Transformative Family Therapy: Just Families in a Just Society [Paperback]

Transformative Family Therapy: Just Families in a Just Society is a triumph!  Based on the innovations of the Cultural Context Model, the book offers therapists grounded theory; a practical, hands-on approach; and, crucially, a means to integrate the principles of practice into their own clinical contexts.  Transformative Family Therapy tackles the hardest issues of our day – domestic violence, addiction, racism, among others –and demonstrates how clinicians can not only heal the individuals that consult them but generate social change in the institutions with which clients interact and in the communities where they live.  Further, this brilliant, compassionate holistic book practices what it preaches on every page: it gives over the tools – conceptual and clinical – to enact a liberatory, socially just therapy.   Therapists of every persuasion and at every stage of practice will benefit from this important book. - Kaethe Weingarten, Ph.D., Associate Clinical Professor of Psychology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Director, the Witnessing Project (www.witnessingproject.org); Director, Program in Family, Trauma, and Resilience, The Family Institute of Cambridge 

This book offers an extraordinarily thoughtful method for helping people with their personal problems while enhancing awareness of pervasive social injustices.  Previous attempts to incorporate clinical work with social concerns have floundered as soon as they began collapsing psychotherapy into social action, essentially advocating: “Don’t waste time analyzing yourself, join in social justice struggles.”  Those seeking a deeper understanding of their personal lives had to give up on integrating therapy with social action, and turn instead to narrowly clinical texts for help with their personal quest.  Now Transformative Family Therapy offers a rigorous approach to depth therapy that unabashedly incorporates the struggle to transform society. The message is clear and convincing: we need to change our community and our society if we are to live the better personal and family lives we talk about in therapy.  Social injustices - including poverty, racism, sexism and homophobia - permeate personal lives.  The authors describe in practical terms their integrated approach to individual, family and social problems, with poignant vignettes, so the reader can quickly become better able to make deep therapeutic interventions while fostering community and social justice. - Terry Kupers M.D. M.S. P., Professor, The Wright Institute, San Francisco, CA

In this book these authors address the broad issues of social justice as they relate to therapy in a fresh and exciting way.  They consistently expose the contextual vacuum in most mainstream models by pointing to those experiences and influences beyond the family that damage relationships because they are unfair and often unjust.  The analysis of latent power in the way therapists approach key issues around cultural difference, gender equity, socio-economic disadvantage and sexual orientation reveals a commitment to holistic and sustainable healing.  As with the ‘Just Therapy’ approach, the critical factors of privilege on the one hand, and marginalisation on the other, are addressed openly in the context of good therapy.  The innovative application of movies in the therapeutic process opens space for broader reflective discussion between therapists and clients and the descriptions of process are clear and helpful.  This is an exciting book that challenges conventional assumptions and broadens the discussion of good therapy. - Charles Waldegrave and Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese

The Family Centre, Lower Hutt, Wellington, New Zealand

This brilliant book expands the field of family therapy to include a Cultural Context Model for social justice practice. It is a courageous work that challenges power, privilege and oppression in its many forms including patriarchy, sexism, racism, classism and homophobia. Through vivid case examples, therapists will learn techniques including the unique use of culture circles and sponsors to empower clients to claim their own voices. - Nancy Boyd-Franklin, Ph.D., Professor, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ

This book translates social justice values and multicultural theory into a practical therapeutic model for clinical/community practice.

The focus in this work is on linking people across family boundaries to solve common problems, as personal and relational problems are situated in broader social issues, in order to form a healing context