Join Dr. Diane Gehart for a FREE Training! 

Book Cover of Mastering Competencies in Family Therapy, 4th Ed.

In 2023-2024, I will be re-recording many of my YouTube lectures as I launch the 4th edition of Mastering Competencies in Family Therapy and prepare for the 3rd Edition of Theory and Treatment Planning in Psychotherapy.

I have the option of recording these alone, but I prefer to record them while in dialogue with someone like YOU!

If you would like to be a part of the live recording and discussion, join my mailing list to get your invitation links: www.therapythatworksinstitute.com

You will find links to upcoming scheduled events below. 

Book Cover of Theory and Treatment Planning in Counseling and Psychotherapy 2nd Ed.

Register for Upcoming Free Training in April! 

Internal Family Systems

Thursday, April 18

1:00-2:00pm PDT
4:00-5:00pm EDT
20:00-21:00 UTC/GMT

Register to save your seat and ask your questions live.

Seating is limited and offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Register for Upcoming Free Training in May! 

Symbolic-Experiential Family Therapy

Tuesday, May 14th

12:00-1:00 pm PDT 
3:00-4:00 pm EDT 
19:00-20:00 UTC/GMT

Register to save your seat and ask your questions live.

Seating is limited and offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Register for Upcoming Free Training in June! 

Bowen Intergenerational Family Therapy

Thursday, June 6th

1:00-2:00 pm PDT
4:00-5:00 pm EDT
20:00-21:00 UTC/GMT

Register to save your seat and ask your questions live.

Seating is limited and offered on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Dr. Diane Gehart  

Therapist | Author | Mental Health Expert

A best-selling author and award-winning educator, Dr. Diane Gehart has authored over 14 books that have been translated into numerous languages. She is the founder and director of the Therapy that Works Institute, training thousands of mental health clinicians around the globe.

Her authored works include popular books such as Mindfulness for Chocolate Lovers: A Lighthearted Way to Stress Less and Savor More Each Day and professional titles such as Mastering Competencies in Family Therapy, Theory and Treatment Planning in Counseling and PsychotherapyCollaborative Therapy: Relationships and Conversations that Make a Difference, and Mindfulness and Acceptance in Couple and Family Therapy.

Her work has been featured in newspapers, radio shows, and television worldwide, including the BBC, National Public Radio, Oprah’s O Magazine, and Ladies Home Journal.

She is a Professor and Program Coordinator in the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at California State University, Northridge, Adjunct Faculty at Chaminade University in Honolulu, Hawai'i, and maintains a private practice in the Los Angeles area.

Recent Publications

Mastering Competencies in Family Therapy, 4th Ed.

Purchase from Cengage
Purchase from Amazon
Purchase from Barnes and Noble

Released April 28, 2023



This text is designed for:

  • Family therapy courses
  • Clinical skills courses
  • Practicum and fieldwork courses
  • Use across multiple courses
  • License exam preparation


Mastering Competencies in Family Therapy is designed to be an efficient and highly effective means of teaching new therapists to master the essential competencies necessary to succeed in doing couples and family therapy in the 21st century. As an instructor in an accredited program and university that is required to measure student learning, I needed something that would enable me to effectively measure student learning. Although I created comprehensive assessment systems for measuring student mastery of competencies (Gehart, 2007, 2009), I realized that in order to do so, the students needed resources that provided them with the detailed knowledge to develop real-world skills. In short, I needed something more than a text that simply offered solid but old school “book knowledge”; I needed a resource that eloquently responded to my students’ everyday training experiences and needs. This book was written to be the missing link between theory and practice that my students needed.

Free Textbook Forms Here

Collaborative-Dialogic Practice:
Relationships and Conversations that make a Difference Across Contexts and Cultures

Edited by Harlene Anderson and Diane Gehart

Have you ever wondered how to successfully communicate with someone who sees the world from an entirely different angle than you do?

Often the chasm between those holding differing views seems impossible to navigate, even with the best of intentions.

Whether you work in a boardroom, schoolroom, therapy room, or community organization, Collaborative-Dialogic Practice offers a humanizing approach to facilitating dialogues that make a difference in our fast-changing, diverse, and ever-shrinking world.

These practices encourage relationships and conversations that create a generative space and promote meaningful transformations, even in the most difficult situations. This approach involves an epistemological and mindset shift in how we think about ourselves, the people we meet, what we do together, and how we do it. Grounded in social constructionism, the main feature of the practice, the philosophical stance, guides the professional in particular ways of being, talking, thinking, and acting with others.

Rather than assuming an expert position of authoritative knowledge, collaborative practitioners use curiosity, not-knowing, and uncertainty to engage others in meaningful dialogue that generates new understandings, informing future possibilities that were previously unimagined by either person alone.

Learn More Here
Back to Top