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PREFACE

Theory and Practice of Couples and Family Counseling is intended for undergraduate and graduate students interested in the field of couples and family counseling. Although this book is designed especially for counselors—both those in training as well as those currently practicing as licensed professional counselors—it also accommodates students and practitioners in family studies, human services, marriage and family therapy, nursing, pastoral counseling, psychiatry, psychology, and social work. My overall goal in writing this book was to survey the major theories and practices of contemporary relational counseling as well as support the development of personal, professional, and ethical couples and family practice. Most important, the book provides a model for a successful integration of multiple points of view.

I had several goals in writing this book. I wanted to

 address the use of theoretical models across several fields, giving as much consideration to health, growth, and resiliency as I did to assessment and remediation;

 present some models that are absent from other textbooks;

 provide real examples of quality work for each approach as well as work with a single couple or family system that could be used for comparison across models;

 focus on personal as well as professional development; and

 write in the kind of conversational tone that has made other textbooks so successful.

This book is a thoroughly updated version of my previous textbook Theory and Practice of Family Therapy and Counseling (2nd ed.). The most significant change in this edition is the emphasis on couples counseling. Here is the complete set of changes:

 The history of couples and family counseling based on the genograms of couples and family counseling has been completely updated and revised to include the discipline of couples counseling.

 The Quest family, which is used for comparison purposes throughout the text, has been revised to include a multicultural dimension, as has every theoretical model.

 All previous family chapters have been updated generally and specifically to include a section on working with couples.

 Three new chapters on couples counseling have been added, featuring the models of John and Julie Gottman, Susan Johnson, and Harville Hendrix and Helen Lakelly Hunt; each of these chapters has a section on working with families.

 To make room for the new chapters, I have updated two chapters from the previous edition and made them available at www.jamesrobertbitter.com. These two chapters are on Carl Whitaker’s symbolic-experiential model and effective parenting.

This book is divided into three parts. Part 1 deals with the language, conceptualizations, history, and issues that are the foundation for couples and family practice. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the book and of the field of couples and family counseling. It defines the language and thinking associated with family systems theory. In Chapter 1, I also tell you a little bit about my own family history and how it relates to both my personal and professional development. I hope this brief biography can serve as a model for students who may be starting their own personal explorations in preparation for a career in the helping professions.

Chapter 2 uses the genogram of couples and family counseling, presented at the end of the chapter, as a structure for considering the history of the field of couples and family counseling. Four interlocking histories are presented in this chapter: (a) a history of the pioneering individuals who first introduced family and systems concepts to the field of psychotherapy as well as their offspring and supporters; (b) the development of the structural, strategic, and solution-focused/ solution-oriented models of family counseling; (c) the evolution of postmodern, social constructionist, and feminist models of couples and family counseling; and (d) evidence-based counseling approaches to couples and family counseling, including three couples counseling models that are brand new to this edition and that are discussed at length in the next part of the book.

Chapter 3 more directly addresses personal and professional development. In this chapter, I use some of the processes I learned from 10 years of training with Virginia Satir, a late, great pioneer of family counseling and therapy. They are designed to help you discover self in family context and consider the tremendous influence family systems have on each of us as growing counselors and therapists. I also list some personal and professional characteristics that are particularly useful in relational practice: some ideas for how to get started with couples and families, the relationship of scholarship to practice in the field of family counseling, and a first look at a model for integration that is more fully developed in Part 3.

Chapter 4 introduces you to the ethical, professional, and legal issues that have shaped the development of family practice. This chapter on applied ethics has been completely updated and coauthored with my friends and colleagues David Kleist and Mark Young. We focus on learning to think about ethical issues from the perspectives of virtue, professional ethics codes, and legal requirements in the field. This chapter takes into account the guidance and mandates of multiple ethics codes, including those developed by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Counseling Association, the American Psychological Association, the International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors, and the National Board for Certified Counselors.

Part 2 is devoted to a consideration of 13 models of couples and family counseling. It starts with a presentation of the biography and genogram of the Quest family, a family that is part of each of the theory chapters. The 13 theory chapters have a consistent organization so that you can compare and contrast the various models. Each chapter starts with an introduction to the model that defines its major characteristics and identifies its founders. The introduction is followed by a transcript of an actual couples or family counseling session, usually featuring a major contributor to that approach. I want you to have these sessions in mind when you consider the key concepts, counseling goals, counselor’s role and function, and process and interventions that follow. Toward the end of each chapter, I present another counseling session with the Quest family using the model presented in that chapter. I end each of the theory chapters with a summary of the chapter, a consideration of cultural and gender issues, and suggested readings and videos. Each of these chapters has been updated with the latest ideas and references for the model. The three chapters on couples counseling are brand new from start to finish.

Part 3 addresses the integration and application of models. Chapter 18 on integration is designed to help you discover a model or set of models that fits your worldview and perspectives on family practice. An emphasis is placed on assessing personal values and beliefs and using videotapes of initial work for reflection and development as a family counselor or therapist-in-training. A four-stage process for conducting couples and family sessions is also described: forming relationships, performing relational assessments, hypothesizing and sharing meaning, and facilitating change. An emphasis is placed on resiliency work, tailoring treatment to individual families, and methods for ensuring treatment adherence and relapse prevention. Finally, the integrative model is applied one last time to the Quest family.

With this structure in place, we are now ready to begin a journey together. It is my hope that you will enter the field of couples and family counseling and find an exciting place for yourself as a relational practitioner. Couples and family practice is very much a growing and developing field. Only 70 years ago, the field was still in its infancy. I hope you will feel yourself grow into couples and family practice as you consider the different models presented in this book.