Treating the Changing Family The past quarter century has been a time of historic social and cultural upheaval, and nowhere is that more evident than in the changing face of the family. In an effort to keep pace with the many challenges that confront the modern family in all its varied new forms, this groundbreaking book offers a broad-ranging, carefully integrated review of contemporary trends in family therapy, research, and practice. In Treating the Changing Family, nearly twenty-five distinguished experts from across North America, including psychologists, marriage and family therapists, social workers, and others, reexamine the family and the many contemporary challenges to its function, and provide practical advice for therapists who treat troubled families. Comprehensive in scope, Treating the Changing Family deals with the full array of non-normative events confronting today’s family, including violence and abuse, addiction, long-term and chronic illness (with a special chapter on AIDS in the family), divorce, adoption, trauma, ethnicity, and others. It explores the impact these factors can have on family function and provides intervention strategies and techniques that have proven successful in the treatment of families affected by them. Receiving special attention are the structure, dynamics, and unique problems of families that do not fit the traditional mold. Experts in these areas share their findings and provide clinical guidelines for treating bi-nuclear, single-parent, gay and lesbian, and other nontraditional families. Offering the combined knowledge and expertise of some of the nation’s foremost researchers and practitioners in their fields, Treating the Changing Family: Handling Normative and Unusual Events is a valuable resource for couples and family therapists, counselors, clinical psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and all mental health professionals who treat today’s changing family.

Comprehensive in scope, Treating the Changing Family deals with the full array of non-normative events confronting today's family, including violence and abuse, addiction, long-term and chronic illness (with a special chapter on AIDS in the family), divorce, adoption, trauma, ethnicity, and others. It explores the impact these factors can have on family function and provides intervention strategies and techniques that have proven successful in the treatment of families affected by them. Receiving special attention are the structure, dynamics, and unique problems of families that do not fit the traditional mold. Experts in these areas share their findings and provide clinical guidelines for treating bi-nuclear, single-parent, gay and lesbian, and other nontraditional families. Offering the combined knowledge and expertise of some of the nation's foremost researchers and practitioners in their fields, Treating the Changing Family: Handling Normative and Unusual Events is a valuable resource for couples and family therapists, counselors, clinical psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, and all mental health professionals who treat today's changing family.

About the editor

MICHELE HARWAY, PhD, is Director of Research and Core Faculty of Psychology at the Phillips Graduate Institute (formerly the California Family Studies Center), an accredited graduate program in marriage and family therapy in North Hollywood, California. She is also a member of the consulting faculty at the Fielding Institute, and maintains a private practice as a licensed psychologist and marriage, family, and child counselor. Dr. Harway is the author or editor of five other books, including Battering and Family Therapy and Spouse Abuse.

Partial table of contents:

Setting the Stage for Understanding and Treating the Changing Family (M. Harway &K. Wexler).

NONTRADITIONAL FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS.

Nontraditional Families (T. Seibt).

Gay and Lesbian Families (K. Carlson).

CHALLENGES TO THE FAMILY LIFE CYCLE.

Aging Problems and Family Solutions (T. Peake, et al.).

Adoptive Families: Are They Nonnormative?

(L. Schwartz).

IMPACT OF UNUSUAL EVENTS ON FAMILIES.

Families of People with Mental Illness (D. Marsh, et al.).

Trauma and the Family (M. Williams).

Families Affected by Domestic Violence (M. Harway, et al.).

Families with Chronic Illness and Disability (A. Strozier).

Families with HIV Illness (J. Rosenthal, et al.).

REVIEWING THE ROLE OF THE CLINICIAN.

Expanding Practices and Roles of Family Clinicians (L. L'Abate &M. Odell).