Overview
Drawing on extensive research and clinical experience, Walsh identifies key processes in resilience for practitioners to target and facilitate. Numerous case illustrations assist the reader in eliciting the unique strengths of diverse families to the benefit of all their members, from small children to frail elderly. Guidelines are delineated for intervening sensitively and effectively with those struggling with sudden crisis, trauma, and loss; disruptive transitions, such as job loss, divorce, and migration; chronic multistress conditions of serious illness or poverty; and barriers to success for at-risk youth.The book contains no figures.
How do some families successfully weather crisis situations and adversity, while others weaken or even break apart? Focusing on what we can learn from resilient indivuduals and well-functioning families, this book provides clincians with a framework for preventive and interventive work with families that are distressed or at risk. Froma Walsh draws on current research and extensive clinical experience to identify the key processes that buffer families in times of stress, including belief systems, family structure, and communication patterns. Readers learn strength-promoting, collaborative strategies for helping families deal with divorce, death, and other losses, multicrisis situations; and persistent challenges such as illness and poverty.
Synopsis
Now in a fully revised, updated, and expanded second edition, this informative clinical resource and text presents Froma Walsh's family resilience framework for intervention and prevention with clients dealing with adversity. Drawing on extensive research and clinical experience, the author describes key processes in resilience for practitioners to target and facilitate. Useful guidelines and case illustrations address a wide range of challenges: sudden crisis, trauma, and loss; disruptive transitions, such as job loss, divorce, and migration; persistent multistress conditions of serious illness or poverty; and barriers to success for at-risk youth. New chapters present resilience-oriented approaches to recovery from major disasters and demonstrate community-based and international applications.
Booknews
Presents an innovated framework for therapeutic and preventive work with couples and families who are distressed, vulnerable, or at-risk, filled with suggestions for collaborative interventions that can help family relationships rebound and heal. Identifies key interactional processes for dealing with challenges, drawn from various models of a healthy family, and presents case illustrations showing how to use the strengths of each family member to benefit all family members. For professionals and students in mental health and human services. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.
Editorials
From the Publisher
"While most therapists search for a cure for an illness, Froma Walsh explores the potential in families for wellness. This book highlights the multiple causes that may contribute to family distress, and then, with a powerful lens of hope, explores the varied avenues that family members can take to increase family and individual resilience. Strengthening Family Resilience is an antidote to the simplistic labeling of diagnostic manuals. Therapists will change their ways of thinking about healing after reading this remarkable book."--Salvador Minuchin, MD"The world has changed since the original publication of Strengthening Family Resilience, and this reality is apparent on every page of Froma Walsh's fine second edition of her classic and soon-to-be-classic-again book. Walsh provides a thoughtful integration of theory and practice, principles and questions, leavened with the humility that thinking deeply in such complex times deserves. She has strengthened the new edition with attention to a wider variety of challenging circumstances that families face, and emphasizes collaborative and community-based approaches to assisting families in hard times. This book will appeal to students and seasoned clinicians alike."--Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, Harvard Medical School
"Froma Walsh has done it again! In this outstanding second edition, she provides an informative, comprehensive, and positive guide for students and professionals. Walsh writes in a crystal-clear, practical way. She outlines those factors in human development and community life that foster resilience, and illustrates ways to help families delve inward into untapped spiritual and emotional resources, and reach outward to connect with others. Her framework has the elasticity to encompass the wide variety of families of the 21st century. Walsh’s work transforms the usual pathologizing approach to adversity, offering an uplifting orientation that is deeply needed in our field."--Monica McGoldrick, LCSW, PhD (h.c.), Multicultural Family Institute, Highland Park, New Jersey
"In this era of stress and uncertainty, Walsh brings us a framework for hope and healing. This second edition updates and expands what has become a classic text in the psychotherapy literature. Providing an integrated view of resilience and reconciliation, the book helps us understand how the human spirit can withstand and grow from trauma, and shows what professionals can do to build on client and family strengths. This book is 'must' reading for all health and human service professionals who practice with individuals, couples, families, and communities."--Susan H McDaniel, PhD, University of Rochester