This path-breaking volume introduces Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy for clinical work with troubled couples. Practice-focused and engaging, it integrates real-world knowledge of the intersections of gender, culture, power, and identity in relationships with empirical findings on the neurobiology of attraction. Case examples detail the process of therapists in the moment as they develop both their clinical skills and their understanding of the social contexts fueling couples' difficulties. Applications of the method, which can be used with same-sex couples as well as heterosexual...

This volume applies critical social theories to family therapy practice, using sociopolitical context for a clearer focus on the power dynamics of couple and family relationships. Its decolonizing approach to therapy is shown countering the pervasive cultural themes that grant privilege to specific groups over others, feeding unequal and oppressive relationships that bring families and couples to treatment. Therapy is shown here as a layered and nuanced process, with practitioners developing an ethical human rights perspective toward their work as they aid clients in negotiating for...

This thorough review of social justice in family therapy guides practitioners to incorporate concepts of equity and fairness in their work. Expanding on the relationships between larger social contexts and individuals family functioning, it offers practical strategies for talking with families about power disparities, injustice, and respect, and for empowering clients inside and outside the therapy room. Case studies and discussions with therapists illustrate how family challenges are commonly exacerbated outside the home, and the potential for this understanding to help clients work...

This brief applies variations in poststructural thinking and practice to the field of family therapy. Poststructural thinking pervades the world of therapeutic practice in ways that are often invisible to both the theoretician as well as the practitioner. In this brief, the authors focus on what poststructuralism has brought to our understanding. What follows are chapters that speak to training and teaching principles as well as to practices that draw on ideas about "becoming," "relationality," and "the aesthetics of engagement." Each chapter builds on the other with the last one reprising...

This research-to-practice volume grounds clinicians in a robust, culturally-informed framework for conducting effective therapy with Asian-American couples, families, and individuals. Family, cultural, social, and spiritual dynamics are explored across ethnicities, generations, relationships, and immigrant/citizen experience to reflect a diverse, growing population. Discussion and case examples focus on contrasts, conflicts, and balances involved in acculturation and change, notably the shift from collectivist cultural tradition to a more independent view of the self, gender, choices, and...