Journal of Financial Therapy
Volume 7 Issue 2 Article 8
December 2016
Book Review: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
Neal Van Zutphen
Intrinsic Wealth Counsel
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Van Zutphen, N. (2016). Book Review: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work. Journal of
Financial Therapy, 7 (2) 8. https://doi.org/10.4148/1944-9771.1141
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Journal of Financial Therapy Volume 7, Issue 2 (2016)
Book Review
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
Neal Van Zutphen, M.S.
Gottman, J. M. & Silver, N. (2015). The seven principles for making marriage work: A
practical guide from the country's foremost relationship expert. (2nd ed.). 320 pp.,
$9.59, ISBN: 978-0553447712.
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work is a relationship self-help book for
individuals who have chosen to be in a relationship and also those who aspire to be in a
relationship. This book has proven helpful to those in relationship counseling and coaching
professions as well. The principles, quizzes, and exercises were developed and refined
based on 42 years of clinical research and “longitudinal data on the importance of marital
friendship” (p. xvi). The book covers why marriages work and why they fail. The seven
principles provide the roadmap to ways of being together and methods for resolving
conflicts and solving problems, including money.
The Seven Principles are based on in-depth studies of over 700 couples in seven
different studies (Gottman & Silver, p. 8). The studies revealed how successful couples
communicated and successfully negotiated disagreements resulting in positive outcomes
and stronger bonds. The studies also revealed that couples knew each other well enough to
know how to avoid situational triggers that might lead to unsolvable issues.
SUCCESS
Successful couples are emotionally intelligent and find ways to keep negative
thoughts and feelings from overwhelming positive thoughts and feelings every day
(Gottman & Silver, p. 4). Successful couples build on their friendship and strengths. They
value each other as individuals and their couple-ship. They love and appreciate each other.
They maintain a sense of friendship, support, understanding, warmth, affection, and caring
for each other. They feel empathy, acceptance, and authenticity toward each other.
Successful couples feel a strong sense of safety in their relationship (Gottman & Silver, pp.
4-6, 16, 18-19). Successful couples also nurture their relationship, and the principles
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The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work
provide them the means to deepen their relationships as well as tools to resolve conflicts
and solve problems. When successful couples experience emotionally escalating arguments
they are able to offer and accept attempts to repair that prevent emotional flooding and
deescalate tensions.
FAILURE
The authors also identify the reasons relationships fail. These relationships fail to
nurture their friendship and arguments begin with harsh start-ups and embrace what the
authors call the “Four Horsemen” of (a) criticism, (b) contempt, (c) defensiveness, and (d)
stonewalling. Stonewalling is the fourth and most difficult emotional response to conflict
and stress. It “is a protection against feeling psychologically and physically overwhelmed”
(Gottman & Silver, p. 40). Research has shown that couples who exhibit harsh start-ups, the
four horsemen, and the inability to recognize repair attempts end up divorced 90% or
more of the time. The key in marriages that succeed is the couples’ ability to recognize and
accept repair attempts (Gottman & Silver, p. 45).
“The Seven Principles … are the cornerstones for short-term do-it-yourself
experiential therapy for couples” (Gottman & Silver, p. 9). Each of the Seven Principles uses
self-assessments for couples to begin conversations and learn about each other. The
questionnaires and assessments facilitate the understanding and integration of the
individual partner’s characteristics. The Seven Principles outlined by Gottman and Silver
are: (a) enhance your love maps; (b) nurture your fondness and admiration, (c) turn
toward each other instead of away, (d) let your partner influence you, (e) solve your
solvable problems, (f) overcome gridlock, and (g) create shared meaning.
The focus of the first three principles is on building and renewing friendship and
enhancing the couples’ “positive sentiment override” (p. 22). The remaining principles are
designed to help couples learn and understand how to handle arguments, offer and
recognize attempts to repair, and engage in positive ways when they are not fighting. The
last principle explores building shared focus and meaning.
WHAT ABOUT MONEY
The book includes a section on basic budgeting and financial planning and
encourages compromises to ensure the couple is spending within their means and saving
appropriate for future needs. The reader is potentially left with the idea that this is easily
done. The book does not discuss dysfunctional money beliefs or behaviors and pairing the
book with financial therapy tools and techniques could enhance the couples’ understanding
of how each individual deals with money.
APPLICATIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
One practical application would simply be to gift the book to couples seeking to
enhance their relationship, as simply reading and doing the exercises have proven
efficacious.
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Journal of Financial Therapy Volume 7, Issue 2 (2016)
When interviewing prospective clients, the planner or therapist should listen for
how positive their stories are about their courtship and the early years of their marriage.
The more positive the stories, the greater the likelihood the couple has a strong friendship
and bond. Negative memories, or no memories at all, are an indication of marital difficulties
and may present hidden challenges and resistance to the personal financial planning
process and recommendations. It may also indicate the need for therapy beyond the scope
of the planner or financial therapist.
In conversations with clients, listen for and look for harsh start-ups and negative
interactions referred to as the Four Horsemen. When discussions start off negatively, there
is a high probability they will end negatively. Harsh start-ups may begin with accusations,
sarcasm, cynicism, and/or criticism. These harsh start-ups are about the other person’s
character or personality. When conversations go negative, it is time to take a break, to de-
escalate, and regroup. The planner or therapist should attempt to redirect the focus toward
other less contentious topics. This may reduce the risk of the couple becoming emotionally
flooded, which is an emotional state which prevents the individual from reasonable and
constructive dialogue (Gottman & Silver, pp. 30-45).
The Seven Principles includes tips for stress-reducing conversations, dealing with
anger, sadness, and fear, and exercises for building mutual respect. The communication tips
and strategies serve the couple in financial therapy as well as other interpersonal
communications. In financial therapy couples, explore their relationship with money and
their value systems with the goal of resolving money issues. The money issues may be
solvable with new knowledge, or they may need better financial management skills
development.
For the planner or therapist, helping the couple build a successful couple-ship will
help couples develop the “tools” to deal with money stress and dysfunctions. The Seven
Principles is a great book for any person seeking better relationships. Both planners and
therapists could benefit themselves and their clients by first practicing The Seven
Principles and learn firsthand the power of this evidence-based process to a happier,
healthier, and wealthier way of being.
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