Essential Assessment Skills for Couple and Family Therapists

Showing how to weave assessment into all phases of therapy, this indispensable text and practitioner guide is reader friendly, straightforward, and practical. Specific strategies are provided for evaluating a wide range of clinical issues and concerns in adults, children and adolescents, families, and couples. The authors demonstrate ways to use interviewing and other techniques to understand both individual and relationship functioning, develop sound treatment plans, and monitor progress. Handy mnemonics help beginning family therapists remember what to include in assessments, and numerous case examples illustrate what the assessment principles look like in action with diverse clients.

See also the authors' Essential Skills in Family Therapy, Third Edition: From the First Interview to Termination, which addresses all aspects of real-world clinical practice, and Clinician's Guide to Research Methods in Family Therapy.

Lee Williams, PhD, is Professor of Marital and Family Therapy at the University of San Diego and does couple therapy with veterans at the VA San Diego Medical Center. Todd M. Edwards, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director of the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego and Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. JoEllen Patterson, PhD, is Professor of Marital and Family Therapy at the University of San Diego and Associate Clinical Professor in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. Larry Chamow, PhD, is Clinical Professor of Marital and Family Therapy at the University of San Diego and is in full-time private practice at the Pacific Family Institute in Carlsbad, California.

1. Introduction to Assessment 2. Tools for Assessment 3. The Initial Interview 4. Assessing Issues of Safety 5. Assessing Health and Well-Being in Adults 6. Assessing for Psychopathology in Adults 7. Assessing Children and Adolescents 8. Assessing for Psychopathology in Children and Adolescents 9. Assessing Family Interaction 10. Assessing the Multigenerational Family through Time 11. Assessing Couples 12. Special Topics in Couple Assessment 13. From Assessment to Treatment (and Beyond) Index Appendix. Summary of Assessment Tools, Instruments, and Mnemonics