Author Description

Family Therapy provides a comprehensive survey of the field of marriage and family therapy, with a focus on the systems theoretical perspective. This systemic-cybernetic framework provides a theoretical "map" that permits an understanding of people in the context of their environment. The text is a survey of the field of family therapy that includes current developments, evolving models, and ongoing debates. Various family and developmental theories are integrated into a "dynamic process model" for viewing and understanding family interactions and relationships, including psychodynamic, experiential, structural, communications, strategic, and behavioral approaches. Therapeutic modalities include individual, couple, group family, couples group, multiple family, networking, and symptom-focused. This revision includes an up-to-date discussion of postmodernism in Chapter 4; an expanded discussion of family processes, development, and context in Chapter 6; questions and reflections from a second-order cybernetics/ postmodernist perspective in Chapters 7-13; and the most recent research findings and discussions in Chapter 15.An Instructor's Manual/Test Bank provides sample examinations as well as student exercises and additional teaching resources.