Systemic Couple Therapy and Depression (Systemic Thinking & Practice)

"This book is the first of its kind. It is a study of marital therapy with couples whereon one of the partners has a diagnosis of a moderate to severe depression. This study of this subject is the first to 1. be in accordance to research vigour 2. provide a systematic 'manual' of how the authors conducted the trial and how their methods could be used by others.

The book was a joy to read because of the straightforward clarity of style of both authors. Ideas were made visible to the reader because the authors related theory to practice by the use of scenarios/vignettes at frequent intervals throughout the book.

The strength of this book lies in the authors ability to self-ctique their work and to be transparent about the limitations of the study which I believe are few.

The content layout of the book is reader-friendly i.e. the context of the study is set well. It is made clear to the reader the content of each section and a 'browsing' reader would easily be able to identify the correct section of the book if he/she had specific parts of the study they wanted to examine in depth.

The foreward by Gianfranco Cecchin was a delight to read and was a real invitation to read the rest of the book.

limitations - I thought the book could have included more detail of and comparisons to recent parralell studies of depression and marital therapy i.e. Emmaneuls-Zuurveen and Emmelkamp (1996), Beach and Fincham (1998) etc.

Overall comment - I would recommend the book to all interested in this specific subject."
~ Written on 2001-06-09