This book presents a transtheoretical response system framework for understanding family practice. This framework organizes theoretical information, assessment protocols, skills, and intervention strategies into a learning structure that helps students understand myriad client situations and the intervention strategies that would be most appropriate for those specific situations. Using this over-arching structure, and focusing on two systems of response--action systems (how family members behave and interrelate) and processing systems (how family members interpret/feel)--Ragg guides readers through the five parts of the book with the goal of building holistic family intervention skills. These five parts are comprised of: Family thinking, or knowledge of family systems; Assessing families; Building the Working Alliance; Change-Focused Intervention; and Working with Multi-Problem and High-Risk Families.
SECTION 1: THINKING FAMILY: AN INTRODUCTION. 1. Thinking Family: Theories and Frameworks. 2. Thinking Family: Parental Functions. 3. Cultural Influences on Family Functions. SECTION 2: ASSESSING FAMILIES: AN INTRODUCTION. 4. Exploration and Data Collection with Families. 5. Structuring the Family Exploration. 6. Moving from Assessment to Treatment. SECTION 3: BUILDING THE WORKING ALLIANCE: AN INTRODUCTION. 7. Preliminary Engagement with Family Members. 8. Interactive Engagement with Family Members. 9. Positioning Families for Change. SECTION 4: CHANGE-FOCUSED INTERVENTION: AN INTRODUCTION. 10. Direct Change Strategies for Influencing Family Action Systems. 11. Direct Change Strategies for Influencing Family Processing Systems. 12. Influencing Family Members through Indirect Strategies of Change. SECTION 5: WORKING WITH HARD TO SERVE FAMILIES. 13. Working with Multi-Problem and High-Risk Families: Challenges and Promise. 14. Multi-Agency Work with Multi-Problem and High-Risk Families. 15. Support-Focused Intervention with High-Risk and Multi-Problem Families.