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TH-PA-2105 Pastoral Marriage Counseling

Click here for the Course Syllabus.

Books to Buy

Students are not required to buy these texts, but they are responsible for having a copy for their sole use during the course. The Library provides a book exchange for students to pass on books they no longer need to other students, and is located in the library office. Please consider donating gently used textbooks. Identify any book to be dropped off for the swap so that they can be marked. Donation to the swap is not necessary to take books from it.

Recommended Texts

Recommended texts are those from which not enough reading assignments are drawn to warrant asking students to provide their own copies or those that instructors think will enhance a student’s appreciation of the subject matter of the course. Any reading assignments drawn from these texts will be available on reserve.

Electronic Reserve

Below are links to required or recommended texts available in an electronic format. For physical reserve items, please refer to the course syllabus.

PowerPoint Presentations

January 2: Family Systems 101
January 11: God’s Plan for Marriage & Family
February 8: Solution Focused Therapy
February 22: FOCCUS
February 29: Meeting with Couples

Readings and Excerpts

Goldenberg, I and Goldenberg, H. (2008). Family Therapy: An overview. Belmont, CA: Thomas, Brooks/Cole.
Interlocking Systems: The Individual, The Family, and The Community
Family Development: Continuity and Change
The Structural Model
The Human Validation Process Model (Satir)
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT)

Gottman, J.M. and Silver, N. (2015). The seven principles for making marriage work; Revised Edition. New York, Three Rivers Press.

McGoldrick, M., Gerson, R. & Petry, S. (2008), Genograms: assessment and intervention (3rd ed.)  New York: W.W. Norton.

Online Links

Waite, L.J., et al (2002). Does divorce make people happy? Findings from a study of unhappy marriages. New York: Institute for American Values.

Doherty, W.J. (2002). Bad couples therapy and how to avoid doing it.

Archdiocese of Denver. What God Has Joined: The Particular Norms for Marriage in the Archdioceses of Denver.

Archdiocese of Denver. What God Has Joined: Supplement to the Particular Norms for Marriage in the Archdioceses of Denver.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).

Pope John Paul II (1981). Apostolic Exhortation, The Christian Family in the Modern World (Familiaris Consortio-FC).

Pope John Paul II (1994). Letter to Families (LF).