Socioculturally Attuned Family Therapy, 2nd edition, is a fully updated and essential textbook that addresses the need for marriage and family therapists to engage in socially responsible practice by infusing diversity, equity, and inclusion throughout theory and clinical practice.

Written accessibly by leaders in the field, this new edition explores why sociocultural attunement and equity matter, providing students and clinicians with integrative, equity-based family therapy guidelines and case illustrations that clinicians can apply to their practice. The authors integrate principles of societal context, power, and equity into the core concepts and practice of ten major family therapy models, such as structural family therapy, narrative family therapy, and Bowen family systems, with this new edition including a chapter on socio-emotional relationship therapy. Paying close attention to the "how to's" of change processes, updates include the use of more diverse voices that describe the creative application of this framework, the use of reflexive questions that can be used in class, and further content on supervision. It shows how the authors have moved their thinking forward, such as in clinical thinking, change, and ethics infused in everyday practice from a third order perspective, and the limits and applicability of SCAFT as a transtheoretical, transnational approach.

Fitting COAMFTE, CACREP, APA, and CSWE requirements for social justice and cultural diversity, this new edition is revised to include current cultural and societal changes, such as Black Lives Matter, other social movements, and environmental justice. It is an essential textbook for students of marriage, couple, and family therapy and important reading for family therapists, supervisors, counselors, and any practitioner wanting to apply a critical consciousness to their work.

About the Author

Teresa McDowell, EdD, is a professor emerita of MFT at Lewis & Clark's Graduate School of Education and Counseling. She is a social researcher, program evaluator, consultant, and educator.

Carmen Knudson-Martin, PhD, is a professor of MFT at Lewis & Clark's Graduate School of Education and Counseling. She is a founder of Socio-Emotional Relationship Therapy (SERT).

J. Maria Bermudez, PhD, is an associate professor in the MFT program at the University of Georgia. Her work centers feminist-informed, culturally responsive approaches to therapy, research, and supervision.

Reviews

"Attuning to the sociocultural perspective was never a choice but our culture of dominance invisiblizes it, creating colonizing conditions for therapeutic practice. But no more! McDowell, Knudson-Martin, and Bermudez's socioculturally attuned framework offers theoretically dynamic, contextually sensitive, and relationally ethical ways to unpack the invisible, yet highly felt, role power plays to create third-order change. They show us how this change is an imperative, not a choice, to create just relationships. One of the rich features in this edition are diverse practitioner reflections, across contexts, which afford the reader to engage one's unique intersectional positionalities in practice. This book needs to be required reading for all practitioners."

Saliha Bava, PhD, Associate Professor, MFT Program, Mercy College; Co-founder & Executive Council Member, International Certificate in Collaborative-Dialogic Practices Network

"Systemic, third-order thinking requires profound and authentic engagement making transformative change at many contextual levels impossible without socioculturally attuned praxis in family therapy. This compelling book challenges family therapists to stay true to their systemic training and consider all the intersections of our relational contexts. It uses a social justice and inclusion lens and has uniquely included the voices of many engaged in transformative third-order thinking and change. It is a must-read for anyone claiming to be a family therapist."

Manijeh Daneshpour, Distinguished Professor of Family Therapy, Alliant International University, California

Book Information
ISBN 9781032074412
Author Teresa McDowell
Format Paperback
Page Count 372
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 716g