Emotional Safety is designed to help couple therapists identify and conceptualize the problems of their clients and to provide solutions, focusing on the two central elements of emotion and attachment. Problems occur in relationships when the partners no longer feel safe being open and vulnerable with each other. Emotional Safety: Viewing Couples Through the Lens of Affect enables couple therapists to recognize and articulate the emotional subtext of their clients' interactions. The emotional safety model is based on modern affect theory and focuses on the affective tone of messages in the areas of attachment and esteem. The model allows therapists to address the subtle interplay of perceived threat and emotional reaction which underlies their clients' difficulties and disrupts emotional safety.

First Published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor and Francis, an informa company.

The Handbook of Stress, Trauma, and the Family is broken down into three sections, compiling research, theory and practice. The first section focuses on how traumatic stress affects intimate others, what familial characteristics affect individual susceptibility to trauma, as well as evaluation of the effectiveness of various interventions. The section on theory explores concepts of stress and intrapsychic processes underlying the intergenerational transmission of trauma, addressesing how families can buffer or enhance anxiety. The final section, entitled practice, covers assessment (presenting both the Circumplex Model and Bowenian family theory models), treatment models and treatment formats for specific populations. The major family treatment models applicable to stress and trauma are discussed, including contextual, object relations, emotionally focused and critical interaction therapy.

Emotional Safety is designed to help couple therapists identify and conceptualize the problems of their clients and to provide solutions, focusing on the two central elements of emotion and attachment.

Problems occur in relationships when the partners no longer feel safe being open and vulnerable with each other. Emotional Safety: Viewing Couples Through the Lens of Affect enables couple therapists to recognize and articulate the emotional subtext of their clientsa (TM) interactions. The emotional safety model is based on modern affect theory and focuses on the affective tone of messages in the areas of attachment and esteem. The model allows therapists to address the subtle interplay of perceived threat and emotional reaction which underlies their clientsa (TM) difficulties and disrupts emotional safety.

This book is aimed at practitioners working with couples and families dealing with the impact of a traumatic/stressful event, with chapters considering events such as the loss of a child, infertility in a couple, sexual abuse of a partner, traumatization of a parent, traumatization of a child, impact of a homicide, and the impact of health problems of aging parents. Therapists are continually faced with these issues in their practices, and cases involving these situations are often among the most intense and emotionally demanding that they will confront. One of the supports a therapist can have available when confronted with such a situation is a practical guide to effective intervention. This book would provide the practitioner with just that -- a hands-on, practical guide that deals with how to appropriately respond to each specific stressor that is outlined in the book. Because each chapter is devoted to a different stressor, the practitioner is able to easily reference the desired material, in order to anticipate relevant issues, and plan for an intervention that will be based on the solid experience these authors will bring to the book.

Inevitably, one individual's trauma will affect the lives of their close relations. Severe traumatization affects one's capacity to feel warm, compassionate feelings, often impinging on intimate relationships or requiring family members to make complementary changes in their own lives as they try to shelter the traumatized member. Living with many of the symptoms of a trauma survivor, particularly the hyper-arousal and avoidance symptoms, places a considerable strain on loved ones who become vulnerable to developing secondary traumatization. The Handbook of Stress, Trauma and the Family deals with how traumatic stress affects intimate others, what familial characteristics affect individual susceptibility to trauma, as well as evaluation of the effectiveness of various interventions. It also explores how families can buffer or enhance anxiety. Lastly, this book covers assessment, treatment models, and treatment formats for specific populations. The major family treatment models applicable to stress and trauma are discussed, including contextual, object relations, emotionally focused and critical interaction therapy.