A master class in family therapy--now updated with an additional ten years' case experience



Few people have had as profound an impact on the theory and practice of family therapy as Salvador Minuchin. As one commentator put it, "Memories of his classic sessions have become the standard against which therapists judge their own best work." This new edition of the classic, Mastering Family Therapy, offers beginners and experienced practitioners alike the opportunity to learn the art and science of family therapy under this pioneering clinician and teacher.

In elegant clinical interplays, Minuchin, his colleagues Wai-Yung Lee and George Simon, and eight advanced students provide answers to such critical questions as:
* What does it take to master the art of family therapy?
* How do I create an effective personal style?
* How can I become an instrument for growth for troubled families?


This updated Second Edition features:
* An overview and critique of new models of treatment in the field, especially evidence-based models of family treatment
* New case material highlighting the impact of societal context on families
* Minuchin's conceptualization of a four-step process of family assessment, including how history can impact current family functioning


A new and thoroughly revised version of the classic text, Mastering Family Therapy, Second Edition is essential reading for all those who practice, study, or teach family therapy.

SALVADOR MINUCHIN, PHD, is the author of the field's standard text, Families and Family Therapy, as well as numerous other works, including, most recently, Working with Families of the Poor (coauthored with Patricia Minuchin and Jorge Colapinto). He is former director of the Philadelphia Child Guidance Center, director of Family Studies, Inc., and research professor of psychiatry at New York University.

WAI-YUNG LEE, PHD, is the Director of the Hku Family Institute and Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of The University of Hong Kong. She remains on the faculty of The Minuchin Center and has studied and worked with Salvador Minuchin since 1990.

GEORGE M. SIMON, PHD, is on the faculty of The Minuchin Center. He maintains a private practice dedicated to couples and family therapy in New York and teaches family therapy to the staff at the Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry, New York. He has studied and worked with Salvador Minuchin since 1990.

Foreword vii
Braulio Montalvo

Preface ix
Salvador Minuchin

Acknowledgments xiii

Part I Families and Family Therapy

1 Family Therapy: A Theoretical Dichotomy 3

2 Family Particulars: All Families are Different 17

3 Family Universals: All Families are Alike 33

4 Family Therapies: Clinical Practice and Supervision 41

5 Contemporary Trends: Whatever Happened to Family Therapy? 61

6 The Therapeutic Encounter 75

Part II Stories of Supervision

7 Supervision of the Therapeutic Encounter 99

8 The Feminist and the Hierarchical Teacher 107
Margaret Ann Meskill

9 One Head, Many Hats 123
Hannah Levin

10 The Poet and the Drummer 137
Adam Price

11 The Oedipal Son Revisited 159
Gil Tunnell

12 Into the Crucible 177
Israela Meyerstein

13 Men and Dependency: The Treatment of a Same-Sex Couple 195
David E. Greenan

14 The Shit-Painter 215
Wai-Yung Lee

15 Filling the Empty Vessel: Andy Schauers Story 243
Wai-Yung Lee

Epilogue 261
Salvador Minuchin

References 267

Index 271