Marriage Development

Betrayal has many faces, including anger, abuse, deceit, and infidelity. These feel like betrayal because they violate the implicit promise of emotional bonds, that your loved one will care about your well-being and never intentionally hurt you. If you've recently left a relationship where you felt betrayed by your partner, you may have difficulty moving on. In fact, it can seem impossible to view the world without the shadow of past betrayal hovering over you. As a result, you may struggle to create meaning in your life and to build new, loving relationships.

In the winter of 2009, Rachel Cusk’s marriage of 10 years came to an end. Candid and revelatory, Aftermath chronicles the perilous journey as the author redefines herself and creates a new version of family life for her daughters. She discovers previously unknown strengths and freedoms, but also finds herself suddenly vulnerable to outsiders, unwelcome advice, social displacement, and the absence of a clear authority. The pressure to reconstruct a “normal” life for her daughters competes with the sense that nothing feels normal at all.

Beloved pastor and Bible teacher Chuck Swindoll offers a refreshing dose of hope and practical help for marriage. His sage advice, based on the Bible and his own 50-year marriage, shows us how to move our marriages from just surviving to actually thriving. And that target can be hit dead-center if we rely on God and His Word as our marriage counselor, our guide, our glue.

For 30 years Randy Alcorn has been encouraging people - young and old - to pursue the rewards of sexual purity. Too often we settle for a compromised Christianity that's just a baptized version of the world's sad existence, rather than the abundant life to which God calls us.

Finally, a book about open marriage that grapples with the problems surrounding monogamy and fidelity in an honest, heartfelt, and non-fringe manner. Jenny Block is your average girl next door, a suburban wife and mother for whom married life never felt quite right. While many books on this topic presuppose that the listener is ready to embrace an "alternative lifestyle", Block operates from the assumption that most couples who are curious about or engaged in open marriages are in fact more like her - normal people who question whether monogamy is right for them.

With Dr. Harley's expert guidance, couples will be able to avoid the major causes of marital unhappiness and disappointment. Instead of tearing their marriage apart, they will learn to build it into the marriage they had needed and wanted. This book is a perfect companion to His Needs, Her Needs and will be useful to pastors, counselors, and couples.

Enhance your practice and improve outcomes for autistic clients with this indispensable guide by world-leading autism experts Tony Attwood and Maxine Aston. Drawing on research and firsthand accounts from autistic individuals and their partners, it equips therapists with the essential knowledge and practical strategies needed to provide affirming, effective support.

How do you set smart limits on your physical relationship? How much do you get involved financially? And how do you know if you've found your future spouse? Dating can be fun, but it's not always easy to navigate the questions and intricacies along the way. In Boundaries in Dating, Drs. Henry Cloud and John Townsend, counselors and authors of the New York Times bestseller Boundaries, share their practical advice for adding healthy boundaries to your dating life.

Lola & Ola Abitogun started dating in March of 2004. They fell in love and got married in August 2007. They are blessed with kids. After 10 years of ups and downs with a marriage that was basically non-existent for two full years, they’ve found real love and, at last, got their marriage back. They have also decided to use this medium to share how they did it so that anyone can use it to save and fix their broken marriage. Lola & Ola are ready to fight the evil forces against your marriage with you using practical and actionable steps that you already have control of.

We are designed for relationships, yet they often bring us pain. In this paradigm-shifting book, Gary Smalley unravels the DNA of relationships: we are made for three great relationships, with God, others, and ourselves, and all relationships involve choice. Gary exposes a destructive relationship dance that characterizes nearly every relationship conflict, and he offers five new dance steps that will revolutionize relationships.

Byron Tully, author of The Old Money Book, reveals the secrets and strategies used by America's upper class that contribute to a vibrant, fulfilling, and enduring married life. From dating around to settling down, everything you need to know and every question you need to ask yourself - and your potential mate - is detailed here. So, if you're really committed to meeting the right person, making your marriage work, and making it last, this is the book for you.

Learn to navigate life's twists and turns to find God's best for your marriage with the help of Dr. Greg and Erin Smalley. They'll lead you and your spouse to discover true love as described by God in the Bible. With candor and grace, these beloved marriage experts share the secrets of a strong marriage that yield a lifetime of adventurous and cray-zee love.

For the next 21 days, journey with Becky Thompson to remember what life was like when you first fell in love with your husband. Each daily challenge, reflection, and prayer will refocus your attention, re-center your heart, reignite the romance, and help you rediscover your marriage in the midst of motherhood. Let Love Unending guide you step by step as you realize that sometimes the best way forward is to go back to the beginning.

Rumination—obsessive thinking about an idea, situation, or choice that can interfere with normal life—is a common and destructive issue that can negatively impact romantic relationships. You may feel anxious, worried, hopeless, and frustrated, but even if you know your overthinking is a problem, it can be seriously hard to stop. In Stop Overthinking Your Relationship, certified couples therapist Alicia Muñoz draws from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and mindfulness to offer an effective, four-step approach to reduce rumination and change negative thinking patterns.

For the last several years, Penn and Kim Holderness of The Holderness Family have done the hard maintenance and the research to learn how to fight better. With the help of their marriage coach Dr. Christopher Edmonston, they break down their biggest (and in some cases, funniest) fights. How did a question about chicken wings turn into a bra fight (no, not a bar fight; a bra fight)? How did a roll of toilet paper lead to tears, resentment, and a stint in the guest bedroom?

Your wife has been giving you signals to tell you something is wrong and one day, you wake up to a slap in the face. She says something along the lines of: I want to separate, I need some space to figure things out, I think we should divorce, I can’t do this anymore, I cheated on you, or the classic ‘I love you but I’m not in love with you.’

In the revised edition of his hit book The Sacred Search, author Gary Thomas helps single people of all ages make wise marital choices, in large part by rethinking what basis those choices should be made on. Listeners are encouraged to think beyond finding their “soul mate", an idea that has its roots in the philosophy of Plato, and instead adopt a more biblical search for a “sole mate” - someone who will walk with them on their spiritual journey.

The perfect guide for husbands who want to love their wives and strengthen their marriages in a way like never before. In this revised and updated edition of his classic best seller, Gary Smalley explains a woman's deepest needs, shows men how to meet those needs, and gives 10 simple steps to strengthen any marriage. He helps men to understand not only how to respond to a woman's feelings, but also how to make her feel important. Gary Smalley maps a blueprint to a better marriage that will have a deep and lasting impact on men and their wives.

Unlike most relationship counselors, Dr. Pransky doesn't recommend "working" on a relationship. In this book, he challenges everything you thought you knew about how to be happy with your partner. Each chapter exposes a popular but destructive misconception about relationships and provides a new understanding that can give troubled couples the fresh start they need.

Do you want a more loving relationship, to be truly understood by the person you care about most, and to develop a deeper, more meaningful level of intimacy? Would you also like to experience better communication and more trust? Of course you want these things - we all do. If you've found this book, your relationship may be going through a difficult time, or perhaps you're just not as happy as you'd like to be. Don't throw in the towel yet - all relationships experience their ups and downs.