The National Institute of Relationship Enhancement® (NIRE), is a non-profit educational corporation, founded by the late Bernard Guerney, Jr., Ph.D. (1930-2019) in 1992 in an effort to promote and support healthy relationships. Dr. Guerney was internationally recognized as one of the most prominent and innovative practitioners of marital and family therapy.
As seen on his NIRE website bio; His methods were developed and refined in over thirty five years of practicing, teaching and supervising individual, marital, group, and family therapy. His presentations and workshops elicited high praise and great enthusiasm on four continents. For their work in developing Relationship Enhancement® therapy and enrichment methods, Dr. Guerney and his wife, Dr. Louise Guerney, won several national awards. He was a fellow in five APA divisions, a Diplomate in Clinical Psychology, Counseling and Psychotherapy, Behavioral Medicine, and Marital/Family Therapy, a certified group therapist, and an AAMFT-Approved Supervisor. Dr. Guerney served as the Director of NIRE, Adjunct Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, and Professor Emeritus of Family Studies and of Counseling Psychology at Pennsylvania State University, where he founded and directed its Individual and Family Consultation Center for 25 years. Alone, or with others, he produced over 80 articles and chapters, four books, and numerous manuals, training tapes, and films in the areas of individual, marital, group, and family therapy. He served on the editorial board of many marital and family therapy journals. He was one Salvador Minuchin’s co-authors of the family therapy classic Families of the Slums. Dr. Guerney’s own book, Relationship Enhancement: Skill Training Programs for Therapy, Problem Prevention, and Enrichment has been called, by Dr. Douglas Sprenkle, “a seminal and potentially revolutionary work … perhaps the best … integration of theory, research, and practice in the family intervention field.”
