Hope Focused

Hope Focused






4MAT Book Review
Hope Focused Marriage Counseling: A Guide to Brief Therapy
Everett L. Worthington, Jr.
Coral Nichols
June 6, 2016










Summary
Someone can walk into any bookstore in the United States and find a plethora of self-help books on marriage help, marriage counseling for the secular and Christian faith. There are some books that are for the beginning of marriage and some books that are for the troubled times of marriage, some marriage help books that are even for the end of life. Worthington is not new to the concept of marriage therapy and hope for them. Over several years Worthington has perfected the process of hope-focused marriage therapy with the goal in mind of being able to provide tools to a hurting marriage to infuse hope back into the marriage and help it to thrive again. The beginning of understand of this theory is that the counselor is taught about her/her role in the helping relationship. The counselor is taught how to engage in the relationship with the couple that is need of help.
The books primary theme is one of hope! The hope that Worthington is infusing into the marriage is short-term and solution focused. The goal is to help the couple see beyond the current problem and position themselves to heal and forgive. The solution is pointed to Jesus, this hope provided is not that one that the world can take away but one that sustains through hard times. Foundationally speaking, a marriage can only be built to last when it is founded on the hope of Christ. Worthington (2005) uses the scripture Ephesians 5:32 as one of the foundational scriptures for his stance. “Marriage is a shadow of the relationship that we are expected to have with Jesus- permanent, loving, committed” (p.17).
This book not only provides the understanding of hope and how it applies to a marriage, it also provides the tools and scriptures to support the theory. There are strategies listed that are part of the resources and...

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