Collaborative Therapy with Multi-Stressed Families

by William C. Madsen

This text and professional resource offers an alternative approach to thinking about and working with “difficult” families. From a nonpathologizing stance, William C. Madsen demonstrates creative ways to help family members shift their relationship to longstanding problems; envision desired lives; and develop more proactive coping strategies. Anyone working with families in crisis, especially in settings where time and resources are scarce, will gain valuable insights and tools from this book. 

Genres: Psychology, Social Work, Counselling, School, Nonfiction

388 pages, Paperback

First published October 6, 1999

Reviews

[Christian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a textbook 🤪 But I really enjoyed it. I’m really into Narrative therapy lately.

[Adam Jarvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very helpful, very much a textbook

[Kony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Required for therapy school. Decently well written, and includes useful concrete examples rather than hovering in the theoretical realm.

However... while this book does readers a service by acknowledging racism, classism, and saviorism as ongoing problems within the profession, it is unfortunately not completely free of white savioristic assumptions. Madsen repeatedly uses the paternalistic term "helpers" to describe people working in community mental health and similar fields. And while he briefly discusses the oppressive impacts of bureaucratic requirements in the field, he essentially says "good luck working within those requirements." He stops short of urging us to use our privilege to disavow and dismantle the capitalistic framework that justifies those requirements. Had he gone there and actually offered practical pointers in this vein, I might've liked the book more.

Overall, this is one of the better books in the therapy school curriculum, but it doesn't go far enough in addressing the harmful systems that constrain healing work within community mental health care settings, and therefore it still needs to be read with a critical eye.

[Harry Remer · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a while to penetrate Madsen's academic style of prose, very theoretical and dense. Interestingly, in person, he's much more down-to-earth and a great teacher. However, there is an incredibly useful framework hidden amongst the philosophy if you stick to it.

The framework here was of tremendous use to me while working during years of working with multi-stressed families in a community mental health center. It continues to inform my longer-term, private work with both individuals and families today. If you want to be relieved of the burden of responsibility for your clients' woes, want to empower them more than yourself, want to penetrate quickly to what's wrong and to their pre-existing (if unconscious) resources, this book will help tremendously.

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was another assigned book for my studies. It was a book that I hated reading while I read it but was glad that I did in the end. Madsen spends the first two chapters on a rant about how therapists need to look at clients. I agree with his advice whole heartedly but the way in which he wrote it turns the reader off. He is very repetative which is good on one hand because he is wordy and the book is long but it would probably be shorter if he didn't reapeat himself so much. That asside Madsen gives great examples on how to help families that have more than one stressor in their lives. He promotes a collaborative view that works with the client as the expert on their own lives.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant and very useful book. I appreciate the author's transparency and his dedication to collaborative, empowerment-supporting practices. The "intake form" that he outlines, along with ideas for more in-depth questions, is extremely useful.