Family therapy trainees are inundated with a multitude of family therapy theories. They also have difficulty shifting from an individualistic view to one of seeing interactions and systems. How do therapists hone their own methods with all of these choices? And how do they learn how to best treat families with all of the focus being taken away from their clients and redirected instead on processes? Perhaps most importantly, how can they learn through an inductive process of exploring what has occurred during the therapeutic session? Veteran therapist and founder of Structural Family Therapy, Salvador Minuchin, goes back to basics with his two co-authors Michael D. Reiter and Charmaine Borda in The Craft of Family Therapy. In this book they teach readers basic communication and family therapy skills using some of Dr. Minuchin’s most interesting and illuminating cases. Not only do readers re-learn basic techniques, such as reframing and joining, but they are treated to an in-depth commentary on each case, with Dr. Minuchin emphasizing the techniques he uses that allow him to refocus attention from the Identified Patient to the family as a whole. The book ends with three supervision transcripts from Dr. Minuchin’s students, whose commentary illuminates the struggles, fears, and insecurities that new family therapists face and how they can overcome them. Each of these chapters ends with a consultation interview that Dr. Minuchin conducted with each supervisee’s case family.

Family Therapy: An Introduction to Process, Practice and Theory is a primer for students, professionals, and trainees to understand how family therapists conceptualize the problems people bring to therapy, utilize basic therapeutic skills to engage clients in the therapeutic process, and navigate the predominant models of family therapy. This text walks readers through each of these main areas via a straightforward writing style where they are provided with exercises and questions to help them develop the basic concepts and tools of being a family therapist. Upon finishing this book, students will have the foundational skills and knowledge needed to work relationally and systemically with clients.

Featuring rich case examples, this book has helped tens of thousands of students and therapists build the skills and confidence needed to tackle the full range of issues that families bring to therapy. Rather than advocating one best approach, Robert Taibbi shows that there are multiple ways to guide families and harness their strengths. The book maps out the challenges and process of the beginning, middle, and end stages of treatment; presents creative strategies for assessment and intervention with parents and kids of all ages; analyzes how working with individuals can effect helpful changes in couples and families; and offers practical tips for overcoming common roadblocks. End-of-chapter reflection questions and experiential exercises encourage readers to develop their own clinical style. New to This Edition Reflects the author's clinical experience and recent advances in the field. Extensively revised chapter on core concepts: process, patterns, problems, and resistance. More detailed recommendations for conducting the first session and doing assessments. Quick-reference guidelines for treating frequently encountered adolescent problems. See also the author's Doing Couple Therapy: Craft and Creativity in Work with Intimate Partners.

Engaging, practical, and infused with clinical wisdom, this widely used text and practitioner guide helps therapists working with families to hit the ground running. The revised and updated fourth edition brings fresh insights into the issues families bring to therapy and the therapist's moment-to-moment decision making. Rather than advocating one best approach, Robert Taibbi shows that there are multiple ways to guide parents, children, and adolescents and harness their strengths. The beginning, middle, and end stages of treatment are richly illustrated with chapter-length case examples. End-of-chapter learning exercises help readers build key skills and creatively develop their own clinical style. New to This Edition *All chapters revised, with new case studies throughout. *Sidebars on common challenges facing new clinicians: self-doubt, the emotional experience of working with distressed families, and more. *Increased attention to what the therapist can say and do to actively shape each session. *Heightened focus on process--helping families explore the "how" of problem solving as much as the "what." See also the author's Doing Couple Therapy, Second Edition: Craft and Creativity in Work with Intimate Partners.

No other book in the field so fully combines vivid clinical examples, specific details of technique, and mature perspectives on both effectively functioning families and those seeking therapy. The views and strategies of a master clinician are presented here in such clear and precise form that readers can proceed directly from the book with comparisons and modifications to suit their own styles and working situations. Salvador Minuchin presents six chapter-length transcripts of actual family sessions—two devoted to ordinary families who are meeting their problems with relative success; four concerned with families seeking help. Accompanying each transcript is the author’s running interpretation of what is taking place, laying particular stress on the therapist’s tactics and maneuvers. These lively sessions are interpreted in a brilliant theoretical analysis of why families develop problems and what it takes to set them right. The author constructs a model of an effectively functioning family and defines the boundaries around its different subsystems, whether parental, spouse, or sibling. He discusses ways in which families adapt to stress from within and without, as they seek to survive and grow. Dr. Minuchin describes methods of diagnosing or “mapping” problems of the troubled family and determining appropriate therapeutic goals and strategies. Different situations, such as the extended family, the family with a parental child, and the family in transition through death or divorce, are examined. Finally, the author explores the dynamics of change, examining the variety of restructuring operations that can be employed to challenge a family and to change its basic patterns.

This cutting-edge second edition of The Craft of Family Therapy revisits some of Salvador Minuchin’s most famous cases, guiding trainee therapists through basic techniques and ideas while illuminating the unique voice of Minuchin as the founder of Structural Family Therapy. The book begins by teaching readers the fundamentals of family therapy through the lens of rich commentary from Salvador Minuchin on some of his most interesting cases. It then moves on to three detailed supervision transcripts from Minuchin’s former students, illustrating the struggles, fears, and insecurities that new family therapists face and how they can overcome them. In a new, ground-breaking third section, Reiter and Borda share their own lessons from Minuchin as well as expand his influential ideas, emphasizing a strength-based family therapy approach. Written in an accessible, practical style, The Craft of Family Therapy, 2nd edition draws on a wealth of fascinating case examples to bring Minuchin’s theory and experience to today’s family therapists and psychotherapists in practice and training.

A master of family therapy, Salvador Minuchin, traces for the first time the minute operations of day-to-day practice. Dr. Minuchin has achieved renown for his theoretical breakthroughs and his success at treatment. Now he explains in close detail those precise and difficult maneuvers that constitute his art. The book thus codifies the method of one of the country's most successful practitioners.