This practical breakthrough introduces a robust framework for family and couples therapy specifically designed for working with difficult, entrenched, and court-mandated situations. Using an original model (the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances, or SOFTA) suitable to therapists across theoretical lines, the authors detail special challenges, empirically-supported strategies, and alliance-building interventions organized around common types of ongoing couple and family conflicts. Copious case examples illustrate how therapists can empower family members to discover their agency, find resources to address tough challenges, and especially repair their damaged relationships. These guidelines also show how to work effectively within multiple relationships in a family without compromising therapist focus, client individuality, or client safety. Included in the coverage: Using the therapeutic alliance to empower couples and families Couples’ cross-complaints Engaging reluctant adolescents...and their parents Parenting in isolation, with or without a partner Child maltreatment: creating therapeutic alliances with survivors of relational trauma Disadvantaged, multi-stressed families: adrift in a sea of professional helpers Empowering through the alliance: a practical formulation Therapeutic Alliances with Families offers powerful new tools for social workers, mental health professionals, and practitioners working in couple and family therapy cases with reluctant clients and seeking specific, practical case examples and resources for alliance-related interventions.

This state-of-the-art book presents research-based practice guidelines that clinicians of any orientation can use to optimize the therapeutic alliance. Leading proponents of the major psychotherapeutic approaches explain just what a good alliance is, how to create it, and how to recognize and repair alliance ruptures. Applications in individual, group, couple, and family therapy are explored; case examples vividly illustrate the concepts and techniques. Links between the quality of the alliance and client outcomes are elucidated. A section on training fills a major gap in the field, reviewing proven strategies for helping therapists to develop key relationship-building skills.

Marital and Family Therapy, now in its Fourth Edition, continues its tradition as a classic resource for psychiatrists and family therapists -- trainees and practitioners alike -- by combining psychiatric and integrative family models into a single framework. The recent growth and changes in the field, especially the movement away from narrowly based schools of therapy toward an integrative approach, prompted the authors to expand and rewrite the text. The authors have included the results of 20 years of successful field testing by trainees and have supplemented the text with well-placed case vignettes and charts. The authors have further renewed the appeal of this definitive text by 1) rewriting the discussion of how new attitudes and information about gender, culture, class, and race are affecting family theory building, 2) updating their text for compatibility with DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10, 3) adding a section on treating Axis I disorders by combining family therapy with medication, 4) adding a section on the new subspecialty of family systems medicine, 5) offering the latest on family therapy effectiveness and training, and 6) discussing afresh the ethical, financial, and professional issues facing therapists today. With two new authors, up-to-date references for the advanced therapist, and suggested readings for both instructor and student, this volume will spend little time on the shelf. Psychiatrists, family therapists, social workers, nurses, family education teachers, counselors, family physicians, and family law professionals will turn to this practical reference time and time again as they seek a better understanding of the evolving field of marital and family therapy.

Grounded in theory, research, and extensive clinical experience, this pragmatic book addresses critical questions of how change occurs in couple and family therapy and how to help clients achieve better results. The authors show that regardless of a clinician's orientation or favored techniques, there are particular therapist attributes, relationship variables, and other factors that make therapy--specifically, therapy with couples and families--effective. The book explains these common factors in depth and provides hands-on guidance for capitalizing on them in clinical practice and training. User-friendly features include numerous case examples and a reproducible common factors checklist.

Integrative, research-based, multisystemic: these words reflect not only the state of family therapy, but the nature of this comprehensive handbook as well. The contributors, all well-recognized names who have contributed extensively to the field, accept and embrace the tensions that emerge when integrating theoretical perspectives and science in clinical settings to document the current evolution of couples and family therapy, practice, and research. Each individual chapter contribution is organized around a central theme: that the integration of theory, clinical wisdom, and practical and meaningful research produce the best understanding of couple and family relationships, and the best treatment options. The handbook contains five parts: • Part I describes the history of the field and its current core theoretical constructs • Part II analyzes the theories that form the foundation of couple and family therapy, chosen because they best represent the broad range of schools of practice in the field • Part III provides the best examples of approaches that illustrate how clinical models can be theoretically integrative, evidence-based, and clinically responsive • Part IV summarizes evidence and provides useful findings relevant for research and practice • Part V looks at the application of couple and family interventions that are based on emerging clinical needs, such as divorce and working in medical settings. Handbook of Family Therapy illuminates the threads that are common to family therapies and gives voice to the range of perspectives that are possible. Practitioners, researchers, and students need to have this handbook on their shelves, both to help look back on our past and to usher in the next evolution in family therapy.

Please watch the following short video advertisement for the book, featuring the Editors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1ApHAQIMzQ&feature=youtu.be Relationships are a resource for healing a range of psychological difficulties. This is the fundamental principle of family therapy, an increasingly influential form of psychotherapy that is building up a strong evidence base in a range of psychological problems across the life cycle. Family Therapy Skills and Techniques in Action is both a guide to a variety of family therapy techniques and a review of their history. It provides a thorough explanation of the techniques, explaining their origins and use in contemporary family practice, whilst guiding readers in learning new skills. The authors provide film examples and transcripts of the techniques in action so that readers can develop their skills in a practical way. The book is divided into sections that describe and demonstrate skills such as: Assessing a family; Building a therapeutic relationship with multiple family members; Enactment; Reframing; Using circular questions; ‘Externalising’ the problem; Using family therapy skills in individual work; Understanding and utilising systemic supervision. Family Therapy Skills and Techniques in Action will be an essential practical manual for a range of family therapy skills which can be used in family work by family practitioners from a variety of backgrounds: counsellors, support workers, social workers, psychologists, generic therapists and nurses.

This book provides a clear and concise description of the multifaceted notion of psychotherapeutic competencies, building on years of research and training and informed by a systemic approach. Psychotherapeutic Competencies clearly describes methodological principles to guide both trainees and experienced therapists through the definition of four levels of systemic competencies and illustrates each principle with compelling clinical case material. The book emphasises the need for therapists to develop relational skills, which allow for the consolidation of a trusting relationship in which change can take place, as well as acquiring a set of methods and techniques. Psychotherapeutic Competencies encourages therapists of all levels of experience and therapeutic backgrounds to develop epistemological competency and to deepen their awareness of the extended contexts in which they operate and of the possible effects of their practice at a social and cultural level. This book will be essential reading for psychotherapists of all therapeutic backgrounds, in practice and in training, who wish to enhance their understanding of competency, context, and clinical skill. It will also be a key text for systemic and relational psychotherapists, trainers, trainees, clinical supervisors, and researchers.