Hope and Despair in Narrative and Family Therapy : Adversity, Forgiveness and Reconciliation

How do experiences of hope and despair impact upon our capacity to meet life's challenges in narrative and family therapy?

Clients' experiences of hope and despair can be complex, reflecting individual and family histories, current patterns and dynamics, the stresses of everyday life, and the social contexts of families' lives. This book analyses how therapists meet and engage with these dichotomous aspects of human experience.

The editors place the themes of hope and despair at the centre of a series of reflections on practice and theory. Contributors from all over the world are brought together, incorporating a range of perspectives from narrative, systemic and social constructionist frameworks. The book is divided into three sections, covering:

• reflections on hope and despair
• facing adversity: practices of hope
• reflections on reconciliation and forgiveness.

Hope and Despair in Narrative and Family Therapy looks at the importance of hope in bringing about positive therapeutic change. This book will be of great use to family therapists, psychotherapists, counsellors, and students on therapeutic training courses.

Carmel Flaskas is a social worker and family therapist and is Senior Lecturer at the University of NSW in Sydney where she convenes the Master of Couple and Family Therapy Programme.

Imelda McCarthy is Senior Lecturer and Director of the PhD programme in Families and Systemic Therapies at the School of Applied Social Science, University College, Dublin.

Jim Sheehan is Director of Family Therapy Training at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Dublin and Professor of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice at the Diakonhjemmet University College Oslo.