Building Family Practice Skills: Methods, Strategies, and Tools » (1st Edition)

Mark Ragg holds a Ph.D. in social work and is a key faculty member at Eastern Michigan University's Department of Social Work. Prior to Eastern, Dr. Ragg worked in a Children's Mental Health agency in Canada while also providing family and marital counseling. While working in the field, Dr. Ragg developed many family- and group-centered programs. Working with issues of child abuse, neglect, trauma, domestic violence, sexual abuse, and developmental disabilities, he gained research interests in the impact of violence and abuse on children. Dr. Ragg is also author of BUILDING EFFECTIVE HELPING SKILLS.

Providing an empirical foundation for treatment concepts, this textbook integrates research findings on family dynamics and treatment with current clinical thinking. Ragg (Eastern Michigan University) describes the various family theories, assessment methods for gathering data from family members, skills for soliciting family involvement, and both direct and indirect intervention change strategies. The pages are perforated and three-hole punched so they can be removed and put in a binder. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

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.