This comprehensive textbook offers mental health professionals an essential resource for family therapy from a Christian integration perspective.

In this updated third edition of Family Therapies, Mark A. Yarhouse and James N. Sells survey and evaluate the major approaches to family therapy and discuss significant issues in psychotherapy as they relate to family therapy. Issues covered include crisis and trauma; marital conflict; separation, divorce, and blended families; substance abuse and addictions; gender, culture, economic class, and race; sexual identity; cohabitation, LGBTQ+ marriage, and family formation.

What's new in the third edition:



- a new section on system theory

- new material on recent innovations in various family therapy models

- updated content on topics such as telehealth and technology in therapy, immigrant and refugee families, divorce, and LGBTQ+ clients

- updated research throughout

Yarhouse and Sells cast a vision for an integrative Christian family therapy and offer timely wisdom for therapeutic practice in the midst of a diverse and rapidly changing global context. Family Therapies is an indispensable resource for students and practitioners in the mental health professions, including counselors, psychologists, family therapists, social workers, and pastors.

About the Series

Christian Association for Psychological Studies (CAPS) Books explore how Christianity relates to mental health and behavioral sciences including psychology, counseling, social work, and marriage and family therapy in order to equip Christian clinicians to support the well-being of their clients.



Mark A. Yarhouse (PsyD, Wheaton College) is the Dr. Arthur P. Rech and Mrs. Jean May Rech Professor of Psychology at Wheaton College. His books include Modern Psychopathologies, Sexuality and Sex Therapy, and Understanding Gender Dysphoria.



James N. Sells (PhD, University of Southern California) is professor of counseling, shares the Rosemary S. Hughes Professor of Christian Thought and Mental Health, and codirects the Charis Institute at Regent University. He is coeditor of Ministering to Families in Crisis and the author of several books including Family Therapies and Beyond the Clinical Hour.



List of Figures and Tables

Preface

Part 1: Foundational Considerations

1. A Christian Understanding for Family Therapy

2. Historical Foundations of Family Therapy

Part 2: Models of Family Therapy

Intro: A Primer on Systems Theory

3. Bowenian Family Therapy

4. Strategic Family Therapy

5. Structural Family Therapy

6. Psychodynamic Family Therapy

7. Contextual Family Therapy

8. Experiential Family Therapy

9. Solution-Focused Family Therapy

10. Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy

11. Narrative Family Therapy

12. Toward an Integrative Christian Family Therapy

Part 3: Integration of Family Theory with Critical Issues in Psychotherapy

13. Crisis and Trauma

14. Attending to Marital Conflict

15. Separation, Divorce, and Remarriage

16. Individual Psychopathology

17. Substance Abuse

18. Gender, Culture, Economic Class, and Race

19. Cohabiting Couples and Families: Christian Counseling's New Reality

20. LGBTQ+ Couples and Families

Part 4: Casting a Vision

21. Conclusion: Casting a Vision for Christian Family Therapy

Author Index

Subject Index



"Yarhouse and Sells have created a masterpiece work analyzing approaches to family therapies. This is going to be a new classic, matching the accomplishment of Jones and Butman's analysis of psychotherapies in their book, Modern Psychotherapies."



"Mark Yarhouse and James Sells have written a very helpful book that is comprehensive, biblically based and well-written. I highly recommend it as an excellent text for those interested in a Christian approach to family therapy."



"Yarhouse and Sells have written a practical, concise, invaluable, one- of-a-kind resource that integrates biblical, theological, psychological, theoretical, clinical and practical resources in ways that help the reader look at the family and family therapy through different lenses and better understand the individual in the context of their broader family system. This book will be read and reread by a broad audience."



"In Family Therapies, Yarhouse and Sells provide an important resource for Christian scholars and therapists. The first two sections provide a thoughtful foundation and Christian critique of existing therapy models, reminiscent of what Stanton L. Jones and Richard E. Butman accomplished in their classic book, Modern Psychotherapies, but with a focus on models of family therapy. The third section, which could have been a book on its own, looks at contemporary issues in relation to a Christian perspective on family therapy. The final section casts a vision for an integrative model of family therapy. This is a significant book that will help shape the training and practice of Christian therapists."