Children in Families at Risk

In her previous, highly acclaimed book Children in Family Contexts, Lee Combrinck-Graham and her colleagues bridged the fields of child therapy and family therapy with an exploration of basic issues. Building upon that work, this volume describes actual programs that are based on the notion that family connections are substantial resources for healing and recovery even when the family is a very troubled one. With a particular focus on work with severely fractured families, most of these programs attempt to keep children connected with their own families, even when circumstances prevent them from living together. Each program is fully detailed to include a complete description, a discussion of the value of this approach, and at least one actual example to illustrate how it works. This book is aimed at all mental health practitioners who work with children and families, as well as child welfare workers, policy-makers, teachers, attorneys, and family court judges. It also serves as a text for advanced courses in family therapy, child psychotherapy, and school psychology.