For much of the last century, there has been a longstanding and largely unchallenged position held by providers in the substance abuse treatment community, as well as by the public more generally, that alcoholism and drug abuse are fundamentally problems of the individual and are thus most appropriately addressed on an individual basis. More recently, however, awareness of family members' potentially crucial roles in addictive behavior has grown. As understanding has evolved as to how family interaction and dynamics influence substance abuse etiology, maintenance, relapse, and recovery, treatment providers and researchers alike have placed increased emphasis on viewing drinking and drug use from a systemic perspective and, in turn, on treating the family as an approach to addressing members' substance abuse. This is now reflected in different elements of how substance abuse treatment is conceptualized and delivered in contemporary community practice. For example, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Health Care Organizations (JCAHO) standard for accrediting substance abuse treatment programs in the United States now requires that an adult family member who lives with an identified substance-abusing patient be included at least in the initial assessment (Brown, O'Farrell, Maisto, Boies, & Suchinsky, 1997).Of the various family-based intervention approaches that have been developed and used by providers to treat substance abuse by adults, partner-involved therapies have received the most attention. Indeed, among the various psychosocial interventions presently available to treat alcoholism and substance abuse, it could be reasonably argued that partnerinvolved treatments are the most broadly efficacious. There is not only substantial empirical support for the use of couple-based treatments in terms of improvements in primary targeted outcomes such as substance use and relationship adjustment, but also in other areas that are of clear public health significance, including intimate partner violence, children's adjustment, and cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness.