The new edition of this well-known text addresses the plurality of family life today, and considers the way in which the changeable 'theory of family' has influenced the approaches of those working with families. The emphasis in this 2nd edition is on working in a context of cultural diversity and in which life transitions such as marriage, divorce and bereavement, affect the lives of all families, be they multi- or lone-parent, gay or heterosexual. This is an essential text for therapists and counsellors, both in training and in practice, who work with families.

Sixty is the new forty. Changing Aging, Changing Family Therapy gives family therapists a roadmap for adapting to the new realities of aging.

Men have long been considered difficult to engage in psychotherapy, often being described as resistant, unworkable, and unfeeling. The few available books that deal specifically with men's issues tend to lack a central theoretical focus, are highly psychoanalytic in content, or simply do not provide specific guidelines for working with men. This unique and timely volume fills an important gap in the literature by demonstrating why change is often so difficult for them. It provides detailed guidelines for helping men initiate and sustain change in their personal, familial, and professional lives.

No other book in the field so fully combines vivid clinical examples, specific details of technique, and mature perspectives on both effectively functioning families and those seeking therapy. The views and strategies of a master clinician are presented here in such clear and precise form that readers can proceed directly from the book with comparisons and modifications to suit their own styles and working situations. Salvador Minuchin presents six chapter-length transcripts of actual family sessions—two devoted to ordinary families who are meeting their problems with relative success; four concerned with families seeking help. Accompanying each transcript is the author’s running interpretation of what is taking place, laying particular stress on the therapist’s tactics and maneuvers. These lively sessions are interpreted in a brilliant theoretical analysis of why families develop problems and what it takes to set them right. The author constructs a model of an effectively functioning family and defines the boundaries around its different subsystems, whether parental, spouse, or sibling. He discusses ways in which families adapt to stress from within and without, as they seek to survive and grow. Dr. Minuchin describes methods of diagnosing or “mapping” problems of the troubled family and determining appropriate therapeutic goals and strategies. Different situations, such as the extended family, the family with a parental child, and the family in transition through death or divorce, are examined. Finally, the author explores the dynamics of change, examining the variety of restructuring operations that can be employed to challenge a family and to change its basic patterns.

If individuals cannot adequately be understood without reference to the family system, families themselves are comprehensible only in a broader social context. FAMILIES AND LARGER SYSTEMS is the first single-author book on families and larger systems designed specifically for the practicing therapist. It offers rich descriptions of the difficulties families and larger systems often pose for one another; presents a detailed assessment model for therapists; and provides a careful interviewing format as well as directions for designing creative interventions. Imber-Black offers a consultation model for dealing with families and larger systems who have become embroiled with one another, and methods for longer term work with those families who must engage with larger systems across significant portions of their life cycle, due to illness, handicaps, or poverty. Problems of labeling, stigma, and secrecy in families are addressed, and an entire chapter is devoted to women's issues in families and related systems. Utilizing numerous case illustrations and interview excerpts, Dr, Imber-Black first delineates the problems common to family-larger system situations, analyzing the origins of these interactions, the assessment model and interviewing methods used, and the design and implementation of intervention. In the second half of her book, she presents in-depth discussions of strategies for improving the relationship between families and related systems. Through concrete example and hands-on analysis, Imber-Black shows how the misconceptions, assumptions, and subsequent labeling of family functioning and family members give rise to stalemated situations. FAMILIES AND LARGER SYSTEMS provides a practical guide for all clinicians regardless of theoretical orientation. Therapists who wish to maintain a career in public sector settings, such as mental health clinics, hospitals, and schools, will find in this volume direction for effective work with families and the maintenance of good working relationships with colleagues. Therapists in private practice will discover that Imber-Black's model will aid their conceptualization of cases that have involved multiple therapists or other practitioners. Much of the material presented will also be useful to human services workers, both professional and paraprofessional, in welfare, child welfare, probation, drug counseling, schools and other institutions. The book's ecological viewpoint, which enables such professionals to see their own position in the system, also helps them to avoid the traps of replicating existing patterns, and to position themselves for therapeutic change. Finally, this book will be of interest to human service system administrators and program planners. The case examples offer a seldom seen view of the struggles families and multiple helpers can have with one another, while its theoretical models can be utilized to assess current inter-systematic functioning among larger systems in a community, with implications for program design and burn-out prevention.

This substantially revised, expanded and updated edition of the popular Handbook of Theory for Practice Teachers is a comprehensive summary of the theory, knowledge, research and evidence relating to practice learning in social care. Focussing on knowledge-based practice with a focus on improving outcomes, the five sections of the book cover: * the reasons and circumstances in which people may become social work service users * a holistic consideration of assessment in general and specific contexts, including risk assessment and management * methods of intervention, including cognitive behavioural social work, task centred practice, advocacy, crisis intervention, family therapy and group care * the legal, policy, research and evidence context in which assessment and intervention occur, as well as interdisciplinary work and organisational aspects of social work practice * reflective practice, evaluation and evidence based practice as integral parts of social workers' engagement with the complex needs of individuals outside the existing parameters of policy or research findings. This key text is essential reading for students, practitioners and teachers in social work.

You often see books on theoretical approaches and new interventions in therapy, but you rarely, if ever, find a book where therapists discuss their personal reactions to and views of the therapy they offer. In this amazing volume, Tales from Family Therapy: Life-Changing Clinical Experiences, psychologists, psychotherapists, and marriage and family counselors come together to share their unique experiences in therapy sessions and how they’ve learned that often the clients know more than they do! As you will see, and as these therapists reveal, sometimes all the top-notch and most innovative theories in the world won’t help a client in distress. Tales from Family Therapy isn’t just about therapists learning a lesson or two from their clients. It’s about compassion, healing, being taken by surprise, thinking on your toes, and encouraging people to believe in their strengths--not just their weaknesses. These stories represent to the authors some of the most special, most rewarding, and most puzzling moments in all their years of therapy. They invite you to share in their recollections and discussions of: the power of speaking accepting, respecting, and working with the realities clients bring the importance of first impressions in counseling how personal narratives develop through relationship coloring outside the lines of the dominant culture helping clients determine when rocking the boat is needed listening to your clients and not just your theories developing the self-of-therapist In the therapy room anything can happen, and as Tales from Family Therapy shows, anything does. Graduate students, counselors, licensed therapists, family educators, and family sciences professionals, as well as lay readers, will find this insightful book a helpful forum where the struggles, doubts, and triumphs of psychotherapy are revealed to encourage and inspire those who participate in the therapeutic process.