Based on years of clinical experience, this book presents a clear, immensely practical approach to the assessment and treatment of adolescents with severe emotional problems. Using full-length case examples with incisive commentary, Fishman demonstrates how the principles of structural family therapy – including enactment, unbalancing, and reframing – are successfully applied to such issues as delinquency, violence, suicide, runaways, and incest. (254 pgs)

Reviews

“This is unquestionably the finest book ever written about treating troubled adolescents.”

Bradford P. Keeney

Today’s clinicians are discovering that seriously troubled adolescent are best helped within the context of their social environment, especially their families. Surprisingly, until now there has been no book devoted exclusively to a family therapy model of understanding and treating adolescents. This much-needed new book fills that gap. Written by the co-author of the classic “Family Therapy Techniques” and based on years of clinical experience, it presents a clear, immensely practical approach to the assessment and treatment of adolescents with severe emotional problems.

Dr. Fishman begins with an original and useful diagnostic tool for organizing therapy and shows how to identify the “homeostatic maintainer,” that is, the social forces that support a given problem. Then, using full-length case examples with incisive commentary, he demonstrates how the principles of structural family therapy—including enactment, unbalancing, and reframing—are successfully applied to such issues as delinquency, violence, suicide, runaways, and incest. In an important final section he highlights the special concerns of adolescents in single-parent families and show how couples therapy can significantly help ameliorate the problems of disturbed adolescents.

APA