Stress and Marriage The Conflict-Reducing, Intimacy-Enhancing, Problem-Solving Guide to a Better Marriage

New York: Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., 1996. 2 cm Scrape on Front Cover; Light Creasing on Front Cover; Front, Rear Covers, Spine Lightly Chipped; Light Sticker Pull to Front Cover; Moderate Yellowing Due to Age. Discover hidden resources in your relationship; Solve disagreements without anger; Overcome destructive habits; Restore loving communication. TEXT DESIGN BY: Stanley S. Drate/Folio Graphics Co. Inc. COVER DESIGN BY: Brigid Pearson. CONTENTS: Foreword; Introduction; I DEFINING YOUR MARITAL STRESS PROBLEMS 1 Stress and Marriage 2 How Stressful Is Your Marriage? II ANALYZING YOUR MARITAL STRESS PROBLEMS 3 Rules of Engagement 4 Stress Points and Fracture Lines 5 Matchmaker, Matchmaker 6 Make Love, Not War 7 Yours, Mine, and Ours 8 Making It Better III MAKING YOUR MARITAL STRESS ACTION PLANS 9 Fight, Flee, or Flow 10 Don't' Just Stand There 11 Calling It Quits 12 Staying the Course; Appendix I A Brief Relaxation Exercise; Appendix II Additional Readings; Index. SYNOPSIS: While writing their acclaimed The Stress Solution, husband-and-wife authors Lyle Miller and Alma Dell Smith realized that marriage is one of life's most potent sources of stress--yet it can also be a lifesaving refuge from outside tensions. Now drawing on their unique resources as directors at the Biobehavioral Institute in Boston and as a couple, they provide invaluable guidance in this reassuring book. While no intimate relationship can ever be stress-free, Stress and Marriage helps you protect yourself from the devastating physical and emotional consequences of mismanaged, misunderstood, or just plain ignored stress. Use proven clinical tools, including the Marital Stress Inventory and the Making It Better Questionnaire, to pinpoint sources of stress in your relationship and formulate a customized Marital Stress Action Plan. You'll also find case studies throughout that are powerfully enlightening. Stress and Marriage provides clear, practical methods and examples that will help couples understand each other better, significantly relieve the tension in their lives, and positively transform their marriages. Even if your partner never reads a page of this book, you'll learn ways to change your communicating style that will reduce marital discord and lead you to a calmer, happier, healthier life. - and - Stress and Marriage will help you discover: The "life script" you created in childhood, and how it can backfire on you today; Ways to avoid making personal, permanent, and pervasive criticisms that fuel bickering, arguments, and fights; Which of the three action strategies--fighting, fleeing, and flowing--best suits a particular problem; How your birth order tendencies can mesh or clash with your mate's; Negotiation techniques in power struggles over money, children, sex, careers, time, and space; The crucial difference between privacy and secrecy; Nonverbal messages that can sabotage your spoken statements; What you can do to build on the good things your mate does; The benefits of acknowledging differences in culture, intellectual style, energy level, and other areas. Lyle H. Miller, Ph.D., is the founder and director of the Biobehavioral Institute of Boston. He has held a number of academic posts, including professor and chairman of the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences at Boston University Medical Center. He has appeared as a stress expert on Donahue and Hour Magazine. Dr. Miller is the coauthor, with his wife, Alma Dell Smith, and Larry Rothstein, of The Stress Solution. Alma Dell Smith holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Georgia, and a certification from the American Board of Professional Psychology. She is director of the Biobehavioral Institute's Treatment Center, where she specializes in women's issues and couples counseling, as well as the treatment of sexual dysfunction and stress-related disorders.. First Edition 1st Printing. Trade Paperback. Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.