ABSTRACT
In Acceptance and Change in Couple Therapy (1998) and Reconcilable Differences (2000), Neil Jacobson and Andrew Christensen, two of the most distinguished developers and researchers of behavioral couple therapy, discussed a major change in their outlook. In those books-the first for therapists, the second for the lay public-they relate how they came to see forgiveness and acceptance as powerful tools to add to their previous emphasis on negotiating compromises, facilitating positive exchanges, and teaching communication and problem-solving skills. Examining outcome research for behavioral couple therapy, they found improvement rates without relapse at two years of about 50%,whichwas similar to the rate in other forms of couple therapy, and far better than no-treatment control groups. Exploring their data to see why this metaphorical glass was still only half full, the authors discovered that the couples who remained stuck with irreconcilable differences showed less capacity for accommodation, compromise, and collaboration, suggesting that a focus on those variables might be beneficial.
