Engaging Couples: New Directions in Therapeutic Work with Families edited by Andrew Balfour, Christopher Clulow, and Kate Thompson London:  Routledge, 2019,  240 pages.

Given the expertise of this book's editors it comes as no surprise that it is well-presented, expertly researched, and useful.

Engaging Couples, like many edited volumes, provides a wealth of expertise from many different perspectives. There are chapters on working with violence, working with a mentalization-based approach, addressing sexuality in the partnership, working with divorce, and with couples in which one member has dementia. At first it appears a relatively small book but this is deceptive. Each chapter is partnered with a commentary that offers a reflection of the work and its context and which brings forth and highlights specific aspects of each that merit extra emphasis. The effect is of a mirror of the couple having successful intercourse; the creative half that produces the work and the “other” which protects, nurtures, and enhances the work produced.

The first “chapter”, which is in fact the introduction, is a setting of the scene, elegantly dealt with by Susanna Abse. She introduces the theme of couples in a social, historical, and political context, particularly in terms of governmental policy and expenditure. We as therapists offer our clinical services in response to distress. That a significant percentage of the UK population is