ABSTRACT
T h e purpose of this chapter is to include and survey programs of intervent ion w i t h marriages and families that do not fall w i t h i n the topic of " t h e r a p e u t i c " i n t e r v e n t i o n s or " t h e r a p y " as understood and discussed i n other chapters of this Handbook. T h e last decade has seen the upsurge of n e w methods of intervention w h i c h seem to possess the same characteristics, i . e . , (a) t i m e - l i m i t e d contracts; (b) specific topics already agreed upon by clients; (c) application to couples and families who w o u l d not be def ined as " c l i n i c a l " but w h o , however , are aware of their need for some form of intervention that w o u l d not be therapy and w h i c h w o u l d not, therefore, define them as " s i ck" or as "emot ionally i m p a i r e d , " even though there is sti l l a need for (d) a form of specific ski l l t raining that is not necessarily or iented toward changing the basic structure of the couple or the family. Consequent ly , (e) the goals of these ski l l training programs are education-or enr ichment-or iented rather than therapeutic.
