Synopses & Reviews
Review
"This beautifully written book will be a valued text for introductory and advanced social work courses. Drawing upon both systemic and ecological models, the book integrates individual, family, and larger systems. Perhaps most important, it addresses the diverse contexts in which social work practice actually occurs." --Joan Berzoff, MSW, EdD, Professor and Codirector of Doctoral Program, Smith College School of Social Work
"Bravo! These innovative pioneers in strength-based systems approaches with inner-city children, families, and agencies have met a critical need in training and practice. Without a systemic perspective and intervention skills, dedicated professionals can become as overwhelmed and discouraged as their clients in dealing with multicrisis situations, persistent environmental challenges, and fragmented social services. This outstanding volume provides a solid framework and practical guidelines to transform service delivery and strengthen vulnerable families. It will be required reading in my family therapy courses, and I highly recommend it for family support groups." --Froma Walsh, PhD, Professor, School of Social Service Administration and Co-Director, Center for Family Health, The University of Chicago, Author, Strengthening Family Resilience, Past President, American Family Therapy Association
"This masterfully written book presents a clear and practical approach to working with underprivileged families. The authors guide practitioners through the complexities of contemporary human service structures, describing effective macrosystemic examples of interventions on behalf of families in treatment. The book is also a useful text that could help social service students, workers, and supervisors develop and implement family-centered and family-friendly programs." --Ramon A. Rojano MD, MPH, Hartford Human Services Director; Creator of the Community Family Therapy Approach; Faculty, Marriage and Family Therapy Program, Central Connecticut State University
"This book reminds us that family networks are remarkably resilient and durable, and that even under great stress, these networks may be sources of solutions, help and healing. If there is one theme woven throughout the book, it is about the power and potential of connections: between, among and within familiel; between the helper and the helped; between individuals, networks and systems; and among systems. The authors illuminate a promising pathway toward respectful and affirming help for families struggling to do well by and for their kids in tough circumstances." --Ralph Smith, Vice-President, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore, Maryland
Review
"Trends in human services in the last two decades have pushed the family out of the ways that problems are conceptualized and people are served. The costs of this trend are becoming increasingly clear. Yet few have known how to push the pendulum back. The second edition of this classic book buttresses the authors' case for a family approach in substance abuse treatment, child welfare, and mental health contexts, offering up-to-date examples of interventions that have helped individuals reconnect with their families. For a half-century, these authors have relentlessly advocated a family perspective in human services, and have creatively demonstrated how family-focused care can be done. This valuable book is both an inspiration and a practical resource for practitioners and administrators in all fields of human service."--Gordon Harper, MD, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Massachusetts Department of Mental Health "This wonderful second edition contains powerful new case examples that have expanded the authors' seminal work with poor families into many different areas. The book serves a need, so often expressed by clinicians, for effective, 'real-world' intervention strategies that incorporate a family systems approach. This is an essential text for use in training and continuing education in all mental health fields, and an invaluable addition to the libraries of beginning and experienced clinicians."--Nancy Boyd-Franklin, PhD, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers University "This brilliant and humane second edition is a 'must read' for all those who truly want to make a difference in the complex needs of poor families today. Using a family and systems resource model, the authors show how to transform efforts that are typically uncoordinated into integrated, effective services that highlight clients' strengths. They offer an indispensable practical framework for teaching, practice, and policy focused on low-income families facing multiple life stressors."--Celia J. Falicov, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego
Review
"The authors provide brilliant descriptions of how families as systems attempt to survive, how government agencies as systems attempt to help, and how the 2 or more systems interact....Of great value are specific word-for-word accounts of interactions that demonstrate how one approaches system-thinking on one's feet. While the authors stress that clinicians should restrain their expertise, that is not a call for passivity. Instead, as one reads the interactions of these clinicians with the families, one is impressed with the courage of the clinicians. This book has multiple strengths....We applaud this book for its attempt to call attention to a group that is largely overlooked, yet whose members have the potential to make positive changes in their lives if given some help. The writers are on the front lines of this fight, and by describing their experiences with their clients, they put a human face on problems society would prefer to ignore....Those who work with the multicrisis poor will find this book a useful resource."--Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
Review
"The authors begin the book by superbly chronicling the need for a family approach in our social service system....Has certainly added some helpful insights, techniques, and new paradigms to the family systems field."--Family Journal
Review
"A powerful read for any professional whose work revolves around families who live on the margins of society....In clear and precise prose, the authors describe their work in detail, with case examples, anecdotes, and useful commentary....An excellent book, full of descriptive case examples, and written in a firm, persuasive, clear, and authentic voice. It covers a multitude of areas relevant to anyone who works with marginalized families today—whether in agency, a protective services office, or a family therapy training program....A book that focuses on restoring people's humanity in the small and important ways it can be lost in these troubled times. The book's celebrated authors offer careful, creative, well-thought-out and well-tested ideas for how to forge a path out of the madness—for institutions and the people who work within them, and, most of all, for the families often swept up in their wake. As such, the book's potential utility in and outside the field is timeless."--Journal of Marital and Family Therapy
Synopsis
This eagerly awaited volume draws upon the authors' many years of experience in the inner city to provide vital guidance to therapists working with poor families. While standard counseling models are often limited to individual persons and their problems, this book emphasizes the importance of understanding individual needs within a larger family framework, and considering the family itself within broader organizational and community contexts. Weaving in numerous case histories and examples of practical interventions, the authors demonstrate how their inventive approach can be used to draw out clients' strengths and to make the most of limited social service resources. Readers will learn new techniques to gather information, reframe family assumptions, handle conflict, and explore alternative patterns of interaction. In addition, the authors show therapists how to increase the level of collaboration between poor families and the multiple agencies that provide assistance with foster care, substance abuse counseling, perinatal programs, residential and psychiatric centers for children, and home-based services.
Synopsis
This widely adopted text and practical guidebook presents the fundamentals of family-based intervention with clients struggling with chronic poverty-related crises and life stressors. Grounded in Salvador Minuchin's influential systemic model and the extensive experience of all three highly regarded authors, the book illustrates innovative ways for professionals within substance abuse, foster care, and mental health contexts to build collaboration with families and other helpers, and to elicit families' strengths.
About the Author
Patricia Minuchin, PhD, is codirector of Family Studies, Inc., Professor Emeritus at Temple University, and currently associated with the Minuchin Center for the Family. Dr. Minuchin has taught at Tufts University and served as Senior Research Associate at Bank Street College. A developmental psychologist, trained in clinical psychology, her publications have focused on the growth and functioning of children in the context of the family, the school, and under the conditions created by poverty, foster placements, and family disorganization.
Jorge Colapinto, LPsych, LMFT, is a family therapist and a consultant to human service organizations in the development and implementation of systemic models of service delivery. He has developed training curricula and practice materials for the Administration for Children's Services of New York City and other service agencies. He has been on the faculties of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic, Family Studies, Inc., and the Ackerman Institute for the Family, where he directed the foster care project. Salvador Minuchin, MD, is currently Director of Family Studies, Inc., and is associated with the Minuchin Center for the Family. Dr. Minuchin was formerly Director of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Clinic and Professor of Child Psychiatry and Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania. A major figure in the field of family therapy, he has published widely on family theory, technique, and practice.
Table of Contents
I. Fundamentals of Family-Oriented Thought and Practice 1.The New Edition: Elements of Constancy and Change
2. The Framework: A Systems Orientation and a Family-Centered Approach
3. Working in the System: Family-Supportive Skills
4. Changing the System: Family-Supportive Procedures
II. Implementing a Family-Oriented Model in Service Systems
5. Substance Abuse: A Family-Oriented Approach to Diverse Populations
6. Foster Care: Children, Families, and the System
7. The Mental Health of Children
8. Moving Mountains: Toward a Family Orientation in Service Systems