The New Contextual Therapy: Guiding the Power of Give and Take

This brief clinical guide de-mystifies Contextual Theory of family counseling for practitioners and students in language that is succinct and lucid. Contextual Family Therapy is a profound, far-reaching approach that offers a comprehensive theory of integrating and balancing the concerns of individuality and togetherness. This book is written to expose a whole new generation of therapists to this important approach to family therapy. In making the volume short and accessible, the goal is not to re-write the work of the past but rather to give the reader the basis to see the power of the approach and give the foundation to understand the existing clinical guides. Through detailing and examining the four interplaying dimensions of relationships-objectifiable facts, individual psychology, systemic interactions, and relational ethics-Contextual Theory gives therapists the ability to reshape human relationships and solve problems using the strengths of trust, fairness, and freedom.

Terry D. Hargrave, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Counseling at West Texas A&M University and is a founding and practicing member of Amarillo Family Institute Franz Pfitzer, M.D., is the Chief of Psychiatry at the Klinik St. Irmingard in Prien am Chiemsee, Germany