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Essential Skills in Family Therapy: From the First Interview to Termination, by JoEllen Patterson, Lee Williams, Claudia Grauf-Grounds, and Larry Chamow, New York, NY. Guilford Press, 1998, 240 pages.
Rarely have I found such a wealth of information presented so well in such a small (240 pages) book. The authors have culled from the literature and their practical experience the essential facts and skills of family therapy in such a manner that the beginning therapist will make this a vital part of their professional library, and a work that they will return to time after time in their learning process.
The authors begin their book in an area that many other works overlook-the vital preface to treatment, "Before the Initial Interview." Here they prepare the therapist for the upcoming task by considering who should come for therapy, what information...