Dan Wile, Ph.D.

Daniel B. Wile, nationally and internationally known founder and developer of Collaborative Couple Therapy, died in his Oakland California home on March 18, 2020, after a long struggle with heart failure. With a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966, Dan went on to a distinguished career as a therapist, author and teacher.

Dan Wile’s impact on the field of couples therapy in America stems in large part from three books: Couples therapy: A nontraditional approach (1981); After the fight: using your disagreements to build a stronger relationship (1993); and After the honeymoon: how conflict can improve your relationship (revised 2008). Dan also described his approach in numerous articles and in a blog he maintained for couple therapists over the last years. His final book, Solving the moment: a collaborative couple therapy manual, distills and integrates the main principles of his work as it evolved over his forty-five year career. He saw this book as his most significant written legacy, and it was published posthumously by his wife and colleague Dorothy Kaufmann.