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This volume describes an innovative approach to working with families who have not been well served by traditional mental health, social service, and medical systems. Critically examining many professional assumptions about "difficult" families, the book outlines clinical practices that facilitate a respectful, constructive, and effective therapeutic relationship. Highlighted are ways to engage reluctant clients, conduct nonpathologizing assessments, and help families develop communities of support. Of crucial importance, the author proposes that therapists move away from trying to identify and correct old problems. He focuses instead on how to support clients in envisioning desired futures and developing new lives. Including a wealth of compelling clinical material, the book raises important theoretical and political questions without becoming moralistic and promotes a strengths-based focus without romanticizing families or minimizing their difficulties.

"In this lively and useful volume, Madsen brings a postmodern family-centered model into daily practice with a range of families and individuals, including those who have often been ill served or neglected by professional helpers. Well written and deeply rooted in practice, this liberating volume will have a profound impact on the thinking and the work of all those who engage with it." --Ann Hartman, DSW, Distinguished Visiting Professor, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service

"In invitingly clear prose, William Madsen has written a trustworthy and knowledgeable guide for working with multi-stressed families, focusing on collaboration with clients, therapists, and agencies. Never losing sight of today's practice realities, this graceful, smart book enlightens and inspires." --Kathy Weingarten, Ph.D. Co-Founder and Faculty, The Program in Narrative Therapies, Family Institute of Cambridge, Assistant Clinical Professor, Harvard Medical School

"This compelling book depicts the genuine complexities of families and their helpers on a canvas of deep compassion, connection, and hope. Bringing the experiences and the voices of multi-stressed families vibrantly to life, Madsen is helping to redefine the language of our field. His profound respect for families and mental health practitioners is beautifully paralleled in his relationship with his readers in this collaborative and wonderfully jargon-free volume. Beginning trainees will find both gentle guidance and clear direction (I anticipate the chapter on assessment will become a classic in family therapy training programs); experienced therapists will appreciate the author's fresh ideas and commitment to a multilayered therapy; administrators and policymakers will discover a progressive and resourceful approach to seemingly intractable problems." --Evan Imber-Black, PhD, Director, Center for Families and Health, Ackerman Institute for the Family; author of The Secret Life of Families