This book draws on in-depth research of couples in different situations and cultures to identify educational and therapeutic interventions that will help couples become conscious of and move beyond gendered power in their relationships so they can expand their options and well-being. Sharing family and outside work more equitably is a part of the gender-equality story. The book is divided into five parts. Part I of the book lays out the theoretical and methodological issues of gender equality that frame the book’s research projects and practice concerns. Chapters in this section frame the concept of gender equality and its role in promoting mutually supportive relationships. The second part examines the relational processes involved in equality between intimate partners. Traditional couples need help in defining the meaning of relational equality for themselves within external definitions of male and female roles. A chapter in this section is about same-sex couples and explores what happens when gender does not organize relationships. In Part III, two chapters look at how gender legacies and power influence mothering and fathering among parents of young children with a third showing how idealized notions of motherhood heighten and maintain postpartum depression after childbirth. The fourth part shows both similarities and cultural variation in power issues in different cultural settings. While one chapter considers how racial experience increases the complexities of gender and power in couple life, another discovers the considerable diversity in Iran by showing how couples work within a male-dominant legal and social structure that also includes a long cultural tradition of respect for and equality of women. Part V draws on the previous chapters to offer a guide for mental health professionals.

Working with couples presents a unique set of challenges, and this book sets forth a way of working through those challenges using solution-focused methods. Solution-focused therapy (SFT) with couples requires the therapist to keep the discussion targeted squarely on solutions and to avoid any distractions related to the couple’s problem story. The therapist should choose a response that acknowledges the problem but moves the conversation toward a more positive discussion of the future. The idea is to think of establishing a best hope similar to selecting a destination rather than setting a goal. The therapist works to uncover the positive aspects of the couple’s life, and how they were living before their problem; this is referred to as listening with a constructive ear. Honeymoon talk in SFT re-establishes brilliance by reviewing past successes and allowing each partner to take credit for those successes. The process of gathering details about a preferred future is therapeutic in itself; the more thorough their description of their future, the more good it is likely to do. SF practitioners use scales to chart a client’s progress toward a desired future, to highlight exceptions, develop tasks, and identify strengths. Using the couple’s own words is the most important step in formulating helpful feedback. Feedback should be related to the couple’s strengths and the traits that have the potential to lead them away from their problem toward the preferred future. The procedure for follow-up sessions is similar to that of first sessions except that the steps are followed in a slightly different order.

The primary objective of this book is to describe how a relationship-building approach can be used in the delivery of child welfare services to kinship caregivers and the children who reside with them. To accomplish this objective, the book entails a review and evaluation of the three major child welfare goals: protection, permanency, and well-being. Specifically, it explores how these three goals can be better achieved when informed by a relationship-building approach. The book assists child welfare practitioners in framing how they view kinship caregivers and acquiring knowledge and skills about the use of relationship-building models (emanating from social work practice perspectives) and is designed to increase positive outcomes for maltreated children. The multifaceted issue of relative caregiving is in dire need of attention from virtually every social work service domain level. Specifically, micro-level practice interventions are needed, as well as mezzo-level programming for particular groups and macro-level policy redesigns that support services to relative caregivers are also warranted. The book integrates practice, policy, and research, and includes study tools and resources (a glossary, discussion questions, and activities for ongoing learning) and thus can be easily incorporated into such courses as child welfare, family practice, social work and the law, social work practice, cultural diversity, policy, child welfare integrative seminars, and special topic electives.

This book incorporates an inclusive representation of women and girls across ages and cultures by examining the intersection of their identities and integrating experiences of women and girls around the world. The overarching themes of the book include an examination of the contextual elements that affect the female experience and a focus on prevention and intervention strategies to support the empowerment of women and girls throughout their life spans. The first section of the book provides a foundation for the book and offers a context for understanding gender socialization and the female experience. This section includes chapters introducing empowerment feminist therapy, gender socialization, intersectionality, and relational-cultural theory. The second section offers detailed information on developmental issues and counseling interventions for women and girls throughout their life spans. Chapters focusing on gender identity development, childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, and middle and older adulthood are included in this section. The third section provides an in-depth look at specific issues affecting women and girls and includes relevant background information and practical application for counselors. In this concluding section, readers will learn about violence against women and girls, educational and work environments, females and their bodies, and engaging men as allies. Each chapter includes helpful resources to further educate yourself and others, as well as practical suggestions for advocacy efforts that can help create social change. Prevention and empowerment are key themes and foci of the book, and counseling implications and interventions are offered for each area of concentration.

This book describes the foundational elements of counseling and psychotherapy with children and adolescents. It includes updates and expanded material about clients’ affect, trauma, substance abuse, progress monitoring, self-care, referral for medication, and mindfulness. Of particular interest is a series of new elements including elements addressing sexual and gender identity, social media, sexuality and harassment, and rules for use of technology. All of these topics have become increasingly important in counselors’ conceptualization of children and adolescent clients and therapy. The book emphasizes the conditions and processes of creating growth within the child, explicating the process of assisting growth and self-inquiry. There are new sections on grounding feelings in the body, teaching tools for distress tolerance, and highlighting the importance of progress monitoring. The book discusses teaching skills for negotiating social conflict—a substantial stressor for children and adolescents. It provides guidance on cocreating individual and family rules for use of technology. It also addresses frequent misconceptions and mistaken assumptions followed by the discussion on crisis intervention, effective referral skills, cultural competency and mandated reporting. The book then addresses issues such as coming to terms with one’s own childhood and adolescence and the rescue fantasy. There is a succinct introduction to interventions (i.e., including a list of more comprehensive texts on counseling with children and adolescents) and an updated review of techniques often used in work with children and adolescents (e.g., play therapy, brief, solution-focused therapy). For ease of reading the word caregiver will be used to indicate a parent, legal guardian, foster parent, and so on. The book focuses on counselor self-care and provides guidance for setting boundaries, knowing their edge, practicing within competency, and assessing and planning personal self-care. Finally, it closes with a brief overview of how to use the text for transcript analysis in training programs.

Healthcare providers (HCPs) including gynecologists, urologists, endocrinologists, nurse practitioners, nurses, doulas, and more have regular contact with women and their partners during the transition to parenthood. This book provides an overview of the relationship and sexual challenges faced by couples during this life passage; information on assessing and treating common sexual concerns; approaches to brief counseling; and guidelines for when to refer to a mental health professionals or sex therapist for more intensive help. The book is organized in three parts containing 11 chapters. The first part comprises five chapters. The first two chapters describe the journey to parenthood, and provide an overview of sexuality and sexual health. The next three chapters focus on assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of women’s and men’s sexual problems. Part two comprises three chapters. Chapter six focuses on couples that make up the growing population facing problems of infertility. Chapter seven discusses sexuality and intimacy during pregnancy. Chapter eight covers the postpartum period. Part three comprises three chapters. Chapter nine deals with support for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parents. Chapter ten discusses sexuality counseling, which talks about types of interventions that every HCP or mental health provider can put into practice. The final chapter on intensive sex therapy covers topics that will be of interest to MHPs that have, or are interested in attaining, a broader perspective and training on human sexuality and relationships. The book is written for two audiences: HCPs and mental health providers and is strictly focused on the sexual and emotional intimacy of couples.

This book provides brief overviews of various models, including their history, views of change, views of the family, and the role of the therapist. The models include: Bowen family systems theory; contextual family therapy and restoration therapy; cognitive behavioral family therapy models; rational emotive behavior therapy; symbolic-experiential family therapy; Satir human validation process model; Milan systemic family therapy; structural family therapy; strategic family therapy; solution-focused therapy with families; solution-focused narrative therapy with families; narrative therapy with families; emotionally focused therapy; and medical family therapy. The book covers each model in a consistent way, so that the reader can better understand the underlying theories and practical distinctions between them. It explains how the cognitive behavioral therapist (CBT) differs from the solution-focused therapist (SFT) in the way of being direct and prescriptive with clients (CBT) rather than letting the client decide the direction of therapy (SFT). The book also explains how restoration therapy simplifies the contextual therapy model yet stays with the premises that clients need to understand the depth and breadth of their pain. Each chapter contains realistic examples of family problems, typical of today's families—many drawn from actual practice, which shows one how that particular model addresses issues that are commonly faced by practicing marriage and family therapists. To encourage the reader further, there are extensive interviews with many of the gurus responsible for creating and honing the theories one will read about in this book. They shared their ideas on how change occurs, how they set goals, and how they actually do therapy. Additionally, a case study is presented to each master therapist within these pages.

This book examines new research regarding battered women and cross-cultural and cross-national issues, and addressed issues ranging from murder--suicide in domestic violence cases to proposed legislation and congressional resolutions. It reflects new research on traumatic responses, and addresses trauma-informed and trauma-specific psychotherapy, interventions with youth in juvenile detention centers, information from government task forces regarding children exposed to violence and juvenile justice, and new findings regarding the application of psychology to the legal system. Some of the battered women who already have been identified with a mental disorder that is exacerbated by the abuse or those who develop battered woman syndrome and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from the abuse itself may need some psychotherapy to help them heal and move on with their lives. The link between sex trafficking and domestic violence has also become much better known within the last 10 years. The concept of learned helplessness has been quite useful in expert witness testimony to help jurors understand how difficult it is for women to leave the relationship and why some women become so desperate that they must arm themselves against batterers. To eradicate domestic violence and violence in the community, people must stop modeling both sexist and violent behavior and change the divorce laws to empower children and abused women so they are no longer victimized by the abusers.

This book presents the best and most important writings of J. L. Moreno in one concise and accessible place. This unique collection explores Moreno’s thought in developing psychodrama and sociometry, with his strong emphasis on spontaneity and creativity. The book discusses both basic and advanced concepts and techniques of psychodramatic treatment. Jonathan Fox introduces the book with a brief overview of Moreno’s life and ideas and places him in the context of his time and in the field of psychotherapy. Fox’s notes throughout underscore significant aspects of the selections for the practitioner and student. The essence of sociometry lies in the idea that groups have an internal life of their own and that this life can best be understood by examining the choices members make at any given moment with regard to each other. The book consists entirely of protocols that show Moreno at work directing psychodrama and sododrama, and contains autobiographical fragments. One of the basic instruments in constructing a patient’s psychodramatic world is that of the auxiliary ego, which is the representation of absentee individuals, delusions, hallucinations, symbols, ideals, animals, and objects. The psychodramatic method uses mainly five instruments—the stage, the subject or actor, the director, the staff of therapeutic aides or auxiliary egos, and the audience. All group methods have in common the need for a frame of reference for assessing the validity of their findings and applications. Spontaneity is often erroneously thought of as being more closely allied to emotion and actions than to thought and rest. The sociometric test is an instrument which examines social structures through the measurement of the attractions and repulsions which take place between the individuals within a group.

This book discusses the roles of counselors in family court and provides step-by-step guidelines on how to expand one’s counseling practice to include family forensic services. It describes how to enter the field, build a successful practice, and how to work effectively with attorneys and judges as well as parents and children. The book provides specific guidelines and examples of how to communicate effectively with attorneys, conduct interviews with parents and children, make recommendations for custody and visitation, write reports, and successfully testify in court. Content builds on the background and expertise already possessed by the professional counselor, and describes the advantages that counselors have and challenges they must often overcome in successfully practicing in the family law system. Included is a wealth of relevant information about the court system, definitions of legal terms, standards of practice required by the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts (AFCC), training and licensing requirements for evaluators and mediators, scope of practice, and ethical concerns. The book also includes forms for taking interview notes, templates for writing reports, examples of actual reports, sample visitation schedules, and case studies.