Collaborative Therapy with Multi-Stressed Families: From Old Problems to New Futures - Hardcover

Madsen PhD, William C.; Madsen, William C.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1572304901 ISBN 13: 9781572304901

Publisher: The Guilford Press, 1999

Synopsis

This volume describes an innovative approach to working with families who have not been well served by traditional mental health, social service, and medical systems. Critically examining many professional assumptions about "difficult" families, the book outlines clinical practices that facilitate a respectful, constructive, and effective therapeutic relationship. Highlighted are ways to engage reluctant clients, conduct nonpathologizing assessments, and help families develop communities of support. Of crucial importance, the author proposes that therapists move away from trying to identify and correct old problems. He focuses instead on how to support clients in envisioning desired futures and developing new lives. Including a wealth of compelling clinical material, the book raises important theoretical and political questions without becoming moralistic and promotes a strengths-based focus without romanticizing families or minimizing their difficulties.

About this title

About the Author

William C. Madsen, PhD, is Training Coordinator at the Family Institute of Cambridge. He has spent most of the last 20 years working in public sector mental health with "high-risk," multi-stressed families. Currently a provider of training and consultation to agencies and organizations, Dr. Madsen has developed and administered innovative programs that combine outpatient and home-based services. He has written and presented extensively about the development of strengths-based, collaborative partnerships between families and helpers.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Contents
Introduction
1. Working with Multi-Stressed Families: From Technique to Attitude
2. What We See Is What We Get: Reexamining Our Assessment Process
3. Collaboration Is a Two-Way Street: Engaging Reluctant Families
4. Envisioning New Futures: Developing Collaborative Therapy Contracts with Families
5.Invitational Interaction: An Anthropological Approach to "Intervening" with Families
6. Helping Clients Take Apart Old Problems and Put Together New Lives
7. Elaborating and Solidifying New Lives
8. Developing Communities to Support New Lives
9. The Larger Helping System as an Appreciative Audience for New Lives
10. Envisioning New Futures, Revisioning Human Services
References

Edition details

• Publisher: The Guilford Press
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1572304901
• ISBN 13: 9781572304901
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 358