Collaborative Therapy with Multi-Stressed Families: From Old Problems to New Futures

by William C. Madsen

This volume describes an innovative approach to working with families who have not been well served by traditional mental health, social service, and medical systems. Critically examining many professional assumptions about "difficult" families, the book outlines clinical practices that facilitate a respectful, constructive, and effective therapeutic relationship. Highlighted are ways to engage reluctant clients, conduct nonpathologizing assessments, and help families develop communities of support. Of crucial importance, the author proposes that therapists move away from trying to identify and correct old problems. He focuses instead on how to support clients in envisioning desired futures and developing new lives. Including a wealth of compelling clinical material, the book raises important theoretical and political questions without becoming moralistic and promotes a strengths-based focus without romanticizing families or minimizing their difficulties.

Genres: Psychology, Social Work, Counselling, School, Nonfiction

358 pages, Hardcover

First published October 6, 1999

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a textbook 🤪 But I really enjoyed it. I’m really into Narrative therapy lately.

[Adam Jarvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful, very much a textbook

[Kony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required for therapy school. Decently well written, and includes useful concrete examples rather than hovering in the theoretical realm.

However... while this book does readers a service by acknowledging racism, classism, and saviorism as ongoing problems within the profession, it is unfortunately not completely free of white savioristic assumptions. Madsen repeatedly uses the paternalistic term "helpers" to describe people working in community mental health and similar fields. And while he briefly discusses the oppressive impacts of bureaucratic requirements in the field, he essentially says "good luck working within those requirements." He stops short of urging us to use our privilege to disavow and dismantle the capitalistic framework that justifies those requirements. Had he gone there and actually offered practical pointers in this vein, I might've liked the book more.

Overall, this is one of the better books in the therapy school curriculum, but it doesn't go far enough in addressing the harmful systems that constrain healing work within community mental health care settings, and therefore it still needs to be read with a critical eye.

[Harry Remer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to penetrate Madsen's academic style of prose, very theoretical and dense. Interestingly, in person, he's much more down-to-earth and a great teacher. However, there is an incredibly useful framework hidden amongst the philosophy if you stick to it.

The framework here was of tremendous use to me while working during years of working with multi-stressed families in a community mental health center. It continues to inform my longer-term, private work with both individuals and families today. If you want to be relieved of the burden of responsibility for your clients' woes, want to empower them more than yourself, want to penetrate quickly to what's wrong and to their pre-existing (if unconscious) resources, this book will help tremendously.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was another assigned book for my studies. It was a book that I hated reading while I read it but was glad that I did in the end. Madsen spends the first two chapters on a rant about how therapists need to look at clients. I agree with his advice whole heartedly but the way in which he wrote it turns the reader off. He is very repetative which is good on one hand because he is wordy and the book is long but it would probably be shorter if he didn't reapeat himself so much. That asside Madsen gives great examples on how to help families that have more than one stressor in their lives. He promotes a collaborative view that works with the client as the expert on their own lives.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant and very useful book. I appreciate the author's transparency and his dedication to collaborative, empowerment-supporting practices. The "intake form" that he outlines, along with ideas for more in-depth questions, is extremely useful.