Treating the Difficult Divorce: A Practical Guide for Psychotherapists

Divorce can be an exceptional challenge for couples and children who must endure acrimony, accusations, fear and anxiety for the future. Divorce is also a substantial challenge for mental health professionals, as standard psychotherapeutic approaches can prove insufficient for the complexities of families in crisis. Drawing on the integrative tradition that considers both individual and systemic processes, as well as his nearly 40 years of clinical practice, Jay L. Lebow presents his approach to treating difficult divorce. He describes strategies for intervention that show therapists how to calm individuals, couples, and families in acute distress, and help ease the transition to a new family structure. Chapters highlight the research on divorce and mental health; describe concrete interventions that achieve realistic treatment goals; explain how therapists interact with the legal system in divorce cases; and offer adaptations for different types of divorce, including high-conflict [...]and more normative divorces. The approach can be used by one or more therapists, working with the whole family, a divorcing couple, a parent and child, or even an adult or child seen in individual therapy.