by Rachelle Katz EdD LMFT (Author)
Navigate the challenges of a blended family with children to fortify your marriage for lasting happiness and understanding.
The Happy Stepcouple
is a comprehensive and practical self-help book designed to help
couples with children from prior relationships thrive despite the
complexity of stepfamily life. More than two thirds of stepcouple
relationships break up within the first few years of committing to each
other. With these terrible odds, every stepcouple needs an arsenal of
tools necessary to sustain a loving relationship. The Happy Stepcouple
gives them everything they need to navigate complex stepfamily dynamics
with confidence and kindness, allowing them to build a happy,
fulfilling life together.
Drawing
on the insights and strategies developed from the author’s 30 years of
working as a marriage and family therapist specializing in treating
stepfamilies, this work also includes the personal accounts of many
stepcouples who describe their stepfamily problems along with how they
handled them.
Utilizing the most current research in attachment theory, psychology, communication, and marriage and family therapy, Rachelle Katz
offers a grounded approach to overcoming problems stepcouples
experience by examining the two primary reasons why so many of these
relationships get in trouble: Partners’ inability to understand, agree
to, and fulfill each other’s unspoken needs and expectations, and
communication styles during conflicts that increase each partner’s
insecurity levels and weakens their emotional connection to each other.
Both of these factors fray emotional bonds—bonds that already are
stressed by stepfamily challenges. Here, stepcouples learn how to
establish realistic stepfamily expectations as well as identify and
modify harmful communication patterns, essential elements needed to
strengthen their emotional bond.
