GORDON A. GUNNELL, MS, PLC

 

From 1997 to 2002, Dr. William A. Griffin was my primary academic/thesis advisor and clinical supervisor in marriage/couples and family therapy at Arizona State University. In the early 1980's, Dr. Griffin was awarded a post-doctoral fellowship to work and study with Dr. Gottman at the University of Washington in Seattle. After completing his 3-year fellowship with Dr. Gottman, Dr. Griffin joined the faculty at Arizona State University. There he continued Dr. Gottman's research tradition by founding and directing the Marriage and Family Therapy Program and the Marital Interaction Laboratory. Dr. Griffin has authored two books: Family Therapy: Fundamentals of Theory and Practice and Models of Family Therapy: The Essential Guide. He has also authored scores of academic journal articles.  

Along with my 37 year marriage and family life experience, my later life education and training has significantly influenced my enjoyment of and effectiveness in helping couples experience real and lasting change for the better in their marriages and relationships. Though I believe that far too many marriages end in divorce that do not need to end in divorce, not all couples decide to stay together. I have not yet in my professional career uttered the words to a couple: "You should not be married/stay together". But some couples decide not to stay married/together. There are compelling reasons to end a marriage/relationship, but deciding what is compelling is a process that each couple must engage and experience, and the responsibility for the decision to stay together or not belongs to each couple.
            ALERT TO COUPLES SEEKING A MARRIAGE/COUPLES THERAPIST

 

Marital/couples therapy is a specialized form of therapy. Unfortunately, research seems to indicate that most mental health professionals who say they are doing marital/couples therapy in their practices have not been properly trained. This could explain why some couples become frustrated with their therapy experience. A 1997 study by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy found that less than 2 per cent (that's 2 in 100!!) private practice therapists in the United States who say they do marital/couples therapy received actual training or supervised experience working with couples pre or post education. Most therapists sincerely want to help couples. But--if a therapist's training is doing individual therapy, and that therapist sees a couple for relationship therapy, that therapist is likely to practice individual therapy with two people present. If so, that therapy is not marital/couples therapy. Only the profession of Marriage and Family Therapy, and the corresponding Marriage and Family Therapy license (LMFT), requires the comprehensive course work and supervised clinical experience to practice marital/couples therapy as it should be practiced--to change the relationship for the better, and reduce the risk of alienating one or both of the spouses/partners in the process. 

 

Dr. William Doherty, nationally respected marital researcher and author of "Take Back Your Marriage", "The Intentional Family", "Putting Family First", and others, is also the Clinical Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy program at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Doherty has stated, "Without training, the result [of marital/couples therapy] is often poor therapy for which couples often blame themselves rather than the therapist. Couples are playing Russian roulette with their marriages when they pick up the phone book and call a random therapist."

 

To educate couples, and help them connect with therapists who are trained and committed to helping save relationships, Dr. Doherty founded the National Registry of Marriage Friendly Therapists. Only therapists who support the goals of the National Registry of Marriage Friendly Therapists, and who have extensive supervised training in working with couples are permitted to be listed on this website. You will find me listed with this highly respected organization.