Strengthening Family Resilience / Edition 3

by Froma Walsh PhD, MSW

Overview

In this widely used course text and practitioner resource, Froma Walsh provides a state-of-the-art framework for understanding resilience in families and how to foster it. Illuminating the complex interplay of biopsychosocial influences in risk and resilience, she identifies key transactional processes that enable struggling families to grow stronger and more resourceful. Case illustrations demonstrate Walsh's collaborative approach with diverse families facing a wide range of crisis situations and chronic multistress challenges. The book features practice principles, tools, and guidelines, as well as programmatic applications.

New to This Edition
*Incorporates the latest practice advances and resilience research.
*Chapter on assessment tools and strategies.
*Chapter on disruptive transitions across the family life cycle.
*Expanded coverage of war-related and collective trauma.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781462529865
Publisher:	Guilford Publications, Inc.
Publication date:	12/28/2016
Edition description:	Third Edition
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Froma Walsh, MSW, PhD, is the Mose and Sylvia Firestone Professor Emerita in the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice and the Department of Psychiatry, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago. She is also Co-Founder and Co-Director of the Chicago Center for Family Health. Dr. Walsh is an internationally respected clinical scholar and a foremost authority on family resilience. Integrating developmental, relational, sociocultural, and spiritual perspectives, her resilience-oriented systemic approach with individuals, couples, and families fosters healing and positive adaptation. She is past editor of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy and past president of the American Family Therapy Academy. Dr. Walsh is the recipient of many honors for distinguished contributions to theory, research, and practice, including the Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association and awards from the American Family Therapy Academy, the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the American Orthopsychiatric Association, and the Society for Pastoral Counseling Research. She is a frequent speaker and consultant internationally, and her books have been translated into many languages.

Table of Contents

I. Overview
1. Foundations of a Family Resilience Approach
2. Family Diversity and Complexity in a Changing World: Varied Challenges and Pathways in Resilience
II. Key Family Processes in Resilience
3. Belief Systems: The Heart and Soul of Resilience 
4. Organizational Processes: Relational and Structural Supports
5. Communication Processes: Facilitating Meaning Making, Mutual Support, and Problem Solving
III. Practice Applications
6. Assessing Family Resilience: Useful Maps for Practice and Research
7. Practice Principles and Guidelines to Strengthen Family Resilience
8. Applying a Family Resilience Framework in Community-Based Services
IV. Facilitating Family Resilience through Crisis, Transition, and Persistent Challenges
9. Challenges and Resilience over the Family Life Cycle: A Developmental Systems Perspective 
10. Loss, Recovery, and Resilience
11. Traumatic Loss and Collective Trauma: Strengthening Family and Community Resilience
12. Serious Illness and Disabilities: Family Challenges and Resilience
13. Nurturing Resilience in Vulnerable, Multi-Stressed Families
14. Reconnection and Reconciliation: Healing Relational Wounds
Appendix I. Walsh Family Resilience Questionnaire
Appendix II. Developing Resilience-Based Genograms: Outline and Sample Questions
Appendix III. Exploring the Spiritual Dimension in Family Life: Sources of Distress and Resources for Well-Being, Healing, and Resilience
References
Index

Interviews

Therapists and counselors working with families; instructors and students in family therapy, clinical psychology, social work, psychiatry, mental health and pastoral counseling, and psychiatric nursing. Serves as a text in such courses as Family Therapy, Working with Families, Family Stress, Social Work Practice with Families, Family Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy, and Promoting Family Health.

Editorial Reviews

"In this invigorating read, Froma Walsh normalizes the vast adverse experiences of families and takes her readers through the journey of resiliency, challenging the problem-focused mindset offered by other therapeutic modalities....This book is a 'must-read.' Students and seasoned clinicians can find ways to apply the resiliency framework regardless of therapeutic modality....Will make a significant contribution to training programs." (on the second edition)

Journal of Marital and Family Therapy

"While most therapists search for a cure for an illness, Froma Walsh explores the potential in families for wellness. This book highlights the multiple causes that may contribute to family distress, and then, with a powerful lens of hope, explores the varied avenues that family members can take to increase family and individual resilience. Strengthening Family Resilience is an antidote to the simplistic labeling of diagnostic manuals. Therapists will change their ways of thinking about healing after reading this remarkable book."—Salvador Minuchin, MD

"The third edition of this classic, comprehensive book is a welcome addition to any health care professional’s library. Walsh's overarching framework for understanding and working with resilience in families and communities allows for an ecumenical approach to the crucial subject of helping people cope with—and even thrive in—adverse circumstances. Well written and immensely helpful, the book is rich with stories and clinical vignettes. This is a compassionate, practical guide to one of the most fundamental of all human aspirations: how to rise above our misfortunes."—Kaethe Weingarten, PhD, Director, The Witnessing Project

"Brilliant! This thoroughly enriched third edition of Walsh’s groundbreaking work is a gem. Walsh brings to this book her keen intellect and her humane approach to individuals, families, and communities facing adversity of all kinds: personal, communal, or sociopolitical. The third edition features additional carefully explained tools for use in practice and training settings. This is a sparkling contribution that will inspire those who work with diverse families in the midst of pain to tap their hidden resources and instill hope."—Celia Jaes Falicov, PhD, Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego
"Walsh has done it again! Writing in clear, jargon-free, and elegant prose, she rescues resilience from its current buzzword status, offering us a true systemic application for diverse families and communities. Walsh's career-long development of resilience is a gift to students, practitioners, and researchers. She wraps her arms around the dilemmas and traumas facing contemporary families, offering us a living concept that will not grow musty on a shelf but rather will guide our work with families. This third edition will be required reading in the graduate program I direct."—Evan Imber-Black, PhD, Program Director, Marriage and Family Therapy Master's Program, Mercy College; faculty member, Ackerman Institute for the Family

"In this timely third edition of her classic work, Walsh expands her theory and review of the evidence on how families adapt successfully to acute crises and chronic adversities. She integrates ecological, family, and developmental systems theory with research on resilience across the family life cycle, across cultures, and in diverse situations that challenge contemporary families. Drawing on her extensive experience in professional practice and training, Walsh has created a practical, evidence-informed guide to fostering adaptive family function. This engaging book by a pioneer in family resilience theory and intervention is essential reading for anyone who works with or is training to work with families."—Ann S. Masten, PhD, Regents Professor of Child Development, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

"It is an honor to endorse a book that has had such a profound impact on my own life and work. This third edition brings our understanding of strengthening family resilience to a new level and continues to inspire us in our belief in the power of the human spirit to overcome adversity. I will continue to recommend this new edition to practicing professionals, students, and colleagues teaching courses in all mental health and health disciplines. The book's powerful message of spiritual resilience will also benefit faith-based organizations, pastoral counselors, and those they serve."—Nancy Boyd-Franklin, PhD, Distinguished Professor, Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

"Walsh has thoroughly updated the definitive book on family resilience. It should be required reading for students and professionals in mental health and community services, as well as others who seek to improve the lives of families. Although the focus is on resilience in the face of adversity, the book's comprehensive review of family therapy concepts and methods qualifies it as a primary text on integrative family therapy. The third edition includes a trenchant discussion of challenges and strategies for resilience researchers, as well as expanded guidelines for clinical and community practice. Walsh’s elegant prose makes every sentence quotable."—Peter Fraenkel, PhD, Department of Psychology, The City College of the City University of New York

From the Publisher

Presents an innovated framework for therapeutic and preventive work with couples and families who are distressed, vulnerable, or at-risk, filled with suggestions for collaborative interventions that can help family relationships rebound and heal. Identifies key interactional processes for dealing with challenges, drawn from various models of a healthy family, and presents case illustrations showing how to use the strengths of each family member to benefit all family members. For professionals and students in mental health and human services. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

Reviewer: Ileana Ungureanu, MD, PhD, LMFT, CFTP (Adler School of Professional Psychology)
Description: This edition of a much-acclaimed book on resilience is a welcome update the previous one, published 10 years ago. Structured in four parts, the author addresses the conceptual framework of resilience, the family processes related to it, and its applications in various systems and settings.
Purpose: This update adds some important aspects of contemporary family processes and elaborates on others. As the field of family sciences and the way that family is defined rapidly change, the need for an update on the research and clinical applications of family resilience is apparent and this book measures up, as always.
Audience: The audience includes healthcare professionals such as marriage and family therapists and social workers, as well as community practitioners in varied fields and the general public interested in family dynamics specific to resiliency. The author is recognized and acclaimed nationally and internationally for her work in expanding the concept of resilience from an individual perspective to the more systemic, family picture.
Features: The book presents a detailed description of family processes in resilience, as well as assessment tools and practice principles in using the concepts. An essential, updated part of the book covers the application of the family resilience framework to various systemic settings in situations of crisis or long-term challenges such as illness, war, or terrorist attacks. The use of case vignettes throughout to illustrate the practical application of the concepts helps readers get an in-depth understanding of resiliency processes.
Assessment: This is a needed update. While much is written about individual resilience, we don't have a plethora of works on families. With this new edition, the author adds the new developments in the field, both in research and in practice. Using her compassionate, strength-based approach and language, the author talks about contemporary trauma facing families such as war, street violence, or refugee experiences, and how resiliency and hope contribute to overcoming the direst of straits.

Doody's Review Service

"Anyone working with families in crises will learn much from this highly readable and refreshing book."

Child & Family Professional

"A landmark book for all who value a family strengths approach to working with families.... Required reading for anyone serious about today."

Family Ministry

"Masterfully integrates decades of family therapy research and practice. Dr. Walsh's scholarship, experience, and wisdom are evident throughout the text."

Families in Society

"Walsh intends to show us how to think about families from a perspective that will help families and communities face extraordinary changes. She eloquently describes how therapists can shift their perspective to promote resilience. This is a strong work—not simply aspirational but practical, prescriptive, and well reasoned. The book is well grounded in scholarly traditions and contemporary empirical work, and is wonderfully fleshed out with crisp case material. It will be an important eye-opener for therapists in training and an excellent source of pragmatic inspiration for clinicians in the field. It is strongly recommended to both groups of readers."

PsycCRITIQUES

"Opens up some new ways for understanding families, making assessments, and interventions through an understanding of individual and family resilience that can refuel one's therapeutic work with individuals, couples, and families. The book should be read by mental health professionals from all disciplines and used for teaching purposes by mental health educators."

Social Service Review

"Provides a fresh, innovative perspective....A solid acquisition on a timely topic."--Choice

Choice