Inside Family Therapy: A Case Study in Family Healing, CourseSmart eTextbook, 2nd Edition

This unique casebook follows a family therapist's narrative diary as he documents the process of working with the Salazars as they explore each stage of their relationship - from courtship through the departure of the children from home. It provides an in-depth personal account of the process of therapy from the counselor's perspective, as well as a rich, detailed study of a family from courtship through the departure of the children from the home. Each major stage of the family life cycle is presented in a separate chapter.

Students of family therapy can use this book in conjunction with their textbooks can be used to accompany any family therapy text, including Nichols/Schwartz's Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, 8/e and Nichols Essentials of Family Therapy 4/e , to provide a more in-depth and personal view of how to conduct themselves as therapists. The book includes discussions of the effects of gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation on individuals and families. It also provides information about the dynamics of relationships that could be applied by the reader to his or her own life, whether that person is a professional therapist, a student, or a member of the general public.

 

Preface  

 

1    Disturbing the Peace  

“Can You Help Us?”  

Looking for Leverage  

Dialogue: Setting the System in Motion  

It Must Be a Marital Problem  

Linear versus Circular Causality  

 

2    The Making of a Family Therapist  

Behind the One-Way Mirror  

 

3    Love’s Young Dream  

“We’ll Sing in the Sunshine”  

Why Do Fools Fall in Love?  

“I Do”  

 

4    The Progress of Love  

“Why Are You so Mean to Me?”  

Idealization  

Accommodation  

Boundaries  

How to Succeed as a Couple by Really Trying  

 

 5   In-Laws  

“Alone at Last”  

Invaders from Another Planet  

Accommodation and Boundary-Making with the In-Laws  

Invisable Loyalties  

Past Tense and Imperfect Future  

 

 6   The Depressed Young Mother  

The Impossible Job  

The Family Life Cycle  

2 + 1 = 2  

Heather’s Birth  

The Young and the Restless  

Renegotiating Boundaries with Grandparents  

Reciprocity  

Bitter Fruit  

 

 7   Why Can’t Jason Behave?

Fix my Child without Disturbing Me  

Family Rules  

Family Structure  

The Strucural Model  

Blueprint for a Healthy Family  

Uncovering the Structure in a Family  

Building Children’s Self-Esteem  

 

 8   The Overinvolved Mother and Peripheral Father  

The need to Restructure the Family  

Shared Parenting  

The Best of Intentions  

Pursuers and Distancers  

Self-Defeating Cycles  

 

9    Family Feud  

Sibling Rivalry  

Enmeshment  

Disengagement  

Brotherhood and Sisterhood  

 

10  Loss of Innocence  

To Tell or Not to Tell, That Is the Question  

All Hell Breaks Loose  

“Why, Why, Why?”  

Moving On  

 

11  Divorce, Remarriage, and Stepparenting  

Families in Transition  

Uncoupling  

Reorganizing  

Blending  

 

12  Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll: The Rebellious Teenager  

That Awful, Awkward Age  

“How Worried Should I Be about My Teenager?”  

The Terrible Teens  

 

13  The Salazars’ Family Therapy  

Shifting Boundaries  

All Together Again, and Out  

 

14  Letting Go  

“It’s the End of Our Family”  

The Long Good-Bye  

Boomerang Kids  

“Under Certain Conditions”  

Index