Mindful Couple

All of us want to be fully accepted in our relationships, yet it can be difficult to fully accept our partners for who they are. This insightful guide for couples is based on a simple concept: Act out of kindness, love, and acceptance, and you will open your relationship for the creation of greater kindness, love, and acceptance.

With strategies drawn from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a powerful therapeutic approach, this book will help you identify your core values and discover, as a couple, the beauty that is available to you and your partner when you bring greater awareness and values-guided behavior to your relationship. Each chapter explores a key issue, such as passion, fidelity, and the balance between dependence and independence, and includes specific practices you can do alone or with your partner to help you build a vital relationship.

Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D., is a psychologist with the National Center for PTSD at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. She also works as a consultant, workshop presenter, and therapist in her private business, TLConsultation Services. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno. During her graduate studies, she developed expertise in traumatic stress, substance abuse, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). She has been doing ACT workshop trainings, both nationally and internationally, since 1998, training in multiple formats and for multiple client problems.

Darrah Westrup, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with the National Center for PTSD at the VA Palo Alto Health Care System. She serves as attending psychologist at the Women's Trauma Recovery Program, a ten-bed, sixty-day residential treatment program for women veterans with military-related PTSD. She is also program director of the Outpatient Women's Mental Health Center. Westrup received her graduate degree from West Virginia University, and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the Behavioral Medicine Department at Stanford University. She has clinical and research expertise in the areas of PTSD, substance abuse, stalking behavior, and experiential avoidance as it relates to psychological dysfunction.

Robyn D. Walser, Ph.D., is a psychologist who works as a consultant, workshop presenter, and therapist in her private business, TL Consultation Services. She also works at the National Center for PTSD in the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in California. She received her doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Nevada, Reno, and has clinical and research expertise in traumatic stress, substance abuse, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). She is an internationally recognized trainer in ACT and has co-authored journal articles, book chapters, and two books on this intervention.

Darrah Westrup, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist with the National Center for PTSD at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System in California. She serves as attending psychologist at the Women's Trauma Recovery Program, a ten-bed, sixty-day residential treatment program for women veterans with military-related PTSD. She is also program director of the Outpatient Women's Mental Health Center. Westrup received her graduate degree from West Virginia University and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in the behavioral medicine department at Stanford University. She has clinical and research expertise in the areas of PTSD, substance abuse, stalking behavior, and experiential avoidance as it relates to psychological dysfunction.