An interactive workbook to help couples reconnect

The simple phrase "I love you" is terribly important to people-so what keeps so many of us from saying it? In Reclaim Your Relationship, Ron and Pat Potter-Efron, marriage therapists who have been married for 37 years, combine their real-life and clinical experience in this practical and accessible workbook designed to help individuals improve connections in their relationships with those they love. Presenting engaging, hands-on exercises, the authors help readers learn to say "I love you" to their partners with ease and genuine meaning, show their partner love through consistent acts of caring, and take in their partner's loving words and deeds without always demanding more.

Ron Potter-Efron, MSW, PhD and Pat Potter-Efron, MS (Eau Claire, WS) are psychotherapists in private practice. They are the authors of Letting Go of Anger (1-572-24001-6) and Letting Go of Shame (0-894-86635-4).

"OK, I'm not using (or drinking) anymore, but what do I do with my anger?" If a client finds no answers to this question, relapse is likely, fear will continue to poison the family atmosphere, and therapeutic gains will be jeopardized. Now, with this book in hand, counselors and therapists can help the recovering alcoholic or addict develop skills to manage anger and avoid outbursts of aggression or violence. Intended primarily for counselors working with alcoholics, addicts, and their families in chemical dependency treatment settings, clinics, or private practice, as well as for those treating family violence, this book elucidates the complex relationships among anger, aggression, and chemical abuse. Early chapters present models of normal anger, anger avoidance, and chronic anger. The authors describe how both anger avoidance and chronic anger are related to chemical use patterns, the effects upon family members, and how change can be initiated. A brief device for assessing chronic anger and its functions is included. General principles for treating anger problems, as well as specific applications of these principles in a chemical dependency treatment, are presented. Special attention is given to the challenges of anger management with the chronically angry. In addition, selected aspects of anger and aggression, including explosiveness, anger-inducing thought patterns, and long-term resentments, are covered. Anger and aggression reverberate within the family and immediate environment. Strategies are included here for helping affected family members live with an angry (and perhaps addicted) person, for working with angry couples, and for treatment of adult children from homesdominated by anger and addiction. The authors also address the need to treat self-directed and self-destructive anger. Finally, they look at professional anger issues, since many counselors have problems with excessive anger or anger avoidance, in both their professional and their person