Getting it Right This Time: How to Create a Loving and Lasting Marriage

According to a recent issue of the National Vital Statistics Reports (the monthly publication of the National Center for Health Statistics), there were approximately 2.25 million licensed marriages in the year 2002. During the same period, 1.14 million partnerships were dissolved through a divorce. Another on-line source, DivorceMag.com offers the discouraging tidbit that the likelihood of all new marriages made in the United States in 1997 to end in divorce is 43%. These figures are indicative of national and world-wide trends that have held fairly constant over the past few years, suggesting that divorce will continue to be a common experience for the foreseeable future. Barry and Emily McCarthy, realists in today's world (despite a 38-year first marriage), present the inevitable sequel to Getting It Right the First Time. In Getting It Right This Time, we pick up when the lessons offered in the first book didn't quite hit home, and the romance, myth, and wonder of passionate sexdidn't develop into a solid foundation for marriage. What went wrong, what can we learn from the mistakes of a first marriage, and how can we move on to start over? In the authors' own words, "there are two crucial learnings from a divorce. The first is to identify vulnerabilities and traps, so they do not control your life and the potential of a subsequent marriage. The second is the commitment to create a second marriage and family which is satisfying and stable." Getting It Right This Time contains information, guidelines, case studies, and exercises, useable individually or as a couple. Chapters are self-contained, stand-alone units focused on topics such as: Intimacy and sexuality Step-parenting Dealing with the ex-spouse Marrying after 50 Financial issues Having a child in a second marriage. Sticking with the writing style and format that has worked in their previous two Routledge books, the authors have againcombined empirical research and experience in practice and therapy with insight and sensitivity to present a unique approach at forming a second marriage. The text has two central focuses: first, divorce is not a failing, but rather a courageous act that can improve your life, and second, that re-marriage is an important choice, and one that should be carefully considered - but one that can lead to a successful, rewarding, and loving second chance. * Authoritative * Contains questionnaires and self-help activities * Author known to booksellers, and available for publicity * The McCarthys earlier book, Rekindling Desire, has sold over 18,000 copies since its publication in 2003 and Getting It Right the First Time, has sold over 4,000 copies since its publication in 2004.

Barry McCarthy, Ph.D. is Professor of Psychology at American University