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Understanding Stepfamilies takes a large step toward achieving integration of the many variables presented in understanding the stepfamily system. The book examines the dynamics and resources within these complex family systems. It helps clinicians and researchers understand the underlying structural patterns and dynamics of stepfamilies, promoting more successful, positive treatment outcomes. Chapters in Understanding Stepfamilies offer clinicians and researchers an international perspective, including contributions from the U.S., Canada, Israel, and The Netherlands. Readers learn of unique theoretical approaches to understanding stepfamily typologies and behaviors and specific clinical models for assessment and intervention, as well as more empirically-based findings regarding parent-child interactions.
Despite the growing number of stepfamilies, and the recognition that they experience unique difficulties related to their complex family dynamics, there is very little support available to them. In this practical, evidence-based guide Lisa Doodson offers a valuable resource for professionals working with stepfamilies, giving insight into their unique nature and guidance on how to provide more effective support and advice. In addition to the wealth of research and knowledge that the book shares, there are a range of case studies which illustrate issues that the different types of stepfamilies frequently face. Each chapter also contains practical tools and exercises that professionals can use with their clients to help facilitate change in the family unit, as well as interventions including mediation and group workshops, and more traditional counselling techniques. Understanding Stepfamilies is a must have resource for counsellors and therapists, social workers, local authorities, charities and teaching professionals working with stepfamilies.
Create a Loving and Safe Environment for Your Blended Family Blended families face unique challenges, and sadly, good intentions aren’t always enough. With so many complex relationships involved, all the normal rules for family life change, even how you apply something as simple as the five love languages. That’s why Gary Chapman, the bestselling author of The 5 Love Languages® andnational expert on stepfamilies, Ron Deal, join together in this book to teach you how the five love languages can help your blended family. They’ll teach you: About the unique dynamics of stepfamilies How to overcome fear and trust issues in marriage How to develop healthy parenting and step-parenting practices How the love languages should—and should not—be applied You’re going to face many challenges, but with the right strategies and smart work, your family can be stronger and healthier together.
A compelling examination of the social and legal experiences of lesbian, bisexual, and queer stepparent families Lesbian, bisexual, and queer families formed after the dissolution of a marriage face a range of obstacles. In Queer Stepfamilies, Katie L. Acosta offers a wealth of insight into their complex experiences as they negotiate parenting among multiple parents and family-building in a world not designed to meet their needs. Drawing on in-depth interviews, Acosta follows the journeys of more than forty families as they navigate a legal and social landscape that fails to recognize their existence. Acosta contextualizes the legal realities of LGBTQ stepparent families and considers the actions these parents take to protect their families in the absence of comprehensive policies or laws geared to meet their needs. Queer Stepfamilies reveals the obstacles these families face in family courts during divorce proceedings and custody cases, and highlights their distrust of courts when it comes to acting in their children’s best interests, especially in the event of an origin parent’s death. As LGBTQ families continue to make social and legal strides in acceptance and recognition, this important book shows how queer stepparents find ways to make their unconventional families work, despite the many social and legal obstacles they encounter. Acosta provides a fresh perspective, broadening our understanding about families in the twenty-first century.
Each member has their own unique place in a family. Ron Deal explores the myth of the "blended" family offering practical, realistic solutions for stepfamilies.
It is estimated that between 33% and 40% of all United States children will live with a stepfamily. Due to the complexity, ambiguous roles, negative perceptions, and unrealistic expectations of many stepfamilies, members of such families are increasingly being seen by mental health professionals. This monograph is aimed at professionals to help them understand stepfamilies by providing practical and applied information. Some of the areas covered here include the developmental stages of the stepfamily, types of stepfamilies, specific assessment techniques for stepfamilies, and treatment considerations. Part 1 provides the groundwork for recognizing some of the characteristics of stepfamilies, including clinical issues, pitfalls, and systemic intervention. In Part 2, children and adolescents are examined, along with the risks encountered by children in a stepfamily. Part 3 outlines the beliefs and expectations of stepfamilies, taking care to analyze stereotypes of stepfamilies, new assessment techniques designed to assess maladaptive cognitions of stepfamily members, and the role of self-fulfilling prophecies in stepfamily success or failure. Each chapter offers a complete discussion of the nature of stepfamilies, along with practical suggestions for assessment and treatment of these families. Individual chapters contain references. (RJM).
What determines whether stepfamilies remain together? What helps stepfamilies overcomes the difficulties of remarriage and become mutually supportive family units? How can mental health professionals better support this development? This book brings both clarity and depth to the unique and complex dynamics of remarried families. Patricia Papernow draws on interviews with over 100 stepfamily members, up-to-date research, a solid theoretical framework, and an empathic clinical sensibility to present an insightful model of stepfamily development, the Stepfamily Cycle. This details account of the sages of forming a lasting, cohesive group is richly illustrated by stepfamily members' own stories. Becoming a Stepfamily describes the developmental challenges involved in building nourishing, reliable relationships between stepparents and stepchildren, in the newly married couple, and between different family groups who must learn to live together in a remarried family. Papernow discusses the factors that influence the pace and ease of development, and she provides four full length case studies illustrating the varied paths through the stepfamily cycle to the successful remarried life. The author offers therapists, clergy, school personnel, and others involved with stepfamilies a range of effective interventions, including preventive, educational, and clinical approaches. She provides practical guidance for helping family members deal constructively with the differing attachments of children to their biological parents and stepparents, assisting stepparents as they cope with feeling excluded from the powerful biological parent-child bond, and guiding biological parents torn between their spouse's need for intimacy and privacy and their children's needs for support and attention.
Combining theoretical, empirical, and clinical knowledge, Stepfamilies: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective contains recent research and information that will help mental health practitioners, family therapists, psychologists, and counselors understand the characteristics, dynamics, needs, and issues of nonclinical stepfamilies. Based on direct experiences with diverse types of stepfamilies, this book gives you new guidelines and strategies that will enable you to offer more successful sessions to your clients and improve your effectiveness as a practitioner. Developed to give you a more realistic understanding of stepfamilies, this text helps you avoid the stereotypes and false perceptions that often surround stepfamilies. Offering methods and strategies aimed at making your clients feel comfortable about themselves and their situations, Stepfamilies: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective examines several aspects of these families that you need to know in order to improve your effectiveness with them, including: the definition and description of stepfamilies and recognizing historical and social changes in the stepfamily structure critical reviews on the present knowledge of stepfamilies describing the complexity of family structure, the ambiguity of boundaries and roles, and the struggle with the diverse phases of the life cycle discussing key issues for stepfamilies, such as past orientation and acceptance/rejection of differences from non-stepfamilies and focal subsystems the profile, characteristics, and case studies of an innovative typology of stepfamilies that includes integrated families, invented families, and imported families aspects of ethnically and culturally different stepfamilies, including American stepfamilies, Israeli stepfamilies, and immigrant stepfamilies from the former Soviet Union social perceptions and attitudes of stepfamilies in schools, social services, community organizations, the media, and with the law Offering case studies and data on a variety of families and situations, Stepfamilies: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective will show you that all stepfamilies are not the same and cannot be helped by just one practice method. Complete with principles and instruments to assess patients and the success of sessions, Stepfamilies: A Multi-Dimensional Perspective works to promote an understanding of stepfamilies that will result in effective and positive therapy for your clients.
This volume focuses on a wide range of behaviors and outcomes in stepfamily relationships, both positive and negative. The authors use the normative-adaptive perspective to seek out and study adaptive, well-functioning stepfamilies and find how they differ from those who struggle to cope. It will be a welcome text and reference for all those who study and work with stepfamilies and families in general.
Brave New Stepfamilies maps the changing landscape of American stepfamilies, taking readers on a tour through the diverse assortment of traditional and not-so-traditional stepfamily forms that have emerged in recent years. Author Susan D. Stewart presents the latest scholarly research on stepfamilies in an accessible way, weaving together predominant theoretical perspectives, findings from research and national surveys, and interviews with stepfamily members.