Journal of Psychology and Christianity 2011, Vol. 30, No. 3, 213-222 Copyright 2011 Christian Association for Psychological Studies ISSN 0733-4273 213 review recent empirical research on Christian couple therapy and enrichment and to offer sug- gestions for researchers and clinicians based on these findings. First, we define Christian couple therapy. Second, we briefly review the empirical research on religious therapy in general and then Christian couple therapy and enrichment specifi- cally. Finally, we offer suggestions for researchers and clinicians. What Is Christian Couple Therapy? Defining Christian couple therapy has not been easy (McMinn, Staley, Webb, & Seegobin, 2010). One stumbling block to agreement is that researchers and clinicians might differ in their opinions of the minimum requirements of couple therapy to qualify as “Christian.” For example, if the therapist is a Christian, does that make the couple therapy “Christian,” regardless of the faith commitment of the couple? What if one partner is a Christian, but the other partner is not? Do Christian faith commitments of the therapist and couple provide the minimum requirements to make the couple therapy “Christian,” or must reli- gious techniques such as prayer or references to Scripture be present to make a couple therapy “Christian?” These questions are especially impor- tant in research settings in which different types of therapies are compared with each other. Ripley and Worthington (1998) identified four uniquely Christian themes that are often present in Christian couple therapy. First, Christian cou- ple therapists often emphasize Christian marriage as a covenant instead of a contract. Viewing marriage as a covenant emphasizes individual sacrifice, commitment, vow-taking, treating the couple as the primary unit of the marriage, and Christian Approaches for Helping Couples: Review of Empirical Research and Recommendations for Clinicians Joshua N. Hook Jennifer S. Ripley University of North Texas Regent University Everett L. Worthington, Jr. Don E. Davis Virginia Commonwealth University Georgia State University Several Christian approaches are available to help couples who are having relationship prob- lems (Worthington, 1996). Indeed, Christian cou- ple therapy and enrichment are popular and widely practiced, with many Christian therapists seeing large numbers of couples each year (Hook & Worthington, 2009). Furthermore, numerous Christian approaches exist to help couples prepare for marriage (e.g., Combs, Buf- ford, Campbell, & Halter, 2000; Ripley, Parrott, Worthington, & Parrott, 2000; Trathen, 1995). Although many words have been written describing and extolling approaches to Christian couple therapy and enrichment, historically there has been little effort to examine these approaches empirically (Hook & Worthington, 2009; Ripley & Worthington, 1998). Indeed, in their review on Christian couple therapy, Ripley and Worthington (1998) reported that empirical research on Christian couple therapy was virtu- ally nonexistent, and they called for more research in this area. In the past decade, the research base on Christian couple therapy and enrichment has slowly developed. Furthermore, there has also been an increase in research on religious therapy in general (Worthington, Hook, Davis & McDaniel, 2011), and these findings aid our understanding of Christian couple approach- es. Thus, the purpose of the present article is to The authors would like to thank the American Association of Christian Counselors Foundation for funding a portion of the present research in a grant to the third author. Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Joshua N. Hook, Ph.D., Uni- versity of North Texas, Department of Psychology, 1155 Union Circle #311280, Denton, TX 76203; joshua.hook@unt.edu. Explicitly Christian approaches for couple therapy and enrichment are popular and widely practiced. However, historically there has been little empirical research supporting these approaches. In the present article, we review recent research on religious therapy in general, and Christian couple therapy and enrichment in particular. Based on this review, we offer practical suggestions for researchers and clini- cians interested in Christian couple therapy and enrichment.