Essentials of Family Therapy, The, 7th edition

Published by Pearson (April 19, 2019) © 2020
  • Michael N.A Nichols
  • Sean D. Davis

Title overview

For introduction to family therapy courses.

A pragmatic, clinical approach for the successful practice of family therapy

The Essentials of Family Therapy examines the full scope of family therapy, its rich history, classic schools and latest developments, with an emphasis on practical issues. With its focus on contemporary clinical practice, illustrative case studies and extremely practical presentation, the text helps readers gain a thorough understanding of why a therapy technique is successful and how to apply it in their own practice.

The 7th Edition features new case studies with Reflect and Apply Questions to help students think about how to apply therapeutic principles and more.

Hallmark features of this title

User-friendly features help students learn essential concepts and understand how theory is applied in practice

  • Real-world examples, experiences, and first-hand knowledge are integrated throughout the text. Descriptions of the various models are based on actual experience with those models and their developers as well as on contributions of leading practitioners of those approaches.
  • Coverage of gender, culture, ethnicity and ethical issues relating to family therapy are discussed throughout.

New and updated features of this title

  • NEW: A new section on working with transgender persons (Ch. 10)
  • NEW: A new chapter about research (Ch. 14), which includes a discussion of why research has failed to influence clinical practice and suggestions.
  • NEW: Additional real-world case studies with Reflect and Reply questions help students learn to think about how to apply therapeutic principles. All the cases presented are drawn from the authors' own practice or from experts in the field.
  • NEW: Guidelines for productive problem-solving conversations A significantly revised cognitive-behavioral chapter (Ch. 9), with more focus on recent trends in clinical practice.
  • UPDATED: An enhanced focus on clinical practice that helps readers gain a full understanding of how each theory makes sense of change, and what each theory looks like in practice. Current research findings are integrated into each chapter.
  • UPDATED: A more concise chapter on Bowen family systems therapy is also included. (Ch. 4)

Table of contents

PART I: THE CONTEXT OF FAMILY THERAPY

  • Introduction: Becoming a Family Therapist
  1. The Evolution of Family Therapy
  2. Basic Techniques of Family Therapy
  3. The Fundamental Concepts of Family Therapy

PART II: THE CLASSIC SCHOOLS OF FAMILY THERAPY

  1. Bowen Family Systems Therapy
  2. Strategic Family Therapy
  3. Structural Family Therapy
  4. Experiential Family Therapy
  5. Psychoanalytic Family Therapy
  6. Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy

PART III: RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FAMILY THERAPY

  1. Family Therapy in the Twenty-First Century
  2. Solution-Focused Therapy
  3. Narrative Therapy

PART IV: THE EVALUATION OF FAMILY THERAPY

  1. Comparative Analysis
  2. Family Therapy Research

Author bios

About our authors

Michael P. Nichols has been a leading teacher and practitioner of family therapy for 40 years. He trained with Salvador Minuchin and Murray Brown and has worked with many leaders of the various schools. He's written a number of books, including the most respected textbook in family therapy, Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, as well as the best-selling The Lost Art of Listening, and Assessing Families and Couples: From Symptom to System (with Salvador Minuchin and Wai-Yung Lee). He currently teaches at the College of William and Mary. He is also a national champion powerlifter.

Dr. Sean Davis earned his BA in Family Studies and MS in Marriage and Family Therapy at Brigham Young University. He earned his PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy at Virginia Tech and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Kentucky. He currently teaches at Alliant International University. Dr. Davis' work focuses on common factors of effective marriage and family therapy treatments. He is widely published in this area, most notably having co-authored the first book on this subject and two articles for which he and his co-authors received the 2014 and 2015 article of the year award in the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, his field's top journal. Dr. Davis is also the coauthor (with Dr. Michael Nichols) of Family Therapy: Concepts and Methods, one of the field's most widely used theory textbooks. In addition to his work on common factors, Dr. Davis enjoys international education opportunities, having taken students to Mexico and Italy.

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