TABLE OF CONTENTS: 1 Freud to Family Therapy. 2 Goals of the Family, Goals of Psychotherapy. 3 Patient, Parent, and Therapist Attitudes toward Conjoint Meetings. 4 Inclusion of Parents in Marital Therapy. 5 Inclusion of Parents in Adult Individual Therapy. 6 Siblings Join in Therapy of the Adult Child. 7 Typical Transactions with Parents. 8 Hazardous Situations. 9 Discussion of Sexual Problems with Older Parents. 10 Two Additional Uses of the Method. 11 Procedures and Follow-Up with Patient and Parent. 12 Conclusions.

A guide for parents whose adult children have cut off contact that reveals the hidden logic of estrangement, explores its cultural causes, and offers practical advice for parents trying to reestablish contact with their adult children. “Finally, here’s a hopeful, comprehensive, and compassionate guide to navigating one of the most painful experiences for parents and their adult children alike.”—Lori Gottlieb, psychotherapist and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone Labeled a silent epidemic by a growing number of therapists and researchers, estrangement is one of the most disorienting and painful experiences of a parent's life. Popular opinion typically tells a one-sided story of parents who got what they deserved or overly entitled adult children who wrongly blame their parents. However, the reasons for estrangement are far more complex and varied. As a result of rising rates of individualism, an increasing cultural emphasis on happiness, growing economic insecurity, and a historically recent perception that parents are obstacles to personal growth, many parents find themselves forever shut out of the lives of their adult children and grandchildren. As a trusted psychologist whose own daughter cut off contact for several years and eventually reconciled, Dr. Joshua Coleman is uniquely qualified to guide parents in navigating these fraught interactions. He helps to alleviate the ongoing feelings of shame, hurt, guilt, and sorrow that commonly attend these dynamics. By placing estrangement into a cultural context, Dr. Coleman helps parents better understand the mindset of their adult children and teaches them how to implement the strategies for reconciliation and healing that he has seen work in his forty years of practice. Rules of Estrangement gives parents the language and the emotional tools to engage in meaningful conversation with their child, the framework to cultivate a healthy relationship moving forward, and the ability to move on if reconciliation is no longer possible. While estrangement is a complex and tender topic, Dr. Coleman's insightful approach is based on empathy and understanding for both the parent and the adult child.

"No one book resolves a lifetime of hurts and misunderstandings, but it can remove the blinders from our eyes. Make an effort now." LOS ANGELES TIMES No matter how old you are and whether or not your parents are alive, you have to come to terms with them. This wise and practical book will show you how to deal with the most fundamental relationships in your life and, in the process, become the happy, creative, and fulfilled person you are meant to be.

Providing a comprehensive framework for individual, couple, and family therapy, this resource offers a set of templates that enable therapists to navigate the course of therapy, as well as a treasure trove of case examples to illustrate how therapists can use the IST perspective to treat a wide variety of challenging problems.

Multigenerational Family Therapy is a book about honoring and helping families. Rich with personal reflections and anecdotes from the author’s many years as a family therapist, this volume’s major strength lies in its precise definition of the process and content of the therapy itself. As the family is the major resource system available to an individual, this important book provides therapists with the keys for helping family members help each other and provides a framework for understanding how the family, as a multigenerational system, moves through various stages of the therapeutic process. By emphasizing the importance of family members utilizing the past as a positive force for change and featuring complete transcripts of family therapy sessions, this sensitive book clearly illustrates how therapists can use the positive forces of family for dealing with today’s uncertainties and dilemmas. The step-by-step approach details how family therapists can work with families in a positive, healing manner. Several chapters illustrate the transition from the beginning to middle phases of family therapy to the terminating phase and provide a framework for how therapy evolves over time. Other chapters discuss the special skills required to work with various family constellations, such as couples, parents with children, siblings, adult children with aged parents, and individuals as well as extended family members. Helpful advice on how to deal with special issues and dilemmas of family therapy such as secret-keeping, affairs, co-therapy, crises and emergencies is also included in this comprehensive book. Beginning and advanced family therapy practitioners, students of family theory and therapy, faculty of social work practice, clinical psychology, nursing, family life education, and counseling psychology will find many positive ideas for working with families in this detailed book.

This volume outlines ways to use the parental unit as the major unit for family change. It is written for clinicians and students of family therapy.