Marriage Encounter: A Critical Appraisal

This paper describes and evaluates the Marriage Encounter movement from theoretical and clinical perspectives. While acknowledging that Marriage Encounter responds to a need among many couples for greater marital closeness, the authors raise concerns about potentially destructive and illusory effects of the Marriage Encounter experience. The paper calls for more dialogue between professionals and leaders of the Marriage Encounter movement as well as for empirical evaluations of the program's effects.