The Practice of Family Therapy: Key Elements Across Models

This text was required for school. So far it seems very informative and one of those texts that I will keep and use for the rest of my career.

The book arrived in great shape and in a timely manner. Would buy from this seller again. Thank you! Kathy Hardie-Williams

Bottom Line: ***** [excellent practical manual; "No doubt, I will regularly review this easy-to-read textbook. If you only read one book on family therapy practice, this is the book..."] The Practice of Family Therapy Recently, I completed a graduate course in family therapy. I've seen the light. There is more to life than the medical model and the current psychological model that suggest we can understand individual mental health by carefully examining the individual. Bah Humbug! We must look at the individual and at the individual from an interpersonal or systemic perspective. We all find ourselves impacted by the people we hang around with and the family who raised us. The family therapy course was superb (thanks, Dr. KZ), however, the details of multiple family therapy models cloud a more comprehensive and practical view of family therapy. Hanna and Brown's text, The Practice of Family Therapy: Key Elements Across Models, is an excellent practical manual for psychologists wishing to apply an integrated and up-to-date model of family therapy. In an amazingly simple manner, Hanna and Brown quickly review and then integrate the traditional and modern perspectives of family therapy, including: structural family therapy; brief family therapy (e.g., the MRI approach); strategic family therapy; intergenerational (or transgenerational) family therapy; experiential family therapy; behavioral family therapy; feminist and multicultural theory; attachment theory; postmodern family therapy (e.g., social constructionist, collaborative language systems); Milan family therapy; solution-focused family therapy; narrative family therapy; and evidence-based practice (e.g., cognitive-behavioral family therapy). If you're dizzy just from reading this list of perspectives, imagine the confusion of a graduate psychology student after a family therapy seminar course. Given that typical PhD programs in counseling psychology often include only one family therapy course (and clincial psychologists probably receive no training in family therapy), it is no wonder that the effectiveness of family and marriage therapy may be questionable. You have to spend so much time trying to figure out how to apply family therapy, it may be hard to implement a program that takes advantage of all we know. Thank goodness, Hanna and Brown come to the rescue... Overall, "The Practice of Family Therapy" includes basic tools and a sequence of therapy that enables today's counseling psychologist to practice family therapy with as great a probability of success as possible. The therapist is encouraged to consider the client family's theory of change and to avoid cramming one's own views and models down their throats. If only today's individual-oriented therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists would follow this advice... In summary, Hanna & Brown earn 5 stars (*****) for taking the time and energy to simplify family therapy for the new and experienced family therapist. No doubt, I