This practical book presents cutting-edge approaches to couple and family therapy that use attachment theory as the basis for new clinical understandings. Fresh and provocative insights are provided on the nature of interactions between adult partners and among parents and children; the role of attachment in distressed and satisfying relationships; and the ways attachment-oriented interventions can address individual problems as well as marital conflict and difficult family transitions. With contributions from leading clinicians and researchers, the volume offers both general strategies and specific techniques for helping clients build stronger, more supportive relational bonds.

IAttachment and Family Systems is a cogent and compelling text addressing the undeniable overlap between two systems of thought that deal with the nature of interpersonal relationships and how these impact functioning. In this enlightening work, leading thinkers in the field apply attachment theory within a systemic framework to a variety of life cycle transitional tasks and clinical issues.

This text shows how to design a treatment manual and adherence measure for attachment-based family therapy (ABFT) for adolescent depression and presents data and results on the treatment's efficacy.

Attachment-Focused Family Play Therapy presents an essential roadmap for therapists working with traumatized youth. Exploring trauma and attachment through a neurobiological focus, the book lays out a flexible framework for practitioners treating young clients within the context of their family relationships. Chapters demonstrate how techniques of play and expressive therapy can be integrated into work with different developmental stages, while providing the tools needed to fully incorporate the family into the healing process. The book also provides clinical examples and guidance on the ethical decision-making needed to effectively implement attachment work and facilitate positive change. Written in an accessible style, Attachment-Focused Family Play Therapy is an important resource for mental health professionals who work with traumatized children, adolescents, and adults.

This accessible text examines how the science of autonomy and adaptation informs all family therapy approaches and discusses how clinicians can use this science to improve their practice. Uniquely focussing on how to integrate science as well as theory into clinical practice, the book provides an overview of science from multiple domains and ties it to family systems theory through the key framework of autonomy and adaptation. Drawing on research from genetics, physiology, emotion regulation, attachment, and triangulation, chapters demonstrate how a comprehensive science-informed theory of family systems can be applied to a range of problematic family patterns. The text also explores self-of-the-therapist work and considers how autonomy and attachment are connected to systems of power, privilege, and oppression. Supported throughout by practical case examples, as well as questions for consideration, chapter summaries, and resource lists to further engage the reader, The Science of Family Systems Theory is an essential textbook for marriage and family therapy students as well as mental health professionals working with families.

Attachment & Family Therapy offers an integrative, family-based approach to understanding and addressing the psychological and relational needs of distressed children and their parents. The book blends attachment theory and basic developmental research with the diverse insights and methods of all schools of family systems theory. The problems addressed range from mild developmental issues, to autism, ADHD, disability, divorce and separation, psychosomatic disorders, and child protection and out-of-home placement. The solutions described involve not only traditional forms of family therapy, but also formulations and conceptualizations that combine individual, couples, and family work around specified issues. The authors present a sophisticated model of attachment that fits the breadth of clinical variation, focuses on family strengths, and is informed by insights from neurology and information-processing.

Exploring the conditions under which children, as a function of their own abuse, become abusive themselves. That experiences from childhood affect our behavior in adulthood, especially in the ways we treat our children and intimate partners, is generally accepted. Indeed, theories of intergenerational transmission of violence indicate that if we ourselves have been abused and neglected as children, we will likely be abusive and neglectful to others close to us—thus extending the cycle across generations. However, many individuals who were maltreated as children do not replicate this cycle, and such models make little sense of the individual raised in a “good family” who is violent either as a child or as an adult. These discontinuities of cycles of violence and trauma have challenged professionals and nonprofessionals alike. However, broadening our vision and attending to new areas of research can help to illuminate this conundrum and open up new avenues of intervention. In this book, Pamela Alexander does just that. She proposes that an increased risk for abusive behavior or revictimization, as a function of one’s own experiences of abuse or trauma in childhood, can best be understood through the complementary lenses of attachment theory (focusing on the relationship between the child and the caregiver) and family systems theory (focusing on the larger context of this relationship). That is, what a child acquires from her relationship with a caregiver is not simply a reflection of what she has “learned” from experiencing or witnessing abuse. Rather, it emerges from the child’s felt experience of the relationship itself—on implicit emotional, physical, and neurobiological levels. Alexander founds the book on this multifaceted parent–child attachment relationship and its place in the wider family system, integrating clinical experience with close attention to the long-term neurobiological and epigenetic effects of trauma. She focuses on common outcomes of a history of maltreatment, and of child sexual abuse in particular, including peer victimization, partner violence, parenting problems, and sexual offending. A detailed review of the literature accompanies instructive case examples. Sources of trauma from outside the family, including combat exposure, political terrorism, foster care, and incarceration of parents are considered. Finally, Alexander analyzes the multiple sources of natural resilience—the neurobiological, the individual, the relational, and the social—to enable professionals of all backgrounds to tailor-make effective interventions for interrupting cycles of trauma and violence.

Professional interest in the clinical applications of attachment theory continues to grow and evolve, and at the same time narrative approaches are also gaining ground. This book explores how attachment-based ideas can be used in clinical practice by offering a practical and sophisticated exposition of clinical approaches. Bringing together three main systems of thought and psychotherapeutic practice - systemic theory, attachment theory and narrative theory - practitioners are shown how to use these ideas in their work through the integrated approach of ‘attachment narrative therapy’. Using clinical examples, the authors provide guidance on how to use attachment narrative therapy in different clinical contexts and with various client groups, including working with: addictions: alcohol dependency and eating distress loss and grief trauma and dissociation love and sexuality: applications with couples. Systemic Therapy and Attachment Narratives provides practical guidance for a range of mental health professionals including family therapists, child, adolescent and adult psychotherapists, clinical psychologists and social workers, enabling them to apply this approach in a range of contexts.

Filled with insight into theoretical foundations as well as practical suggestions for clinical practice, Rewriting Family Scripts is a valuable resource for family therapists of all orientations, attachment theorists, family theorists, and other readers interested in understanding and improving family dynamics.