Books in the The Guilford Family Therapy series

Developing a new systematic attachment concept, "the secure family base", the author shows how families can change insecure relationship patterns both during and after therapy.

A guide to working with many different kinds of relationship triangles in therapy with families, couples, and individuals.

Now thoroughly revised, this practical, user-friendly guide has helped thousands of novice couple therapists and students to navigate the challenges of clinical work with couples in conflict. Robert Taibbi presents effective strategies for rapidly identifying a couples core issues and conducting each stage of therapy, from the first sessions to termination. Rich with sensitive case material, the book features end-of-chapter exercises that help readers identify and develop their own strengths as practitioners. Appendices include reproducible client handouts that can be downloaded and printed in a convenient 8 1/2 x 11 size. New to This Edition *Three chapters offering detailed treatment maps for common couple problems, with new case examples. *Chapter on the middle stages of treatment. *Increased attention to the all-important opening sessions. *Sharper focus on the three major obstacles to couple success: poor communication, emotional wounds, and differing visions. *Reproducible client handouts explaining key techniques. See also the authors Doing Family Therapy, Third Edition: Craft and Creativity in Clinical Practice.

This text and professional resource offers an alternative approach to thinking about and working with difficult families. From a nonpathologizing stance, William C. Madsen demonstrates creative ways to help family members shift their relationship to longstanding problems; envision desired lives; and develop more proactive coping strategies. Anyone working with families in crisis, especially in settings where time and resources are scarce, will gain valuable insights and tools from this book.

Solution-focused therapy is often misunderstood to be no more than the techniques it is famous forpragmatic, future-oriented questions that encourage clients to reconceptualize their problems and build on their strengths. Yet when applied in a one-size-fits-all manner, these techniques may produce disappointing results and leave clinicians wondering where they have gone wrong. This volume adds a vital dimension to the SFT literature, providing a rich theoretical framework to facilitate nonformulaic clinical decision making. The focus is on how attention to emotional issues, traditionally not emphasized in brief, strengths-based interventions, can help unstick difficult situations and pave the way to successful solutions.

This book provides a theoretical framework and a practical model of intervention for distressed couples whose relationships are affected by the echoes of trauma. Combining attachment theory, trauma research, and emotionally focused therapeutic techniques, Susan M. Johnson guides the clinician in modifying the interactional patterns that maintain traumatic stress and fostering positive, healing relationships among survivors and their partners. In-depth case material brings to life the process of assessment and treatment with couples coping with the impact of different kinds of trauma, including childhood abuse, serious illness, and combat experiences. The concluding chapter features valuable advice on therapist self-care.

Showing how to weave assessment into all phases of therapy, this indispensable text and practitioner guide is reader friendly, straightforward, and practical. Specific strategies are provided for evaluating a wide range of clinical issues and concerns with adults, children and adolescents, families, and couples. The authors demonstrate ways to use interviewing and other techniques to understand both individual and relationship functioning, develop sound treatment plans, and monitor progress. Handy mnemonics help beginning family therapists remember what to include in assessments, and numerous case examples illustrate what the assessment principles look like in action with diverse clients. See also the authors Essential Skills in Family Therapy, Third Edition: From the First Interview to Termination, which addresses all aspects of real-world clinical practice, and Clinicians Guide to Research Methods in Family Therapy.

This acclaimed, influential work applies the concepts of systemic family therapy to the emotional life of congregations. Edwin H. Friedman shows how the same understanding of family process that can aid clergy in their pastoral role also has important ramifications for negotiating congregational dynamics and functioning as an effective leader. Clergy from diverse denominations, as well as family therapists and counselors, have found that this book directly addresses the dilemmas and crises they encounter daily. It is widely used as a text in courses on family systems and pastoral care.

This work demonstrates how therapists can apply systems thinking to understand better clients' individual psyches. The IFS model uses family system concepts to draw a map of the network of subpersonalities that exist within each individual.