This short book outlines the stages and process of restructuring the couple and family relationships when a new couple is coming together, when one or both have children. Written for adults in stepfamilies/blended families as well as for professionals, friends and family members who wish to be supportive of this complex and frustrating/exciting new family form. The first years are the hardest. tepmothers and stepfathers need a good road map. This is it.
Judy Osborne is a marriage and family therapist in Brookline, MA, and Director of Stepfamily Associates, an organization she founded in 1981. She consults with individuals, couples and families about the issues of living in stepfamilies (www.stepfamilyboston.com) and has seen, first hand, the evolution of many post-marriage relationships.
Osborne has always been on the leading edge of new services to families. In 1966 she became the first elementary guidance counselor in the Brookline MA public schools. The establishment of Stepfamily Associates (1981) was an early entry into services for the then growing numbers of stepfamilies created as the divorce wave reached its peak. She also became a founder of a community hospice that served as a model for services to families facing terminal illness in the early '80, well before the national legislation made hospice services common. In the early 1990s she helped create services for adult children of alcoholics, extending family alcoholism services at McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA.
After graduating from Mount Holyoke College, Osborne studied Child Development at Pacific Oaks College and Children's School in and earned advanced degrees in Counseling Psychology from Teachers College, Columbia University and Northeastern University. In addition she has a certificate of advanced study from The Boston Institute for Psychotherapy.
Judy grew up in a small town in Connecticut. Her early years were formed with the expectation of lifelong connections in family and community. Cultural changes of the mid 20th century and her own story and solid foundation as a family therapist allow her to take a very long view of family change
