Partnering: A New Kind of Relationship

by Hal Stone and Sidra L. Stone

Book Overview

Famed therapists Hal and Sidra Stone show readers how to turn their relationships into true "joint ventures" - ones in which partners balance their need for relationship with their need for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1577311078
• ISBN13: 9781577311072
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: New World Library
• Length: 251 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Giving Your Relationship a Clean Start, Instead of a Clean Break

I'm working through PARTNERING, and it's awesome. Hal & Sidra Stone's main premises are: 1. An individual is made up of several selves... primary selves and discarded selves. 2. We attract into our lives people who 'carry' our discarded selves. 3. We manifest different selves depending on context, and what self our partner is presenting to us. 4. These selves interact differently with each other. 5. Being aware of which self is communicating (in both you and your partner) clears the way for compassionate and unloaded commuication and loving. 6. Being presented with your discarded selves is a gift to allow you to reclaim them, and operate from a place they call 'the aware ego'. 7. Integrating these selves gives you balance, and allows harmonious relationship. I wrote 'S' a long email last night, trying to offer her a glimpse of the turmoil within me. Parts of me reallllly love her and want her. Other 'selves' within me are irritated with her, angry with her. I wanted her to see that this is NOT a simple, cut-and-dried case of 'we're not a good match'. Cos we ARE a good match. We've got powerful stuff to teach each other and learn from each other. It's weird. I'm about a quarter of the way through the book, and it's like a weight has been lifted off me. I've been trying to be perfect for 'S'. And I've kind of expected and demanded that she be perfect for me. Now, I'm sitting here feeling grateful to her for showing me the parts of myself that I need to get back in touch with. Cos those discarded selves she 'carries' are the bits I threw away through co-dependence and abuse as a child. If you want to start cleaning up your relationship, I seriously recommend that you get this book.

Empower yourself, your relationships, the world!

I have studied and used the concepts developed by the Stones and described in "Partnering" for several years. If I had been taught these skills in my youth I may not have married my ex-wife, if we had still married I think we would still be married, and if the divorce still occurred it would have been a far healthier process. These concepts and tools are making a fundamental shift in my relationships and in my growth as a person. I will be using this model of self-understanding and relationships for the remainder of my life. These concepts also provide tools for truly valuing diversity, putting yourself in the other persons shoes, and giving the space for others to be all that that they can be. These principles have profound leadership implications.

Information You Always Wanted to Know About Relationships

As a Licensed Marriage and Familiy Therapist, I have found Hal and Sidra Stone's work to be the best model of understanding and working with couples that I have encountered. I am delighted to give this testimonial because their work has enriched my personal relationships as well as my work with couples. The Stones understand and convey to the reader the dynamics that create misunderstanding and pain in relationship, and give clear direction on how to create truly successful, soulful relationships. Couples love this non-pathological approach to understanding relationships. Hal and Sidra Stone go way beyond communication skills, helping couples to express their vulnerability in ways that lead to genuine empathy and intimacy. In addition, the descriptions of the energetic and non-verbal aspects of relationships help make sense of relationships in ways no other modality touches. This book is great for individuals, couples or therapists who want a fresh, brilliant new approach to making relationships work!

Review-Partering

Partnering by Hal and Sidra Stone Hal and Sidra Stone's new book Partnering suggests that vulnerability is the key to an intimate relationship. Being open and in touch with one's vulnerability is no easy task. This book, however, helps tremendously. It not only offers conceptual and spiritual guidance, but also has many practical suggestions, which are helpful on this journey. We have found this book to be helpful in guiding and solidifying our own relationship, and have also used it extensively with other couples. This new book is an important addition to the Stones' already substantial contribution to the journey of consciousness.LeAnne Dougherty, LCSW, DSW Adjunct Pro. UT College of Social Work Private PracticeJohn H. Dougherty, Jr. M.D. Director, Cole Neuroscience Center Clinical Assistant Professor Medicine (Neurology) University of Tennessee Medical -Knoxville

PARTNERING - THIS ONE WORKS!

Partnering requires relationship techniques that can be learned, it is not a theory or model it is a set of skills. Like any other skill, partnering also requires commitment if you are to learn it. And as with any skill it is best taught by those who have already learned that skill and have practiced it themselves. Hal and Sidra have certainly done that. `Partnering' A new kind of Relationship, does more than explain partnering. One of the many things I like about the book is the number of practical exercises that couples can use by themselves to develop their partnering skills, in particular the experience of linkage, openness, and intimacy plus of course the wonderful possibilities that open up to a couple when they use voice dialogue.  It is the only book I have read that can actually help a couple improve their relationship, working by themselves (and so many couples need that).