FAMILY THERAPY CONCEPTS AND METHODS A01_NICH3062_12_SE_FM.indd 1 17/12/2019 20:51 A01_NICH3062_12_SE_FM.indd 2 17/12/2019 20:51 Twelfth Edition FAMILY THERAPY CONCEPTS AND METHODS Michael P. Nichols College of William and Mary Sean D. Davis Alliant International University A01_NICH3062_12_SE_FM.indd 3 17/12/2019 20:51 Please contact https://support.pearson.com/getsupport/s/contactsupport with any queries on this content Copyright © 2021, 2017, 2013 by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates, 221 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. All Rights Reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise. 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Such references are not intended to imply any sponsorship, endorsement, authorization, or promotion of Pearson’s products by the owners of such marks, or any relationship between the owner and Pearson Education, Inc., or its affiliates, authors, licensees, or distributors. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Nichols, Michael P., author. | Davis, Sean D., author. Title: Family therapy : concepts and methods / Michael P. Nichols, College of William and Mary, Sean D. Davis, Alliant International University. Description: Twelfth edition. | Hoboken : Pearson, [2019] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “In this twelfth edition of Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, the authors tried to describe the full scope of family therapy-its rich history, the classic schools, the latest developments-but with increasing emphasis on clinical practice”-- Provided by publisher. Identifiers: LCCN 2019046469 (print) | LCCN 2019046470 (ebook) | ISBN 9780135843062 (Casebound) | ISBN 9780135842836 (epub) | ISBN 9780135842843 (Access card) | ISBN 9780135843031 (MyLab instant access) Subjects: LCSH: Family psychotherapy. Classification: LCC RC488.5 .N53 2019 (print) | LCC RC488.5 (ebook) | DDC 616.89/156--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046469 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019046470 ScoutAutomatedPrintCode ISBN 10: 0-13-584306-5 ISBN 13: 978-0-13-584306-2 A01_NICH3062_12_SE_FM.indd 4 17/12/2019 20:51 This book is dedicated to the memory of Salvador Minuchin. A01_NICH3062_12_SE_FM.indd 5 17/12/2019 20:51 A01_NICH3062_12_SE_FM.indd 6 17/12/2019 20:51 FOREWORD Sigmund Freud disliked the families of his patients. He rates that favor individual treatments, and the ever wider complained that relatives often undermined treatment, availability of prescription drugs that promise to improve seemingly preferring the patient remained sick. Following one family member’s behavior without inconveniencing Freud’s lead, his successors kept families at arm’s length, the others. although they might influence them indirectly through their Other realities, however, are redirecting the atten- work with one member. Eventually, however, some ther- tion of practitioners and policy makers toward the family. apists came to suspect relatives might not just prefer the Some see a link between adolescent destructive or self- patient remain sick but actually were making the patient destructive behavior and the replacement of proximal, sick, and they saw a need for the whole family to be treated. in-person connections with the virtual ones facilitated by Thus family therapy was born as an attempt to disrupt the modern technology or with a pill. Residential treatment, the web of relationships that entrapped individuals. expensive strategy of temporarily taking disturbed children But once families and therapists met in person, their away from their families, is falling out of favor with cost- relationship changed. Now the family was no longer a dis- conscious administrators who look for ways to keep those tant observer with an obstructed view of the treatment but children at home. Along the same lines, the 2018 Family an active protagonist. Therapists were experiencing the First Act bill aims to prevent children from entering fos- family firsthand rather than through the distortion of one ter care by redirecting funding streams to family support member’s view. They learned, or were reminded, that a programs. Family therapy, originally designed to disrupt family is more than just a generator of pathology; it actu- negative bonds, is now being applied to the nurturance of ally shapes its members’ whole identities. Whereas work- positive ones. ing with individual patients inclines therapists to prioritize For current and future clinicians who contem- individuation, self-sufficiency, and personal realization, plate entering the exciting world of working with fami- working with families nudges them toward appreciating lies, Nichols and Davis’s Family Therapy: Concepts and belonging, interdependency, and mutual responsibility. It Methods provides the best road map. Wide in scope and then becomes possible to look at the binds that connect substantial in content, meticulously researched and clearly family members as something that can be fine-tuned rather written, the text outlines the core rationales and techniques than just dismantled—the family may not be part of the of the foundational models and the ones that followed, problem but is certainly part of the solution. illustrating them with abundant clinical vignettes that The therapist’s journey from avoiding families to bring the theories to life. First published in the mid-1980s, valuing them has not always moved in one direction, and each successive edition has been thoroughly revised and not everybody has been on board. Therapists’ choices of updated, keeping pace with the continuous evolution of the approach are conditioned by the context within which they field. This version, the twelfth, captures the more recent practice, and at different times that context has been more or developments in family therapy and in the sociocultural less supportive of work with families. In the United States context where family therapists ply their trade. today, some of the contextual realities that discourage such work are the requirement of individual diagnoses for Jorge Colapinto, LMFT purposes of insurance reimbursement, the reimbursement Wynnewood, PA vii A01_NICH3062_12_SE_FM.indd 7 17/12/2019 20:51 A01_NICH3062_12_SE_FM.indd 8 17/12/2019 20:51 PREFACE One thing that sometimes gets lost in academic discus- Family Therapy has moved to Chapter 2 to provide sions of family therapy is the feeling of accomplishment a foundation for the Basic Techniques in Chapter 3. that comes from sitting down with an unhappy family and Chapter 10 in the previous edition has been split into being able to help them. Beginning therapists are under- two chapters (Chapters 10 and 11) standably anxious and not sure they’ll know how to pro- • Updated photos and references throughout ceed. (“How do you get all of them to come in?”) Veterans often speak in abstractions. They have opinions and discuss big issues—postmodernism, managed care, second-order ALSO AVAILABLE WITH MYLAB HELPING cybernetics. While it’s tempting to use this space to say PROFESSIONS Important Things, we prefer to be a little more personal. This title is also available with MyLab Helping Profes- Treating troubled families has given us the greatest sat- sions, an online homework, tutorial, and assessment pro- isfaction imaginable, and we hope the same is or will be gram designed to work with the text to engage students true for you. and improve results. Within its structured environment, students see key concepts demonstrated through video clips, practice what they learn, test their understanding, NEW TO THIS EDITION and receive feedback to guide their learning and ensure In this twelfth edition of Family Therapy: Concepts and they master key learning outcomes. Methods, we’ve tried to describe the full scope of fam- ily therapy—its rich history, the classic schools, the latest • Learning outcomes and standards measure developments—but with increasing emphasis on clinical student results. MyLab Helping Professions orga- practice. There are a lot of changes in this edition: nizes all assignments around essential learning out- comes and national standards. • Video- and Case-Based Exercises develop decision- Content Changes in the New Edition making skills. Video- and Case-Based Exercises • New case studies throughout introduce students to a broader range of clients, and • Revised chapter on research in family therapy, therefore a broader range of presenting problems, including a discussion on common factors and rec- than they will encounter in their own preprofessional ommendations for bridging the gap between research clinical experiences.