Therapeutic Alliances With Families

This practical breakthrough introduces a robust framework for family and couples therapy specifically designed for working with difficult, entrenched, and court-mandated situations. Using an original model (the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances, or SOFTA) suitable to therapists across theoretical lines, the authors detail special challenges, empirically-supported strategies, and alliance-building interventions organized around common types of ongoing couple and family conflicts. Copious case examples illustrate how therapists can empower family members to discover their agency, find resources to address tough challenges, and especially repair their damaged relationships. These guidelines also show how to work effectively within multiple relationships in a family without compromising therapist focus, client individuality, or client safety. Included in the coverage: Using the therapeutic alliance to empower couples and families Couples’ cross-complaints Engaging reluctant adolescents...and their parents Parenting in isolation, with or without a partner Child maltreatment: creating therapeutic alliances with survivors of relational trauma Disadvantaged, multi-stressed families: adrift in a sea of professional helpers Empowering through the alliance: a practical formulation Therapeutic Alliances with Families offers powerful new tools for social workers, mental health professionals, and practitioners working in couple and family therapy cases with reluctant clients and seeking specific, practical case examples and resources for alliance-related interventions.

This title demonstrates the crucial importance of healthy working relationships with clients in couple and family therapy. The authors' conceptual model--SOFTA (System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances)--integrates theory, research, and practice related to the alliance in couple and family therapy.

This authoritative reference assembles prominent international experts from psychology, social work, and counseling to summarize the current state of couple and family therapy knowledge in a clear A-Z format. Its sweeping range of entries covers major concepts, theories, models, approaches, intervention strategies, and prominent contributors associated with couple and family therapy. The Encyclopedia provides family and couple context for treating varied problems and disorders, understanding special client populations, and approaching emerging issues in the field, consolidating this wide array of knowledge into a useful resource for clinicians and therapists across clinical settings, theoretical orientations, and specialties. A sampling of topics included in the Encyclopedia: Acceptance versus behavior change in couple and family therapy Collaborative and dialogic therapy with couples and families Integrative treatment for infidelity Live supervision in couple and family therapy Postmodern approaches in the use of genograms Split alliance in couple and family therapy Transgender couples and families The first comprehensive reference work of its kind, the Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy incorporates seven decades of innovative developments in the fields of couple and family therapy into one convenient resource. It is a definitive reference for therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, and counselors, whether couple and family therapy is their main field or one of many modalities used in practice.

This timely update presents modern directions in systemic therapy practice with couples and families, focusing on clinical innovations from Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Top therapists discuss their breakthrough family work in treating familiar pathologies such as depression, borderline personality disorder, infidelity, and addictions, providing first-hand insight into meeting relational dysfunction with creativity and resourcefulness. The book applies novel conceptualizations and fresh techniques to complex situations including multi-problem families, involuntary clients, disability-related issues, anorexia, love and sex in aging, and family grief. From tapping into the strengths of siblingship to harnessing the therapeutic potential of the Internet, the book’s cases illustrate the rich variety of opportunities to improve client outcomes through systemic couple and family therapy. This practical guide: Demonstrates strategies for therapists to improve practice Exemplifies methods for reducing the gap between clinical theory and practice Identifies multiple dimensions of systems thinking in case formulation and therapy Offers new insights into treating classic and recent forms of psychopathology Provides a representative picture of couple and family therapy in southern Europe Clinical Interventions in Systemic Couple and Family Therapy is of particular relevance to practitioners and clinicians working within couple and family therapy, and is also of interest to other professionals working in psychotherapy and professional mental health services.

Grounded in theory, research, and extensive clinical experience, this pragmatic book addresses critical questions of how change occurs in couple and family therapy and how to help clients achieve better results. The authors show that regardless of a clinician's orientation or favored techniques, there are particular therapist attributes, relationship variables, and other factors that make therapy--specifically, therapy with couples and families--effective. The book explains these common factors in depth and provides hands-on guidance for capitalizing on them in clinical practice and training. User-friendly features include numerous case examples and a reproducible common factors checklist.

Please watch the following short video advertisement for the book, featuring the Editors: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1ApHAQIMzQ&feature=youtu.be Relationships are a resource for healing a range of psychological difficulties. This is the fundamental principle of family therapy, an increasingly influential form of psychotherapy that is building up a strong evidence base in a range of psychological problems across the life cycle. Family Therapy Skills and Techniques in Action is both a guide to a variety of family therapy techniques and a review of their history. It provides a thorough explanation of the techniques, explaining their origins and use in contemporary family practice, whilst guiding readers in learning new skills. The authors provide film examples and transcripts of the techniques in action so that readers can develop their skills in a practical way. The book is divided into sections that describe and demonstrate skills such as: Assessing a family; Building a therapeutic relationship with multiple family members; Enactment; Reframing; Using circular questions; ‘Externalising’ the problem; Using family therapy skills in individual work; Understanding and utilising systemic supervision. Family Therapy Skills and Techniques in Action will be an essential practical manual for a range of family therapy skills which can be used in family work by family practitioners from a variety of backgrounds: counsellors, support workers, social workers, psychologists, generic therapists and nurses.

This state-of-the-art book presents research-based practice guidelines that clinicians of any orientation can use to optimize the therapeutic alliance. Leading proponents of the major psychotherapeutic approaches explain just what a good alliance is, how to create it, and how to recognize and repair alliance ruptures. Applications in individual, group, couple, and family therapy are explored; case examples vividly illustrate the concepts and techniques. Links between the quality of the alliance and client outcomes are elucidated. A section on training fills a major gap in the field, reviewing proven strategies for helping therapists to develop key relationship-building skills.

This state-of-the-art book presents research-based practice guidelines that clinicians of any orientation can use to optimize the therapeutic alliance. Leading proponents of the major psychotherapeutic approaches explain just what a good alliance is, how to create it, and how to recognize and repair alliance ruptures. Applications in individual, group, couple, and family therapy are explored; case examples vividly illustrate the concepts and techniques. Links between the quality of the alliance and client outcomes are elucidated. A section on training fills a major gap in the field, reviewing proven strategies for helping therapists to develop key relationship-building skills.