Description
Book SynopsisRecent relationship science research finds that intense, satisfying romantic love is a real phenomenon occurring in couples. Creating Optimal Relationships: Use of the Voltage Concept with Couples provides the field of marriage and family therapy with the first model for assisting couples to sustain bliss for a lifetime. The voltage concept, based on over forty years of clinical research, uses a skills-based approach from Anthetic Relationship Therapy. By providing psychodynamic skills for facilitating each partner's psychological growth, the psychological infrastructure is then achieved for supporting optimal relating skills. The voltage concept presents a useful dichotomy of closeness levels to which partners aspire. Couples who want a more surface relationship fit a Low-Voltage Relationship model marked by less emotional intensity. With such couples, minimal skills can be taught to reduce any conflict that brought them to therapy. High-Voltage couples desire great emotional d
Trade ReviewNot just an illustrative guide of psychodynamic principles to help couples communicate more optimally, this book is an evocative foray into the very essence of emotional closeness, warmth, and empathy between two souls searching for connection. Whether you're high voltage, low voltage, or not-so-sure-what-your voltage, these skills will diffuse conflict and conflagration and improve upon love's gentle embrace. Highly recommended! -- Eric Green, Purdue University
In developing the ‘high voltage/low voltage relationship’ concept, the Elliotts have provided a means for couples to quickly and comprehensively understand and analyze themselves and their relationships. This book is a welcome addition to the field and one that clinicians will find themselves coming back to again and again in their work with couples. -- David A. Spruill, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Table of ContentsChapter 1 What Is the High-Voltage Relationship Chapter 2 A New Psychology as the Foundation for the High-Voltage Relationship Chapter 3 The Inner Critic and Its Sabotaging Effects on Relationships Chapter 4 Using the Anthetic Inner Figure Language Chapter 5 What It Takes to Create a High-Voltage Relationship: The Anthetic Values Chapter 6 Eight Intrapersonal High-Voltage Skills Chapter 7 Nine Skills to Empower the Self for Optimal Relating Chapter 8 Creating Connection: The Interpersonal High-Voltage Communication Skills Chapter 9 Interpersonal Skills for Handling Negativity in Relationships Chapter 10 Increasing the Voltage: Depth Connecting Skills Chapter 11 Handling the Voltage Mismatch Chapter 12 Maintenance Skills: High-Voltage for a Lifetime
