Couple Skills: Making Your Relationship Work

Love takes work, but, when it comes to relationships, it pays to work smarter. Couple Skills, Second Edition, revised and updated from the therapist-recommended classic, will show you how to work smarter in your relationship. You'll learn to improve communication, cope better with problems, and resolve conflicts with the one you love in healthy and creative ways. Each chapter teaches you an essential skill that supports greater relationship satisfaction and deeper intimacy.

New to this edition is a chapter on using acceptance skills, developed from the revolutionary new acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). These new approaches will help you to accept your partner's feelings (and your own emotions) without judgment. Using these techniques will help you decide what you really value in your relationship and then commit to acting in ways that further those values every day.

Matthew McKay, PhD, is a professor at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. He is coauthor of The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, Thoughts and Feelings, When Anger Hurts, and others. His books combined have sold more than five million copies. He received his PhD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology. In private practice, he specializes in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety. He lives and works in the greater San Francisco Bay Area.

Patrick Fanning is a professional writer in the mental health field, and founder of a men's support group in Northern California. He has authored and coauthored twelve self-help books, including Self-Esteem, Thoughts and Feelings, Couple Skills, and Mind and Emotions.

Kim Paleg, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in private practice in San Francisco and El Sobrante, CA. She is on the faculty of John F. Kennedy University. She is a contributing author to the self-help classic When Anger Hurts and coedited the widely used professional book Focal Group Psychotherapy. She specializes in couples and family therapy and conducts workshops on parenting.