Habits for a Healthy Marriage: A Handbook for Catholic Couples

by Richard Fitzgibbons

Drawing on his forty years as a marriage and family psychiatrist, Dr. Fitzgibbons presents a book that can bring self-knowledge and healing to struggling marriages. It will help couples to identify and resolve the major emotional conflicts that weaken their relationships and hurt their marriage. It is very timely because of the epidemics of selfishness, anger, pornography and infidelity in marriage today.

This work is unique because it draws upon the field of positive psychology, which focuses on growth in virtues by the spouses. It is the first book on strengthening marriages by a mental health professional that incorporates the luminous writing of St. John Paul II on marriage and empirically proven forgiveness therapy.

The book demonstrates the benefits from a commitment to a mission of personal growth in acknowledging one's fault, receiving and giving forgiveness and cultivating virtues. This healing process is both fulfilling and demanding.

Whether you are newly engaged, recently married, or married for many years, the conflict-resolving strategies described in this book—the habits of a healthy marriage—can help you to protect your relationship from the emotional storms that often lead to quarrelling and mistrust, and sometimes to separation and divorce.

Genres: Marriage, Catholic, Religion, Family, Christian, Faith

300 pages, Paperback

Published August 27, 2019

Reviews

[L]

I had never heard about fixing a relationship by starting with forgiveness at the onset of every offense. Not being so quick to point the finger at another's wrongdoing but trying to forgive and understand right at the onset. Anyone struggling in their marriage or just want a better marriage or a single person wanting to have better relationships -- this is the book.

[Erik]

The author discussed this book on the Drew Mariani Show. While he sounds to be a hard liner regarding Catholicism, his advice seemed eminently sensible.

[J.]

I bought this book with my (now) wife, just before we got married last month. We spent more or less a chapter each day reading when we got back from our honeymoon. We took turns reading the chapter, underlining the parts we thought would might need to refer back to in the future and then we discussed the points in each chapter as things came up. The author often needs to repeat the need for Forgiveness Therapy for Family-of-Origin and Prior Relationship wounds and hurts, likewise Partaking in the Sacraments of The Eucharist and Reconciliation, finally he offers a Virtue to counteract each Vice presented in a chapter-by-chapter format.

I believe this book is good for singles (especially those who were in prior relationships; but even those who are looking for a significant other could benefit by this book, because it will alert you to what weaknesses and hurts you and that potential someone could unknowingly bring to the relationship and what to look out for), it would be good for engaged couples to read as well (especially if there is significant time between engagement and marriage), it would be good for recently and long married couples as well.

[Caitlyn]

Really excellent book! I was kind of put off at first by the fact it was written by a psychiatrist and what felt like a Freudian focus on contemplating your childhood and your parents, but I really came around to it after a couple of chapters. Partly, I was won over early on by his advice that most couples don't need a therapist, because they tend to be divorce counselors rather than marriage counselors (extremely based take), and most couples will just need a few key exercises and faith in God.

There are some hard truths to swallow, but my own experience tells me that everything he says is accurate. His advice would have been helpful earlier in my life! Starting to do these exercises on my own and with my husband has already been helpful for our communication and our stress. It's been a great Lenten read for improving my faith and my marriage. I'm not usually big on self-help books, but I'd recommend this book to everyone, even if they're not Catholic or currently in a relationship.

[Maiella]

Forgiveness and growth in virtues are central themes in this book.