satisfaction and retain motivation to work toward change. Loss of hope is deadly, and I am grateful that these two excellent therapists have brought this concept front and center of this book so that other therapists will pay attention to it and learn how to cultivate it when it is waning.
Kristina Coop Gordon, Ph.D. Professor and Associate Dean for Community Engagement University of Tennessee-Knoxville. Co-author of Getting Past the Affair

This book is the first to provide an innovative, practice friendly integration of constructs in positive psychology into couple therapy. The numerous interventions provided throughout the text are explained within a patient-friendly framework that will appeal to all therapists regardless of theoretical orientation. It is an essential resource that belongs on the shelves of novice to seasoned practitioners.
Frank D. Fincham, Ph.D. Eminent Scholar and Director, Florida State University Family Institute

This book, written by two true experts in couples’ relationships, incorporates a rare combination of strategies to inspire hope, positivity, and forgiveness for couples in an easy-to-understand, practical manner. It is filled with empirically supported strategies that will be invaluable across therapists’ theoretical orientations while providing a cogent, flexible framework for treatment. This volume will expand and deepen the work of both experienced and beginning couple therapists, and I recommend it highly.
Don Baucom Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience University of North Carolina. Co-author of Baucom, D. H., Fischer, M. S., Corrie, S., Worrell, M., & Boeding, S. E., Treating relationship distress and psychopathology in couples: A cognitive-behavioural approach (2020)

Worthington and Ripley have expanded the boundaries of couple therapy, covering all the twists and turns from intake to termination, as well as providing a rich conceptual framework to guide intervention. Their detailed description of over 100 practical strategies to help couples as they strengthen their relationships and build hope for the future is a wonderful addition to the field and a must read for students, teachers, scholars, and practitioners in the ever-evolving field of couple therapy.
Steven R. H. Beach, Ph.D. Regent’s Professor of Psychology, University of Georgia Director, Center for Family Research Author, Depression in Marriage

This is an exceptional resource for marital and couples therapists of any theoretical background. Centered around the goal of producing hope, Worthington and Ripley provide over 100 clear, usable—“how to do it”— strategies. The work is richly cited, engaging, and thoroughly useful.
Scott M. Stanley, Ph.D. Research Professor, University of Denver. Co-author of Fighting for Your Marriage