Karen Gail Lewis – författare

Siblings share a unique relationship: They have known each other longer than anyone else. No matter how close or distant siblings are today, they are part of each other. As adults, they actually are part of two sibling sets. The original siblings are the ones who grew up together and have changed and aged together. The second set is the creation of their childhood perceptions, feelings, hurts, and resentments, as well as idealizations about the original siblings. These siblings, like ghosts, are not visible; they never age. While these siblings mostly lie dormant, when they jump into action, they distort how adults relate to their siblings now. The "sibling ghosts" have four components--frozen images, crystallized roles, unhealthy loyalty, and sibling transference--each of which has a unique effect on one's adult life, and all of which may be transferred onto important adults in their lives, including spouses and lovers, people at work, and friends. For therapists of all theoretical orientations, Sibling Therapy: The Ghosts from Childhood that Haunt Your Clients' Love and Work is the first book that provides a theoretical framework for working with adult siblings and will be helpful in understanding the influences of clients' ghosts, especially when dealing with intractable problems. While based in systemic theory, the book goes beyond, looking at the specific issues related to being siblings. The ideas and the numerous clinical examples presented here are applicable for family therapists, social workers, psychologists, psychiatrists, counselors, pastoral counselors, and anyone working in a therapeutic position, as well as masters and doctoral students in these fields

The first section covers Sibling Dynamics: General Issues: here contributors look at intense sibling relationships, effects of birth order and family structure, and ethnic issues.Section II, entitled When Siblings Are Close: The Early Years, covers such issues as the sibling dynamics in large families, divorcing and remarried families, and alcoholic families, as well as treatment of brother-sister incest and with siblings of disabled children.Moving into adolescence and young adulthood in Section III, Balancing Closeness and Separateness, clinicians share their experiences of working with symptoms as sibling messages, recognizing the special dynamics in families where the siblings are all of one gender, and supporting the sibling relationship in eating-disordered families and in families where one sibling has a chronic mental illness.In Section IV, Settling Old Scores: The Middle Years, we are reminded that childhood siblings conflicts can haunt adult relationships. In addition, chapters examine sibling dynamics in family businesses and :sibling" issues among cotherapists and coauthors.A sibling is often an individual's most enduring intimate contact, as the sibling relationship may last longer than those with parents, spouses, and children. Section V, Facing the Problems of Aging: The Late Years, explores relationships among adult siblings who care for their aged parents and among elderly siblings.

Learn effective techniques for teaching and supervising group therapy. This unique new volume brings together teaching and supervisory models for a host of theoretical orientations, including psychodynamic, family systems, psychodrama, gestalt, and transactional analysis. Variations on Teaching and Supervising Group Therapy is essential reading for mental health professionalswho currently conduct groups but who lack the specialized training for becoming a supervisor who currently teach group therapy from one theoretical orientation and want to learn about other modalities who teach academic courses on group therapy and want to expose students to a broader perspective of group modalities than the usual one or two models--psychoanalytic and activity groups--usually taught in schoolsThe contributing authors are social workers and professionals from other disciplines who represent a cross section of the teachers of the various types of groups being conducted in the United States today. They describe an exciting array of teaching formats--one-day workshops, semester-long courses, year-long training programs, weekly supervision sessions, and outside consultation--and settings, including family service agencies, child guidance centers, short-term health maintenance organizations, freestanding group training institutions, and private practice.Some of the highlights of this practical book include an examination of the most commonly used format in group therapy today--psychodynamics a demonstration of using family systems theory to understand the group therapy participants and process the key concepts and history of psychodrama the key concepts and basic aspects of a gestalt training program for practicing therapists strategies for teaching social work students a look at the skills needed for conducting group therapy with children a model for training therapists who conduct short-term groups

Originally published in 1991, this title is a valuable social work text which demonstrated how to apply family system concepts to clinical situations encountered in work with inner-city populations at the time. Unlike traditional theories in clinical social work which were oriented toward the individual, this fascinating book offers a paradigm for social work that encompasses the client, his or her immediate and extended family, the community, the government, and the social worker. The family systems concepts in this refreshing volume are illustrated by case examples addressing the specific issues of AIDS and drug abuse, homelessness, foster care, wife abuse, care of those with intellectual disabilities, and adoption issues. Social workers and social work students can still gain perspective from these insightful chapters and will discover that it is not pathological people that make difficult populations, but difficult life situations that breed pathology.