Author Description

Often recounted in a clinical manner from a therapist's perspective, the story of family therapy is many times viewed in an academic, theoretical context. Such analyses, while scholarly, tend to lack the real stories, the heart and soul of the counseling experience for those in it. Now, however, such a story is available. Following one family through their years of therapy, this book delves into the hearts and minds of the characters. So by the story's end, readers will come to view the family members not so much as characters in a therapist's drama, but rather as heroes of their own stories. And in turn, the readers will then be able to reflect on their own experiences. In this book, Mike Nichols, a family therapist, offers his narrative "diary" as he develops and enters into the process of family therapy with one family. In addition to providing his own personal account of the therapy process as the counselor, he includes the rich, detailed study of a family as they progress through life's stages from their initial courtship to the departure of their children from home. Social workers, therapists or others interested in the topic.