Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationships: What Works and What Doesn't

Surviving and Thriving in Stepfamily Relationshipsdraws on current research, a wide variety of clinical modalities, and thirty years of clinical work with stepfamilies to show clinicians how to approach the special challenges stepfamilies face. The chapters present the concept of "stepfamily architecture," the five challenges it creates, and three different levels of strategies for meeting those challenges in dozens of different settings. The model is designed to be useful to a wide variety of practitioners, from a highly trained clinician who needs to know how and when to work on all three levels, to a school counselor who may need to work on the first two levels but refer out for level three. It will also be useful to educators, judges, mediators, lawyers and medical personnel who will practice on the first level, but need to understand the other two to guide their work.