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Technology as a communication medium now functions as a core way to connect to peers, family members, and romantic partners independent of time and location. These technologies help us to initiate ...

Technology has fundamentally shaped the way we communicate with acquaintances, family members, and romantic partners. Digital technologies permit us to be accessed (and access others) at any time, ...

Infidelity is a challenging but prominent issue in couple therapy. In addition to the negative outcomes, clinicians generally report that infidelity is the second most difficult problem to treat af...

Coining the term collaborative pornography viewing, we used a mixed method study to test the perception of individual relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, trust, closeness, and communication after watching pornography together. The purpose of this article is to present the qualitative findings of the study. In the qualitative portion, a subset of couples from the larger sample (8 couples; N = 16) participated in interviews about their experience in the study and, specifically, the collaborative viewing of pornography. The findings indicated that collaborative pornography viewing enabled practice in negotiation, relationship communication, normalized pornography viewing in the relationship, created a boundary around the couple, and increased conversations. These results support the recommendations of previous scholars advising couples that viewing pornography together may improve certain aspects of the relationship.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a common public health problem that damages many romantic relationships. It is defined as abuse or aggression that occurs between intimate partners with an estima...

The Internet is a common medium through which people engage in interpersonal electronic surveillance (IES) of one another. We know little empirically about what predicts IES in romantic relationships. The present study expands on factors identified in previous studies (including demographic characteristics, relational characteristics, and other psychosocial variables) to predict surveillance in romantic relationships. Internet users in established romantic relationships (

Working with children can be a difficult and intimidating task for many family counselors, especially when attempting to discuss complex issues of the family structure. Using a construct children a...

The transition to parenthood is an exciting time for couples; however it also presents unique challenges. Many couples use technology to navigate these challenges and to stay better connected. The ...

Smartphones and digital media are omnipresent in day-to-day life. There are positive and negative consequences to technology usage in established relationships; we also know that there are several ...

The socially constructed genogram allows clients to include individuals to whom they are emotionally close, which may include both biological relatives as well as others. While identifying importan...

The purpose of this qualitative study was to develop understanding of the experience of long-term suicide loss survivors and begin to develop theory of the process of healing. Ten suicide loss survivors were interviewed. Our analyses identified three major categories—one harmful, one helpful, and one that helped to move from harmful to the helpful. Feelings of responsibility was the major harmful category, meaning making the helpful one, and social support the one that appeared to help move from one to the other. Suicide-related thoughts and behaviors were found to be both harmful and helpful at times. Many systemic, family, and interpersonal processes relating to suicide ideation and the perceived responsibility of suicide loss survivors were identified for intervention and future study.

As a response to the COVID-19 global crisis, many in the couple/marital and family therapy (CMFT) professional community quickly met the challenge of providing services to clients via telebehavioral health (TBH) services. As this public health emergency endures, family therapists must continue to engage in TBH practice professionally and ethically. The rapid adoption of TBH with minimal training and experience during this public health emergency can result in crises for both individual therapists as well as for the profession in implementing electronic record-keeping, conducting virtual sessions, and communicating online with various clinical populations. The risk of insufficient training and supervision create a challenge to new and experienced family therapists. This article summarizes the work done by the profession thus far to respond to this public health emergency and presents a roadmap of recommendations for navigating those challenges into the future and offers ideas about how to sustain quality TBH practice.

During the coronavirus pandemic, many behavioral health professionals providing psychotherapeutic services, including couple/marriage and family therapists (C/MFTs), quickly changed from providing in-person services to telebehavioral health (TBH) services, with specific reliance on teleconferencing. Many therapists were thrust into telehealth with minimal or no prior telebehavioral health experience, education, or training. Although TBH services have been shown to be effective and efficient with mental health and substance abuse problems, the teaching and learning of telebehavioral competencies have generally not been included in the formal education and training received by C/MFTs. This article presents an existing interprofessional telebehavioral health competencies framework not before published in C/MFT journals. This article will also demonstrate how those competencies are applicable to the education, training, and practice of telebehavioral health by C/MFTs. Implications for educational, service, and regulatory organizations are presented.

The purpose of this paper is to present strategies to assist LDS (Mormon) sex therapists-in-training as they work through the anxiety and value conflict of doing sex therapy. This paper outlines th...

Technology has transformed the way in which we conduct our interactions and communications in our relationships. As smartphones and the Internet have become embedded within managing our romantic re...

Telebehavioral health (TBH) in the form of synchronous video is effective, well received and a standard way to practice. Current guidelines and policies discuss the importance of good clinical, technical, and administrative components to care. A review of the TBH evidence-based literature across psychiatry/medicine, psychology, social work, counseling, marriage/family, behavioral analysis, and other behavioral sciences found no common TBH competencies across disciplines. The scope of professional guidelines and standards about technology are broad (e.g., practice of telepsychology; Internet and social media use in social work practice), to mid-range (e.g., American Telemedicine (ATA), American Counseling Association (ACA)), to narrow (e.g., preliminary “guidelines” for asynchronous communication such as e-mail and texts). There is only one set of competencies for telepsychiatry, which discusses skills, training and evaluation. These competencies suggested (1) novice/advanced beginner, competent/proficient, and expert levels; (2) domains of patient care, communications, system-based practice, professionalism, practice-based improvement, knowledge and technological know-how; and (3) pedagogical methods to teach and evaluate skills. Revisions to this framework and technology-specific competencies with additional domains may be needed. A challenge to competencies across disciplines may be finding consensus, due to varying scopes of practice, training differences and faculty development priorities. Disciplines and organizations involved with TBH need to consider certification/accreditation and ensure quality care.

The Coalition for Technology in Behavioral Science (CTiBS) has developed an interprofessional, evidence-based, measurable framework for telebehavioral health (TBH) competencies. The paper presents the development of the CTiBS TBH framework, identifies the theoretical rationale and need for such competencies, outlines methods used, provides two detailed discussions of applications, presents a tabulized form of the framework, and then discusses limitations and future research. In the CTiBS TBH competency framework, the term telebehavioral health is meant to include telemental health and e-therapy. The TBH competency framework is offered as an initial working document to identify and organize discreet, measurable telebehavioral practices derived from a review of the literature, technological advances, and day-to-day clinical practice. It reflects core knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for competent telebehavioral health practice. The competency framework is directly applicable to psychiatry/medicine, psychology, social work, counseling, marriage/family, behavior analysis, and other behavioral sciences. The CTiBS TBH framework organizes seven topic domains and five subdomains according to competency level, i.e., Novice, Proficient, or Authority. In turn, each competency level is categorized into 51 discrete telebehavioral objectives, which are then distinguished by 149 cumulative and measurable telebehavioral practices. The seven TBH competency domains identified by CTiBS include (1) Clinical Evaluation and Care, with three subdomains addressing Assessment and Treatment, Cultural Competence and Diversity, and Documentation and Administrative Procedures; (2) Virtual Environment and Telepresence; (3) Technology; (4) Legal and Regulatory Issues; (5) Evidence-Based and Ethical Practice, with two subdomains addressing Standards and Guidelines and Social Media; (6) Mobile Health and Apps; and (7) Telepractice Development.

One issue that has risen to prominence in couple work is the development of a relationship via technology and new media with people outside of the primary couple relationship. As this issue becomes more prevalent, couples struggle with the development of rebuilding trust. Despite the previous instances of infidelity, the development of trust is also compromised by the ability to trust what is presently occurring in the relationship. The partner who has been betrayed often continues to check the involved partner's devices for evidence of a continuation of the affair. Such checking and surveillance often result in obsessive checking of such devices and the assertion that the involved partner can no longer be trusted, reasoning that the involved partner must be deleting evidence. This positioning about surveillance can compromise the ability to move forward with couple therapy. The purpose of this paper is to outline how to work with couples with this level of surveillance after an affair.

The field of couple and family therapy has delineated ways in which technology affects couple and family systems. In general, we have proposed that technology affects both the structure and process...

The popularity of forgiveness in clinical contexts may lead some to believe it is a panacea for all interpersonal problems across a multitude of contexts. Yet some research has found that forgivene...

The purpose of this study was to explore the experience of female faculty in family therapy and family studies graduate programs. Specifically, we were interested in how female faculty members in these programs experienced their roles as academics, partners, and/or parents. We conducted a discovery-oriented study qualitative study of 62 female academics in family studies and family therapy disciplines to identify the greatest concerns and benefits experienced by women in a family-studies-oriented academic field. Using a content analysis, we found that women in family studies/family therapy academic programs experience both high rewards and high demands and struggle with choosing among competing values. Additionally, the participants perceived support from colleagues, professional institutions, and family members as crucial to a female academic’s ability to perform up to expectations. We also offer suggestions for further research.

The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth analysis of divorce by comparing levels of depression, anxiety, self-esteem, and availability of resources between professional performers who w...

Gatekeeping is an important topic in human-service professions. Faculty members in couple and family therapy programs are responsible for regulating student acceptance into marriage and family therapy (MFT) training, and student graduation from these training programs; thus, regulating entry into the profession. Core competencies in MFT were developed to describe the competencies of MFTs (Nelson et al., Journal of Marital and Family Therapy 33(4):417–438, 2007). The core competencies detail skills that MFTs must master within about 2 years post-master’s degree. We propose that core competencies are useful ways to assess student progress, and therefore, useful gatekeeping tools. In this paper, we present a student assessment measure called the Core Competency Based Student Assessment, which may be useful to faculty members as they take on a gatekeeping role.

The couple and family technology framework outlines how technology affects couple and family relationships. This framework has been applied to understanding the impact of technology on infidelity, contributed to our understanding of online gaming issues in couple relationships, and sexting. The purpose of this paper is to outline how to implement video gaming as a disciplinary tool for youth congruent with the couple and family technology framework. Specifically, we identify the elements of video games that can be applied as an intervention in family treatment with youth in a token economy. This proposed technique focuses on utilizing technology (and specifically video games) as a strategy to improve youth’s behavior. Consistent with the couple and family technology framework, this paper outlines how accessibility, affordability, accommodation, and approximation can be used to improve behavior as well as improve parent–child relationships. Implications are included.

The practice of sexting is becoming increasingly common among college students but has the potential to both initiate productive interactions with others and interfere with relationship development. The purpose of this paper is to report on the findings of a study on sexting among college students and to provide a framework through which practitioners working with this population would be able to effectively intervene. Implications for clinical practice include more specific assessment questions for practitioners, focus on better managing riskier behavior, and guidance toward using technology in relationally responsible and supportive ways.

The role of client’s belief systems in therapy is the central concept in cognitive therapy. In our therapeutic work with clients, we focus on their cognitive schemas surrounding a particular problem. These schemas, however, are embedded in a hierarchy of much larger schemas which strongly influence the content of the particular sub-schemas being investigated. The purpose of this article is to introduce the concept of “meta-schema,” from a theoretical perspective, and then offer clinical case examples to illustrate this concept.

Over the last 20 years, our lives and most notably our communication methods with one another have been taken over by technology. Technology affects our interpersonal relationships through altering the way in which relationships are formed, maintained, and terminated. In its interaction with our sex lives, technology offers certain advantages and certain areas that may make couples vulnerable to specific issues in their relationships. The purpose of this chapter is the review the issues technology may introduce into one’s sex life as well as the contributions technology can make to one’s sexual relationship.