The third shift: Addressing emotion work in couple therapy.

Research on the gendered division of household work in western political economies often neglects its emotional dimensions. This conceptual paper draws on concepts of emotion work and feminist care ethics to explore gendered and intersecting divisions of emotions and emotional work in couple relationships and their implications for couple therapy. Although emotion work has been studied in workplace settings, less attention has been paid to inequalities in the privatized realm of interpersonal relationships, including romantic and filial ones.

Gendering of care and care inequalities in couple therapy.

Reciprocal partner or spousal caregiving in romantic relationships has been identified as a key determinant of the quality of couple relationships. In this article, we interrogate this premise concerning the presumed reciprocity of caregiving in romantic relationships, focusing on cisgender heterosexual relationships and offering implications for relationships of all genders and sexualities. Looking beyond the conventional focus on individual or dyadic processes, we theorize imbalances in care as gendered.

Brief psychological distress screening on a cancer helpline: How nurses introduce, and callers respond to, the Distress Thermometer.

Purpose: Helplines are increasingly used to provide information and support for people affected by cancer, and the distress routinely associated with diagnosis and treatment is a major focus for those providing such care. Little is known, however, about how the Distress Thermometer (DT), a widely used tool for the assessment of patient/carer distress on cancer-support telephone helplines, is introduced and used in such settings.

Method: Using the method of conversation analysis, we present a qualitative analysis of DT use in actual telephone interactions by looking closely at how particular practices shape interaction on a cancer helpline.

The politics of vulnerable masculinity in couple therapy.

Couple therapy and related literature has problematized men's emotional inexpressiveness as constraining for men and as contributing to men's privileged and dominating position vis-à-vis women. Fostering men's emotionality in and outside of therapy has been proposed as a way to improve men's well-being and relationships and promote gender equality. Critical masculinity scholars have noted that many men now enact vulnerable ("softer") and emotional forms of masculinity.