The New Marriage Clinic: A Scientifically Based Marital Therapy Updated

by John M. Gottman, Julie Schwartz Gottman

The widely celebrated, research-based marital therapy program―now updated and revised. More than twenty-five years ago, The Marriage Clinic presented a complete marital therapy program based on John Gottman’s much-heralded research on marital success and failure. The book provided not only a wide range of succinct and useful assessment procedures, but also a highly specific, research-based, and modularized treatment program. Since then, Dr. Gottman has collaborated with his wife, clinical psychologist Julie Gottman, to conduct their well-known “Love Lab” studies, allowing the pair to design a highly successful couples’ workshop and develop their “Sound Relationship House” theory. Now, in this influential book’s first-ever revision, Dr. Gottman and Dr. Gottman incorporate the results of their studies and their most powerful interventions. In addition to its original, celebrated marital therapy program, The New Marriage Clinic includes findings on the dynamics of same-sex couples; interventions for couples recovering from situational domestic violence; strategies for couples rebuilding their marriages after an affair; and much more. 32 figures black-and-white

Genres: Psychology, Marriage, Relationships, Nonfiction

544 pages, Paperback

Published July 9, 2024

About the author

Dr. Gottman was one of the Top 10 Most Influential Therapists of the past quarter-century by the Psychotherapy Networker. He is the author or co-author of over 200 published academic articles and more than 40 books, including the bestselling The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work; What Makes Love Last; Eight Dates: Essential Conversations for a Lifetime of Love; The Relationship Cure; Why Marriages Succeed or Fail; and Raising An Emotionally Intelligent Child — among many others. Dr. Gottman’s media appearances include Good Morning America, Today, CBS Morning News, and Oprah, as well articles in The New York Times, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, Glamour, Woman’s Day, People, Self, Reader’s Digest, and Psychology Today.

Co-founder of The Gottman Institute and co-founder of Affective Software, Inc. with his wife, Dr. Julie Schwartz Gottman, John was also the Executive Director of the Relationship Research Institute. He is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of Washington, where he founded “The Love Lab” at which much of his research on couples’ interactions was conducted.

Reviews

[Glenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's a solid introduction to the Gottman method for those who've never read something like that before and who aren't too interested in specifically what Gottman sessions look like in finer detail, but it significantly falls short when I compare it to the first edition (i.e., The Marriage Clinic) and consider the purpose for which I'm reading it (i.e., to assign to my couples therapy students). And I had such high hopes for this book, which might explain my crushing disappointment.

For starters, it doesn't include the majority of the measures that The Marriage Clinic does. That book had it all. Admittedly, the format was terrible such that you couldn't quite go making photocopies for clients, but you at least had it available and then use your handouts from, say, the Level 1 or 2 trainings to actually use in session. But with the proliferation of Gottman, Inc., this vibe has shifted.

Relatedly, it reads like one giant advertisement for Gottman Inc. - in particular, the Relationship Checkup Questionnaires (which I am a fan of, to be sure) and the Gottman Connect/online love lab stuff, which appears to be more of an emerging thing (there's currently a wait-list and there are numerous mentions in that particular chapter in the book referencing "in the future" - so it seems as if they've not entirely gotten it off the ground yet but wanted to include it in the book anyway). Now, obviously, I think the online love lab thing is cool as hell and can't wait to see it come to fruition, but I would have preferred for other content to take up the space in this book.

TNMC does include extensive samples of Gottman Card Deck content (but again, just get the app).

I'm also underwhelmed as to how poorly they flesh out the utility of Panksepp's work on emotional command systems. I just assumed that TNMC would serve as a one-stop-shop with respect to the Gottman model and so have things like that elaborated upon more thoroughly.

Overall it just seems like there's much less in the way of "how to" in this book compared to the first edition or even their other texts over the years. There's a lot of talk about the model itself, how it came to be, what it can look like at an abstract level, etc. but not much detail about the actual execution other than to say they deal with whatever couples are presenting with in that particular session and you generally want to start with the friendship levels of the SRH.

[Ruben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to continue your buyers work!!!!

I will try my best to continue your work That's my dream to help couples such as myself that thanks to you guys Ive changed. Please don't go to soon. We love you and thank you so much. I hope to fulfill this dream and continue please if you have any tips to which degree to follow and become a certified Hoffman researcher or scientist please send me I will want to continue legacy even if it kills me I will find a way you have showed me the light seeing the bright smile on my mom and father god bless you, you have given many gifts to us. Now its our turn to gift you

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book not only provides a rich understanding of the importance of what atmosphere is necessary for a successful marriage, it also provides many practical assessment tools and interventions to aid in the process. It is data heavy, however if you have appreciated advice from the Gottmans in the past, you will find this book useful.

[Rolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting in that this gets a lot more into the weeds of the Gottman’s research model--though their other books were much more helpful to me in terms of the practical ideas they espouse and how to apply them in your marriage.