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

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.

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.