Strengthening Family Resilience, Second Edition (Guilford Family Therapy Series) [Hardcover]

Froma Walsh PhD MSW (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 2006 | ISBN-10: 1593851863 | ISBN-13: 978-1593851866 | Edition: 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

From the Back Cover

Drawing on her extensive experience as a family practitioner and researcher, in this volume Froma Walsh presents an approach to all kinds of families that recognizes and makes use of their resilience and often hidden resources. Bringing substance to the promise of a strengths perspective, this engaging, informative, and useful work is an invaluable resource for social work practitioners, educators, and students interested in families (Ann Hartman, DSW, Visiting Distinguished Professor, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, New York, Dean and Professor Emerita, Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Massachusetts). --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; Second Edition edition (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1593851863
• ISBN-13: 978-1593851866
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,027 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read for Every Family Therapists/Counselors, July 9, 2000

By 

Ta-Wei Wang (Taiwan) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Strengthening Family Resilience (Hardcover)

Traditional family systems theory which contributes to the development of various family therapy schools is largely derived from clinical observations of families with psychitric patients. Many family researchers were eagerly looking for what causes individual pathology within families. They ignored the bright sides. Even when facing major crisis, each family has its own strengths to help itself go back on track. Sometimes that resilient power may make the family become even healthier and stronger than before. Dr. Froma Walsh outlines the qualities that help families sustain the storming weather, and suggest a new approach of clinical practice. The book has three parts. Part I is an overview providing theoretical foundations for this approach. It also dicusses the family diversity issues in this changing society. Part II contains four chapters. First three chapters address the three key family processes in resilience, which are Belief Systems, Organizational Processes, and Communication Processes. The remaining chapter offers an integrative framework for family assessment. Part III explores family resilience through crisis and challenge. Death and loss and chronic illness are chosen for illustrating how family develops resilience through adversity or traumatic experiences. The author then dicusses how to treat vulnerable multi-crisis families through strength-based and family-centered services. The book closes with the chapter on reconnection and reconciliation. Combining with family-of-origin work and forgiveness promotion, the author offers ways to "mend the broken hearts." I found this book easy to read, and the organization is very clear. It is a excellent basic text for understanding fundamantal family system dynamics. Is is also very useful for counselors and therapists to alter the views to emphasize more on the strengths of individuals and families, rather than on the deficits and weakness.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended., January 5, 2007

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Strengthening Family Resilience, Second Edition (Guilford Family Therapy Series) (Hardcover)

Now in an updated second edition, Strengthening Family Resilience is a guide for both families and therapists by Froma Walsh, who has received awards for her leadership in the field of family therapy from the Division of Family Psychology of the American Psychological Association, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, and AFTA. Strengthening Family Resilience especially focuses upon the quality of being able to withstand and rebound from a crisis or persistent challenges, the key difference between families shattered by tragedy and trauma while other families survive and even grow stronger in the wake of adversity. A scholarly text of especial value to professionals and students in the field of counseling and therapy, Strengthening Family Resilience covers the key processes in resilience such as belief systems, organizational patterns, and communication processes, as well as means to facilitate the cultivation of resilience in times of greatest need, forming connections in times of dire conflict, and much more. Highly recommended.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Strengthening Family Resilience, January 12, 2009

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Jeanine M. Swenson "Jeanine" (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Strengthening Family Resilience, Second Edition (Guilford Family Therapy Series) (Hardcover)

Heartfelt and exceptionally well-referenced, this wonderful book by Dr. Froma Walsh holds many keys for success in the 21st century. Dr. Walsh discusses the elements that make individuals resilient and expands them to families and communities. Offering many recipes and solutions for balance in our modern and stress-filled world, this book is an important way to promote health and happiness for yourself and your loved ones. I recommend it for any caring professional that works with children or families.