Why a new book on stress when so many are already available? There is widespread awareness of the impact of scientific research in this field, both theoretical and practical. Scores of articles and books have been published. What is especially exciting about the range of theories and ideas presented in this book is that they derive from a variety of different intellectual traditions and scientific disciplines. The book is not an attempt to replace more extensive or basic treatments of this subject. Rather, it seeks to present the authors viewpoints together with data and methodological applications based on their personal experience in a straightforward manner. A number of the articles were commissioned some time ago, when Horst Mayer decided to publish the papers presented at a symposium which he organized in Heidelberg under the auspices of the German College of Psychosomatic Medicine. Others emerged from later contacts with authors in different parts of the world. The result is a rather heterogeneous collection of "perspectives" on stress which, it is hoped, will stimulate readers to arrive at their own conclusions through its very diversity. When it was decided that Femando Lolas would join this endeavor at the end of 1984, it became clear that the material had lost none of its appeal.

This fascinating book guides family therapists in recognizing the importance of their clients’spirituality or religion to therapy. Experienced therapists demonstrate how to incorporate patients’spiritual beliefs in successful family therapy. Religion and the Family explains how the spirituality of individuals and families can be used as a valuable resource for understanding and healing family problems. Therapists will learn to utilize a couple’s or family’s particular god-construct as a fundamental part of the treatment system.Through a balanced combination of theory and clinical data, this comprehensive book gives family therapy practitioners and graduate-level students insight into the role of spirituality in therapy. Beginning with a brief historical overview of the relationship between religion and therapy, the book emphasizes the three areas of theory, clinical applications, and research. Family therapists will find important topics applicable to their practice, such as a model for the use of religion in therapy, a model for taking a spiritual genogram, observations about interfaith marriages, and a theory of therapy as spirituality. Graduate-level students, therapists in training, and therapists needing an introduction to religion in therapy will find this a valuable guide for incorporating spiritual and religious factors into treatment systems.