This book explains how to provide Functional Family Therapy (FFT), a highly successful family intervention for delinquent and substance-using adolescents. FFT systematically alters important risk and protective factors associated with the problem behaviors.

In Functional Family Therapy for High-Risk Adolescents, James F. Alexander demonstrates his approach to working with families that have teenage children exhibiting behavior issues and associated emotional disruptions. Teens with behavior problems are one of the most difficult populations with whom therapists work, as adolescents and their families frequently enter treatment against their will, either under legal order or at strong insistence of authority figures such as school administrators. Family interactions can be hostile, and a sense of hopelessness is not uncommon. Dr. Alexander's approach involves working to increase family motivation to change by disrupting negative attributions they may have about themselves and other family members and replacing these with more positive and adaptive attributions. In this video, Dr. Alexander works with a mother, father, and their 15-year-old son, who has been exhibiting behavior problems such as drug use and school truancy and who has recently been charged with breaking and entering.The session focuses not only on the son, but also the mother and father, whose relationship has been under significant strain for years due to the mother's own substance use and frequent disappearances from the family. This DVD features clients portrayed by actors on the basis of a composite of several cases.

This new Handbook of Family Therapy is the culmination of a decade of achievements within the field of family and couples therapy, emerging from and celebrating the dynamic evolution of marriage and family theory, practice, and research. The editors have unified the efforts of the profession's major players in bringing the most up-to-date and innovative information to the forefront of both educational and practice settings. They review the major theoretical approaches and break new ground by identifying and describing the current era of evidence-based models and contemporary areas of application. The Handbook of Family Therapy is a comprehensive, progressive, and skillful presentation of the science and practice of family and couples therapy, and a valuable resource for practitioners and students alike.

This book describes Brief Strategic Family Therapy, a strengths-based model for diagnosing and correcting interaction patterns that are linked to troublesome symptoms in children ages 6 to 18.

Clinically relevant, theoretically sound, and scientifically based, Functional Family Therapy (FFT) contains systematic discussions of topics and theoretical perspectives, as well as illustrative clinical examples that demonstrate the manner in which principles are applied in FFT.

The latest theory, research, and practice information for family therapy The last twenty years have seen an explosion of new, innovative, and empirically supported therapeutic approaches for treating families. Mental health professionals working with families today apply a wide range of approaches to a variety of situations and clients using techniques based on their clinically and empirically proven effectiveness, their focus on specific individual and relational disorders, their applicability in various contexts, and their prominence in the field. In this accessible and comprehensive text, each chapter covers specific problems, the theoretical and practical elements of the treatment approach, recommended intervention strategies, special considerations, supporting research, and clinical examples. The contributors provide step-by-step guidelines for implementing the approaches described and discuss particular issues that arise in different couple, family, and cultural contexts. Handbook of Clinical Family Therapy covers treatment strategies for the most common problems encountered in family therapy, including: Domestic violence Adolescent defiance, anxiety, and depression Trauma-induced problems Stepfamily conflicts ADHD disruption Substance abuse in adults and adolescents Couple conflict and divorce Chronic illness A detailed reference for today's best treatment strategies, the Handbook of Clinical Family Therapy brings together the top practitioners and scholars to produce an innovative and user-friendly guide for clinicians and students alike.