Handbook Of Structured Techniques In Marriage And Family Therapy

First Published in 1986. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Published in 1987, Handbook of Measurements For Marriage And Family Therapy is a valuable contribution to the field of Family Therapy. The purpose of this handbook is to provide a single convenient source to which practitioners, researchers, and trainees can turn in order to learn how to use marriage and family instruments and to find descriptions of instruments suited to their needs.

Published in the year 1986, Handbook of Structured Techniques in Marriage and Family Therapy is a valuable contribution to the field of Family Therapy.

Family and marital therapies are rapidly becoming highly used methods of treatment of mental disorders and are no longer ancillary methods to individual psychotherapy. The last few decades have brought about an increasing awareness of the fact that, excluding organic etiology, practically all mental disorders are caused, fostered, and/or related to faulty interpersonal relations. As a rule, the .earlier in life one is exposed to noxious factors, the more severe is the damage. Thus, early child-parents' and child-siblings' interactions are highly relevant determinants of mental health and mental disorder. Moreover, parents themselves do not live in a vacuum. Their marital interaction significantly contributes to their own mental health or to its decline, and parent-child relationships are greatly influenced by the nature of intraparental relationships. Parental discord, conflicts, and abandonment affect the child's personality development. Thus, family and marital therapy is more than therapy; it is an important contribution to the prevention of mental disorder. The present volume is comprised of three parts. The first, primarily theoretical, analyzes the fundamental aspects of marital and family therapy. The second part describes the various therapeutic techniques and the last deals with several specific issues. It gives me great pleasure to acknowledge my gratitude to my coeditor, Dr. George Stricker. Without his thorough and devoted efforts, this volume could not have come into being. I am also profoundly indebted to our consulting editors, Dr. James Framo, Dr.

First Published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This volume reflects the achievements in developing new concepts and models of family therapy and new approaches to special clinical issues and problems during the 1980s. Chapters by experts such as Boszormenyi-Nagy, Everett, Guttman, Lankton, Liddle, McGoldrick, Madanes, and Walsh offer insight into a variety of areas including systems theory, cybernetics, and epistemology; contextual therapy; Ericksonian therapy; strategic family therapy; treating divorce in family therapy practice; ethnicity and family therapy; and training and supervision in family therapy.

In the treatment of marital problems, behaviorally oriented and com munication oriented approaches have been in conflict and seen as con trasting and unlikely bed partners. Many therapists, focusing on com munication skills, have felt that behaviorists were too structured and uncaring; on the other hand, behaviorists have considered humanistic therapists as being "touchy-feely," vague, and unfocused. However, in the Handbook of Marital Therapy, Liberman, Wheeler, de Visser, and the Kuehnels have wedded these two potent approaches into an inte grated framework that makes them loving bed partners. With over a decade of experience in applying behaviorally ori ented treatment to couples, Liberman and his co-authors have devel oped an educational model that focuses on teaching specific commu nication skills to couples. The communication skills they describe have been used extensively in all types of marital therapy, regardless of the therapist's theoretical orientation. The unique contribution of this book is that the authors provide a step-by-step approach to teaching these communication skills within a behavioral framework. Each chapter guides the therapist through the many issues and problems confronting him or her as a change agent. This highly readable book is enhanced by a liberal use of case exam ples. Emphasis is given to homework and structured sessions that focus on increasing specific communication skills in a sequential manner. The advantages of working with couples in a group setting are dis cussed, and concrete suggestions on how to manage these groups are clearly presented.