The Practical Practice of Marriage and Family Therapy

It is a truism among therapists in most mental health disciplines that the most important aspects of clinical practice are learned only after one has left graduate school and entered "the real world." While many of the basics could be covered in graduate school, supervisors of new therapists often feel that the fundamentals are only addressed in detail after a therapist has been employed. In response to this predicament, Odell and Campbell offer The Practical Practice of Marriage and Family Therapy: Things My Training Supervisor Never Told Me as a useful daily guide for graduate students and beginning marriage and family therapists that will ease the transition from learner to practicing professional in the clinical domain.Written in a refreshing and unpretentious style, much the way a caring seasoned professional would mentor a novice practitioner, The Practical Practice of Marriage and Family Therapy covers the major areas that typical graduate programs don't have time to address, including how to: - integrate theoretical training with pragmatic clinical practice to maximize therapeutic effectiveness - face the practical problems involving the financial elements of clinical work - become a thoroughly credentialed professional - develop an approach to becoming specialized - uncover the motivation for being a professional marriage and family therapist - increase one's ability to maintain high-level practice over a lifetime of work by developing coping strategies and methods of safeguarding one's own mental healthAddressing the unique approach of their book, Odell and Campbell explain, "Whereas most texts are handbooks on the actual theories and techniques used with couples and families, this book is designed to be a guide to the beginning professional as s/he leaves the graduate training environment and enters the mental health field as it exists in contemporary America. Our hope is that this book would be one of those chosen by the novice practicing professional if s/he could only take two or three with them into the field, as it contains material that is most useful for everyday work in clinical settings."

Terry S Trepper, Charles E Campbell, Mark O'Dell, Lorna L Hecker

Contents Foreword - Acknowledgments - Introduction - Section I. Before You Get Started . . . - So You Want to Be a Marriage and Family Therapist . . . - It Ain't Like the University Clinic - Section II. Beginnings - Securing a Place to Practice - Integrating Systemic Assessment and Traditional Clinic Intake Protocols, or How to Diagnose Clients Who Have Families, Part I - Integrating Systemic Assessment and Traditional Clinic Intake Protocols, or How to Diagnose Clients Who Have Families, Part II: Case Examples - Case Formulation: So What Do I Do After the Intake? - Ways to Engage the Family In Therapy ("Why Do You Want Me to Bring Her/Him/Them In?") - Referrals and the Use of Nonsystemic Tools - Documentation and Case Management: The Job Ain't Done Till . . . - Dealing with Money Issues Impacting Treatment: Insurance, Managed Care, and Fees - Section III. Along the Way - Values Conflicts: Who Knows What Is Best for Whom? - Inevitable Dual-Relationship Issues - Treatment Impasses: Revitalizing Stalled Therapy - Terminating When It Is Time - Here Comes the Judge . . . and Attorneys: Some Pragmatic Advice for Typical Situations Involving the Legal System - Avoiding Clinical Burnout - Changing Focus: Jobs, Settings, Populations, Careers - Becoming the "Master Therapist" You Always Wanted to Be - References - Index