Family Counseling

Content analysis of 23 American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Master Series tapes was used to determine how well feminist behaviors have been incorporated into "ideal" family therapy practice. Feminist behaviors were infrequent, being evident in faver than 3% of time blocks in event sampling and I0 of 39 feminist behaviors of the Feminist Family Therapist Behavior Checklist. These eminent therapists most often dealt with empowerment of male clients and management of power differentials in the therapeutic relationship in a relatively feminist mannel; but they tended to hold women responsible for family issues, endorsed traditional rather than egalitarian relationships, and overlooked how the social context affects families. Several of the therapists were blatantly sexist in their treatment of female clients, communicating disrespect of and pathologizing them. The fav tapes portraying effective incorporation of feminist principles in family therapy indicate that a handfil of behaviors are key to this approach.

There is a growing movement to define competency within the field of marriage and family therapy (MFT), particularly with respect to the training of practitioners and the evaluation of clinical practice. Efforts to define competency, however, transcend the practice of MFT and much can be learned from the experiences of other disciplines. Professions such as education, law, and medicine have made strides toward addressing the complex issue of competency standards in their respective fields. This article describes some ways in which the issue of competency has been approached in other professions, as well as some common dilemmas posed by adopting a competency-based orientation, to shed light on the process of defining competency in MFT. Moreover, this article identifies some of the more useful conceptualizations, modes of pedagogy, and evaluative practices found in other professions.

The use of the Internet is growing at a staggering pace. One significant use of the Internet is for potential students and the parents of potential students to explore educational possibilities. Along these lines potential marriage and family therapy students may have many questions that include a program's commitment to cultural diversity. This study utilized qualitative content analysis methodology in combination with critical race theory to examine how Commission On Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) accredited doctoral programs represented cultural text on their World Wide Web pages. Findings indicate that many COAMFTE-accredited doctoral programs re-present programmatic information about diversity that appear to be incongruent with cultural sensitivity. These apparent incongruities are highlighted by the codification, inconsistent, and isolated use of cultural text. In addition, cultural text related to social justice was absent. Implications and suggestions are discussed.

This study explored the process of resolving an in-session impasse between a parent and an adolescent in family therapy. Focusing on altering the content and affective tone of a discussion, the "shift intervention" was used to direct a family's conversation away from trying to solve behavior management problems and toward a discussion of fundamental relationship problems. Task analysis was used to specify problematic family interactions, the intervention strategy, and successful and unsuccessful outcomes. Descriptive analyses of 5 successful and 5 unsuccessful interventions yielded a detailed performance model of therapist and family behaviors involved in breaking the impasse. The Beavers Timberlawn Family Evaluation Scale was used to verify the presence of the shift intervention in the data set and to embellish the performance model. The model suggested that adolescents became more cooperative and engaged in treatment when parents shifted from trying to control them to trying to understand them. A detailed performance map for accomplishing this shift is offered. Several research reviews have concluded that family-based treatments can treat a variety of disorders effectively (Diamond, Serrano, Dickey, & Sonis, 1996;Shadishetal., 1993), including adolescent drug abuse (H. L. Liddle & Dakof, 1995). Despite this progress, few studies have identified and examined core change processes associated with these interventions (Friedlander, Wildman, Heatherington, & Skowrow, 1994). Many family treatments target change in multiple dimensions of a family's social ecology (e.g., child, parent, school, peer, work). Principal among them is the parent-adolescent relationship as it manifests in interactional behavior and communication patterns. Family therapy theory assumes that an individual's symptoms decrease to the extent that family relationships improve. Recent studies of therapy process and outcome have begun to support this claim (

This paper explores the history of deconstruction and discusses the use of the theories it involves within the author's work in family therapy situations. Jacques Derrida's term, deconstruction, has achieved widespread use among psychotherapists. This.derives largely from the influence of Michael White, who has interpreted it in a Foucauldian way consistent with his practice of externalization. Problems are seen as oppressors to be excluded. A return to a Derridean understanding, in which narratives embraced by families to the exclusion of others return as symptoms that eventually hijack the prevailing family story, is proposed. Therapy gives excluded stories a voice by encouraging the acknowledgment of a universal abjection so that the "marginalized other" in all its forms may be included. Among the case studies presented is the story of a 14-year-old male who was reluctant to attend school. Through a meeting with his family, the author realized that the boy's mother was his only encouraging family member. The author then met with the boy and his mother. By explaining his story of hurt and loss at being forced to move in with his brother to make room for his mother's boyfriend, the boy was able to acknowledge his abjection and move through his problems. (Contains 46 references.) (MKA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. gcr

This article reports on the use of narrative therapy ideas and practices in working with families that are homeless in a shelter-based, multiple-family discussion group program called Fresh Start for Families. It begins with a review of the challenges facing homeless families. It then briefly describes the collaborative methods used to develop the program. It then describes a range of practices and activities that provide opportunities for families to be witnessed in telling their stories of challenge and coping, to help and be helped by other families experiencing similar challenges, to reconnect and strengthen a positive sense of family identity while externalizing the constraining, stigmatizing descriptions associated with homelessness, and to envision and take steps towards their preferred futures.

Objective: To examine the relative efficacy of intensive versus weekly cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Method: Forty children and adolescents with OCD (range 7-17 years) were randomized to receive 14 sessions of weekly or int6nsive (daily psychotherapy sessions) family-based CBT. Assessments were conducted at three time points: pretreatment, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. Raters were initially blind to randomization. Primary outcomes included scores on the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, remission status, and ratings on the Clinical Global Impression-Severity and Clinical Global Improvement scales. Secondary outcomes included the Child Obsessive Compulsive Impact Scale-Parent Rated, Children's Depression Inventory, Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, and Family Accommodation Scale. Adjunctive pharmacotherapy was not an exclusion criterion. Results: Intensive CBT was as effective as weekly treatment with some advantages present immediately after treatment. No group differences were found at follow-up, with gains being largely maintained over time. Although no group x time interaction was found for the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (F 1 , 38 = 2.2, p = .15), the intensive group was rated on the Clinical Global Impression-Severity as less ill relative to the weekly group (F 1 , 38 = 9.4, p< .005). At posttreatment, 75% (15/20) of youths in the intensive group and 50% (10/20) in the weekly group met remission status criteria. Ninety percent (18/20) of youths in the intensive group and 65% (13/20) in the weekly group were considered treatment responders on the Clinical Global Improvement (X2 = 3.6, p = .06). Conclusions: Both intensive and weekly CBT are efficacious treatments for pediatric OCD. Intensive treatment may have slight immediate advantages over weekly CBT, although both modalities have similar outcomes at 3-month follow-up.

Although marriage and family therapists are being called on to help at-risk families, some say that clinicians have insufficient knowledge about the impact of policies on families involved in the foster care system. The purpose of this qualitative investigation was to identify how the Adoption and Safe Families Act informs decision making, to recognize trends in decisions regarding termination of parental rights of parents with mental health issues, and to explore treatment issues of families involved in the foster care system. Results indicate that court cases decided after the implementation of the Adoption and Safe Families Act are likely to result in termination of parental rights. Implications for clinicians and researchers are discussed. Family violence, child maltreatment, poverty, and the child welfare system have led some to call the realities of foster care "the mean streets of family therapy" (Crenshaw & Barnum, 2001, p. 30). Some of the most important judiciary decisions about the futures of families are made in the foster care system (Azar, Benjet, Fuhrmann, & Cavallero, 1995). To assist with these critical decisions, a number of people, such as judges, caseworkers, and families, are looking to family therapists for assistance in addressing the needs of foster care families (Azar, Lauretti, & Loding, 1998). Judges are seeking therapists' opinions about parental competency and are increasingly mandating families to seek treatment specifically from marriage and family therapists (MFTs; Northey, 2004). Caseworkers are obtaining therapists' input about placement decisions and treatment, and parents are searching for help with custody and parenting issues (Azar et al., 1998). Despite the number of ways in which therapists can assist with issues related to foster care, some argue that too few therapists have devoted time to understanding the foster care system, policies, and the implications of such policies on families involved in the foster care system (

Objective: This article is a systematic review identifying effective family-based interventions for adolescent substance use problems. Method: A substantive review of each intervention is conducted using guidelines for effective treatment for substance use problems. Additionally, a methodological review of each study is done using criteria for empirically validated treatments. Results: Treatment components of five interventions—Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT), Family Behavior Therapy, Functional Family Therapy, Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT), and Multisystemic Treatment—were consistent with a majority of guidelines for effective treatment. Notable exceptions include no aftercare and poor treatment retention. MDFT and BSFT met criteria of probably efficacious treatment, whereas the other interventions represented promising treatments. Moreover, MDFT demonstrated clinically significant changes in substance use and large effect sizes at posttreatment and follow-up. Conclu...

Drexel University's Couple and Family Therapy Department recently introduced a formal course on training the person of a therapist. The course is based on Aponte's Person-ofthe-Therapist Training Model that up until now has only been applied in private, nonacademic institutes with postgraduate therapists. The model attempts to put into practice a philosophy that views the full person of therapists, and their personal vulnerabilities in particular, as the central tool through which therapists do their work in the context of the client-therapist relationship. This article offers a description of how this model has been tested with a group of volunteer students, and subsequently what had to be considered to formally structure the training into the Drexel curriculum.

Usng the concept of decentering, as formulated by Piuget, to describe how the child comes to understand his impersonal world, the author has extended the concept to understand family patterns. After describing decentering, he shows how it can be used with Rational Emotive Therapy and Transactional Analysis, both cognitively oriented therapies. These theoretical ideas have served as the basis for a cognitive model of therapy which the author calls TARET Systems, a major goal of which is the increasing of awareness through shifting perspective on oneself and others. This paper will focus on three cognitive theories, those of Piaget, Berne and Ellis. Whereas Piaget is a researcher-theorist, having concentrated on the developmental aspects of children's thinking, both Berne and Ellis are practitioner-theorists, focusing primarily on people's thinking, relating it to how they feel and behave, in the world of interpersonal relations. Ellis, founder of Rational emotive psychotherapy (RET) directs the Institute for Advanced Study in Rational Psychotherapy in New York. Berne, now deceased, developed Transactional Analysis (TA) on the west coast, and his work is now being carried on by practitioners throughout the world. Interestingly, both were disillusioned psychoanalysts prior to developing their own approaches to therapy and personality. The principles of TA and RET are being synthesized into a consistent treatment approach for individuals, couples and families which the author calls TARET Systems. The specifics of the approach are still being developed, have briefly been presented elsewhere, and will not be focused on here. Rather, we will describe the concept of decentering, as formulated by Piaget, since it is the fundamental principle in TARET, and serves as a basis for pulling together ideas from various treatment modalities; decentering also provides a potential basis for moral development, an important, but often neglected, dimension of helping persons come to terms with life's problems (Steinfeld, note 1). In addition to describing the concept of decentering, we will focus on the concept of games as formulated by Berne (1964), together with the idea of roles which Karpman describes in his work on triangles (1968). The roles of Persecutor, Victim and Rescuer are prime examples of behaviors which occur in families, and this paper will describe how a cognitive deficit may be responsible for the interplay of transactions in dysfunctional families. Families can be conceptualized from within the developmental framework provided by Piaget (1962). His concept of decentering is a principle which can be applied to the *A brief version of this decentering concept was presented at a conference at the University of Southern California on Piaget and the helping professions (1974). An expanded version has just been completed relating decentering and family triads to the work of Haley, Bowen, Karpman, and Ellis.

Family therapists are expected to engage in ethical and responsible research, while maintaining rigorous ethical standards and adhering to federal regulations that require protection for research participants. We present a short historical overview of the sign$icant events and ethical controversies leading to the formulation of current regulations in human subject research and review. Federal regulations and guidelines, including issues of informed consent, special populations, and conflict of interest are reviewed. A short list of recommendations to assist family therapists in staying abreast of contemporaPy research protocol is provided.

Structural Family Therapy needs a training model that integrates the existential, human mutuality of the therapeutic relationship with its technical elements. This paper offers a theoretical foundation for training structural family therapists in the use of self, discusses a model for training, and gives a case example illustrating personal training in a clinical context.

In this study, the authors examined the relation between adolescent and parent therapeutic alliances and treatment outcome among 65 substance-abusing adolescents receiving multidimensional family therapy. Observer ratings of parent alliance predicted premature termination from treatment. Observer ratings, but not self-report, of adolescent alliance predicted adolescents' substance abuse and dependency symptoms at posttreatment, as well as days of cannabis use at 3-month follow-up. The association between adolescent alliance and substance abuse and dependency symptoms at posttreatment was moderated by the strength of the parent alliance. Results reveal the unique and interactive effects of the 2 alliances on treatment outcome and emphasize the need for a systemic and well-articulated approach to developing and maintaining the multiple alliances inherent to family therapy.

The dynamics of problem maintenance in family systems have generally been ) these perspectives have been presented as alternative or competing models, with little or no effort directed toward systematic integration. This lack of integration has, in the authors' opinion, impaired the development of family theory, family assessment, and family therapy.

This report of a panel discussion focuses on the design, rationale, and evaluation of the Adolescent Crisis Unit for Treatment and Evaluation (ACUTE), a program of crisis intervention for young adolescents. An overview of the structure of ACUTEls clinical program describes the efficiency of the program in seeing refelrals at the time of crisis, and outlines the treatment involving collaboration with other community agencies. ACUTEls staff .1.s multidisciplinary and includes social workers, a clinical psychologist and a child psychiatrist. The model underlying ACUTE's approach is presented as an integration of six theories: (1) crisis intervention: (2) brief, task-oriented treatment: (3) psychoanalysis: (4) network/systems: (5) family systems: and (6) Stierlinos dialectical theory. ACUTE's ongoing evaluation research program is discussed, along with some of the methodological and practical difficulties of conducting research in a community setting.

Structural Family Therapy needs a training model that integrates the existential, human mutuality of the therapeutic relationship with its technical elements. This paper offers a theoretical foundation for training structural family therapists in the use of self, discusses a model for training, and gives a case example illustrating personal training in a clinical context. A structural family therapist articulated emotional perils common to his life and This is me in all relationships. I engage through the back or side door. I elicit and get others to go out on a limb before I will venture. in. Hide, play it safe, delude myself into thinking I am risking, confronting, challenging when in fact I am rarely doing anything close. Devoted to protecting relationships, terrified to take the first step, to be out there by myself, not knowing whether or not he, she, or they will join me there, terrified that they will angrily walk and I'll be out there on the limb by myself forever. Don't get me wrong. I am in therapy myself precisely because, if given a choice, I will always take the side door in with people, waiting until they open it before I will knock. I tend to give people less rather than more so that I don't get hurt, thereby frequently setting myself up to be abused.. . The fear is profound. It has a life of its own. It haunts me everywhere I go, no matter how hard I work, no matter how many isolated instances I triumph over it. I frequently feel like Sisyphus, wondering if I will ever get anywhere, whether I can ever truly have anyone, and they me. In love and in therapy.* He speaks eloquently for all therapists who have suffered when their personal his therapy: struggles affect their therapy. THE PERSON OF THE THERAPIST IN THERAPY Most therapeutic models that rely heavily upon the therapeutic relationship include the person of the therapist in their training. The structural approach recognizes the central position of the clinician in the therapeutic relationship, and training emphasizes the strategic use of self within the therapist-client transaction. However, training does not typically explore the role played by the clinician's personal issues. As this question attracts greater attention among structuralists, it seems worthwhile to establish a model for such training. The Approach and the Person of the Therapist The structural perspective is grounded in what happens among family members as they sit in the office (Aponte, 1981). Structuralists pursue history so that they can My thanks for their ideas and editorial help to

No therapist can come in contact with and treat children with minimal brain damage or specific learning disabilities without being struck by the fact that there are numerous intertwined factors that have contributed to and continue to perpetuate the problems. In addition to the helping approaches which have been utilized in recent years, such as tutoring, special education, and child therapy, this article elaborates the importance of utilizing family therapy as the treatment of choice sometime during the course of treating the child and helping the parents to understand and deal with their handicapped youngster.

Muslim immigrant families living in the United States may well come to the attention of mental health professionals. This article examines the applicability of the Anglo-American models of family therapy to Muslim immigrant families. The most significant differences in value systems between the Muslim and Anglo-American cultures is Muslim families&amp;#39; preference for greater connectedness, a less flexible and more hierarchical family structure, and an implicit communication style. Systemic thinking, which deals with the pattern of relationships, is valid for all families regardless of cultural differences. However, the preferred directions of change for Muslim families need to be integrated into the assessment and goals for family therapy.

This article draws attention to the issue of parental severe mental illness and the ethical and clinical implications for counselors who work with this population. Parents with mental illness face a multitude of life challenges including, but not limited to, parenting difficulties, medication and hospitalization, custody and placement of their children, financial constraints, and substance abuse. Counselors who serve this population need to be aware of some serious ethical and clinical issues they may face when working with this population. An illustrative case is used to highlight the nature of these issues and problems. Clinical and ethical recommendations are made for counselors.

Emotional and behavioral symptoms and disorders are prevalent in children and adolescents. There has been a burgeoning literature supporting evidence-based treatments for these disorders. Increasingly, family-based interventions have been gaining prominence and demonstrating effectiveness for myriad childhood and adolescent disorders. This article presents the current evidence in support of family-based interventions for mood, anxiety, attention-deficit hyperactivity, disruptive behavior, pervasive developmental particularly autism spectrum, and eating disorders. This review details recent data from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and promising interventions not yet examined using a randomized controlled methodology. It highlights the evidence base supporting various specific family-based interventions, some of which are disorder dependent. A practitioner perspective is then offered with regard to recommendations for future practice and training. The article closes with a summary and directions for future research. One evidence-based practice gaining in popularity for child and adolescent mental disorders is family-based interventions. Family-based interventions may include the following subsystems: parents, parents and children, entire families, multiple families, and families and the systems in which they are embedded (multisystemic). Recent reviews pay attention to systemic interventions that fall under the rubric of family-based interventions, including family therapy

The ramifications of father-daughter incest for both the victim and the entire family has been gaining well-,ieserved attention in recent years. Discovery of incest while it is occurring affords the opportunity to treat the family and individuals involved at the point of greatest potential impact. Certain characteristics of incestuous families have been identified, such as marital discord, a rigid boundary between the family and the outside world, and an intergenerational pattern of abuse. Individual therapy can be useful at various points in the family treatment of incest. Each parent can be helped to look more deeply at their individual dynamics and to reintegrate their split-off parts. The child victim should certainly be provided with individual therapy since she has internalized the dysfunctional family relationships, as well as experiencing the abuse. Overall, the family treatment of father-daughter incest must include an acknowledgment of the systematic patterns which set the stage for the abuse, as well as recognition that the internalized split-off parts in individuals represent various aspects of family trauma. The therapist must understand that the family patterns in abuse are internalized then recreated through mutual projective identification in the marital pair, and in the triangulation of the victim into that relationship. It is only when both the internal and external family patterns are exposed and reintegrated that the incestuous pattern can be arrested and the trauma healed. (Contains 28 references.) (ABL)

The reflecting team (RT) is an innovative method used in the training and supervision of family counselors. In this article, I trace the history, development, and current uses of RTs and review current findings on RTs. In my opinion, many users of RTs have diverged from their original theoretical principles and have adopted RTs mainly as a technique. Although some aspects of the RT technique (spatial separation and the generation of multiple perspectives) are novel, the potency of RTs is derived from the strength of the working alliance. Finally, I make specific recommendations on how to use RTs in the education and supervision of family counselors.

Objective: To summarize the past 10 years of published research concerning the 2% of American children younger than 18 years old who are adoptees. Method: Review recent literature on developmental influences, placement outcome, psychopathology, and treatment. Results: Adoption carries developmental opportunities and risks. Many adoptees have remarkably good outcomes, but some subgroups have difficulties. Traditional infant, international, and transracial adoptions may complicate adoptees' identity formation. Those placed after infancy may have developmental delays, attachment disturbances, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Useful interventions include preventive counseling to foster attachment, postadoption supports, focused groups for parents and adoptees, and psychotherapy. Conclusions: Variables specific to adoption affect an adopted child's developmental trajectory. Externalizing, internalizing, attachment, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms may arise. Child and adolescent psychiatrists can assist both adoptive parents and children. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry, 2005;44(10):987-995.

A framework for defining paradigms within the field of marital and family therapy is presented. The term "paradigm" is critically analyzed as applied to mental health services. Paradigm crisis in marital and family therapy is described as resulting primarily from practical-theoretical, professional, and political concerns rather than scientific anomaly. Subsequently, two paradigms are defined as related to marital and family therapy: the psychomedical and the social systems paradigms. Both paradigms are defined according to basic propositions and methodological tenets. The need for, and the design of; critical paradigmatic experiments of the psychomedical paradigm against the systemic paradigm are addressed. Critical paradigmatic experiments are viewed as an offshoot of a postpositivistic empiricism in keeping with a contextual view of know ledge.

A national sample of marriage and family therapists (MFTs) was used to describe practice patterns of MFTs whose clients use psychotropics and to compare medicated and nonmedicated clients. Marriage and Family Therapists (n = 283) reported on 195 medicated and 483 nonmedicated adult clients. Clients (n = 375) rated their improvement and satisfaction with treatment. Results showed that 91% of MFTs treat medicated clients, and these clients accounted for 25% of MFT cases. Medicated clients were most often seen in individual therapy, had more serious medical problems, and showed greater cumulative improvement in relational functioning. Therapists from MFT educational backgrounds had fewer medicated clients than MFTs from other educational backgrounds.

This study used survey data collected from two countries, Egypt and The United States of America (USA). There were 330 participants (162 males and 168 females), all of whom were undergraduate students. 169 participants were studying at Tanta University, Egypt, and 161 participants at the University of Arkansas, USA. The study aimed to investigate maths anxiety in undergraduates with different main subjects of study and across cultures. A 4x2 ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the effects of the student’s country and main subject of study (major) on maths anxiety. The results of the 4x2 ANOVA indicated a significant main effect for country, a non-significant effect for major, and a nonsignificant interaction effect between country and major. Furthermore, the study used a two-way ANOVA between two factors (gender and country and maths anxiety). The analysis revealed a significant main effect for country, a significant effect for gender, and a non-significant interaction effect between country and gender.

Recently, feminist scholars have called upon us to become aware of hidden gender biases within the theories guiding family therapy (These authors have argued that traditional theories were constructed without attention to the female experience and have called for the construction of theories which include that experience.

Play therapy and filial therapy show promise as effective ways to provide direct services to Head Start, addressing the needs of the children, the families, and the Head Start teachers and staz This paper examines the utility of play and filial therapies for the Head Start population, presents a systemic explanation for the benefit offilial therapy, and provides a case example for illustration Two collaborative efforts between MFT and Head Start programs were linked by their aims to provide family therapy services through the use of nondirective play therapy techniques. Guided by these collaborative efforts, the purpose of this report is to examine the use of play and filial therapies with Head Start programs as a way of supporting and

Outpatient counseling is a relatively new concept and form of clinical practice in India. This article provides an overview of the need for and current status of counseling and family therapy in India. Examples of training programs are presented, and future prospects for the counseling and family therapy professions are highlighted. The authors discuss therapeutic issues that clinicians may need to consider when working with Indian clients, as well as some of the potential barriers to counseling individuals, couples, and families in or from the Indian subcontinent. The future of these professions looks bright and parallels India’s rapid development as a nation.

Although the marriage and family therapy field's recent attention to multicultural issues is laudable, there appears to be little clarity on what constitutes an effective multicultural training program and the impact of the effects of such training on trainee multicultural competence. The field continues to be challenged at different levels-training, practice, research, the setting of the standards and the work of the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education, and the goals and strategic plan of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy Board. This study focused on assessing the extent of multicultural integration at different levels of training and the relationship between such training and students' perception of their own multicultural competence.

The purpose of this study is to examine the family resilience and the role of sibling relations among family members who have lost their father in the last five years. Criterion sampling method was employed in the study, which is considered one of the purposeful sampling methods. 10 people was included in the study chosen based on the following criteria: (I) having lost the father in the last five years (II) continuing the university education (III) having at least one sibling in the house (IV) having a living parent; (V) the fact that the living parent is not remarried. In the study, data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed through descriptive methods. The results show that the management styles and family belief systems in the family, as well as the close, supportive relationships, are important and powerful qualities in the positive development of the family in cases of a father loss. These results are particularly of importance about the identification of characteristics of family strenghts and the understanding of sibling relationships. Specific interventions, plans, and suggestions in the cultural context were introduced to strengthen positive family life and family resilience.

This paper compares and contrasts the Strategic and Structural family therapy models.  The history of model formation is discussed in order to examine the social contexts in which the models arose to see if this context influences the approaches and intervention styles.  Also discussed in the model formation section are key theorists in the development of the approaches.  Model mechanics are addressed in the second section including core concepts of each model, major intervention techniques, goal setting, and therapeutic outcomes.  The third section compares and contrasts these models addressing strengths and limitations of the approaches.  In conclusion, the practical applications of these methods in extended care addiction treatment settings are also discussed.

A n overview is constructed of a substantial array of space and action techniques of broad utility in marriage and family therapy. Family sculpture and a variety of closely related techniques have gained wide acceptance by counselors, therapists, and educators. The roots of these techniques and their basic concepts are traced. A heuristic typology is presented which highlights the essential interrelatedness of diverse methods and lays the foundation for further open-ended innovation by working professionals to develop customized variations especially fitted to their personal style and to the needs of their clients. Expanded version of a paper prepared for the 1975 National Council of Family Relations Post-Conference Workshop of Family Sculpture. The author is indebted to Dr. David Kantor, Bunny Duhl, and Dr. Fred Duhl, teachers and innovators who first led him into developing his own nonverbal self and to becoming comfortable in the use of space and action techniques.

The family circle instrument is a self-constructed diagram that has been used by family physicians for more than 40 years to gather and assess information about patients' family connections and relationships. Even though healthcare professionals 10 have found the family circle instrument to be effective and easy to administer, the literature is silent on social workers' use of this instrument to engage and assess individuals and families. This article describes the effectiveness of the family circle interviewing method in increasing the confidence and 15 skill of graduate social work students in assessing families. The author also presents the results of an evaluative study that examined graduate social work students' use of the family circle instrument. Graduate social work students received instruction on how to administer the family circle interview 20 as a method of engaging and assessing families from a family systems perspective. Thus, a primary focus of this article is upon how using the family circle interview can promote com-petency and confidence among students to engage and assess families. A majority of the students that completed family circle 25 instruction felt the instrument helped them understand families from a systems perspective and increased their confidence in their ability to assess families. ARTICLE HISTORY