2 7 Choice Outstanding Academic Title. This work is an exceptionally valuable and resourceful manual in that it elucidates protocols to be followed for each of the choices available to couples. It is strongly recommended for all professionals and students working with couples. (Choice) Students and lay professionals alike will find this resource very useful in how they view troubled relationships. (PsycCRITIQUES) Doherty and Harris have produced a masterful protocol for use with couples where one partner is ambivalent about divorcing and the other is not: discernment counseling. These skilled clinicians guide marriage therapists in a very practical overview of the one-to-five sessions of discernment counseling to help couples decide whether to divorce, do couples therapy, or stay the same. This invaluable book will help couples therapists avoid ineffective marriage counseling and unnecessary divorce. - Susan H. McDaniel, PhD, Dr. Laurie Sands Distinguished Professor of Families & Health; Director, Institute for the Family, Department of Psychiatry; Associate Chair, Department of Family Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY Not all partners in conflict enter couples therapy for the same purpose. Doherty and Harris show how to use discernment counseling to create a common therapeutic focus when mixed-agenda couples enter treatment. Bottom line: Working with couples without discernment is a waste of time. - Jon Carlson, PsyD, EdD, ABPP, Distinguished Professor, Adler University, Chicago, IL, and coeditor of The SAGE Encyclopedia of Marriage, Family, and Couples Counseling