The Couple and Family Therapist's Notebook

Book excerpt: Get a “sneak peek” at clinical vignettes that demonstrate the power of creative interventions! Couples and families present unique challenges in therapy, and other books rarely illustrate the effectiveness of particular types of interventions on actual cases. The Couple and Family Therapist's Notebook provides clinicians with a wide range of practical field-tested therapy activities and homework that are solidly grounded to each intervention’s theoretical underpinning, then explores their effectiveness by briefly relating real-life cases. Continuing The Haworth Press Therapist’s Notebook series, respected experts detail how to perform several creative interventions and then follow with insightful clinical vignettes to illustrate under what specific circumstances each particular approach is effective. Each chapter of The Couple and Family Therapist's Notebook: Homework, Handouts, and Activities for Use in Marital and Family Therapy has an objective statement to orient the reader to the homework, handout, or activity, followed by a rationale. Instructions explain how to perform the activity, followed by clinical case vignette, a section of contraindications, and a list of useful resources for both the practitioner and the client. Illustrations and appendixes also provide helpful guides for the therapist. The Couple and Family Therapist's Notebook: Homework, Handouts, and Activities for Use in Marital and Family Therapy gives you the tools for approaches such as: emotionally focused therapy symbolic-experiential therapy transgenerational theory solution-focused therapy experiential therapy and many others And some of the intervention techniques that are illustrated: the Metaphor of Gardens the Coming Clean Ritual creating rituals for couples coping with early pregnancy loss the Four C’s of Parenting identifying family rules the Systemic Kvebaek Technique physical acting techniques the Feelings Game writing to combat adolescent silence in family therapy Family Stress Balls the Goodbye Book the “Puppet Reflecting Team” Technique family-based school interventions and many more The Couple and Family Therapist's Notebook: Homework, Handouts, and Activities for Use in Marital and Family Therapy provides invaluable insight and vital clinical tools for creative couple and family intervention, perfect for adaptation by counselors, psychotherapists, practitioners in private practice, school systems, hospitals, government settings, homeless shelters, and not-for-profit agencies and counseling centers.