Peter Fraenkel - Böcker

Detailing a wide range of systemic approaches to mental health and relational issues, this essential guide demonstrates the power of family systems therapy as a means of fostering genuine human, relational, and societal transformation.With contributions from more than 50 internationally recognized family therapy scholars and practitioners, this text illustrates how family systems therapy can provide a comprehensive, effective, and more humane approach to the dominant paradigm of mental health treatment. The book offers an integrative approach that blends action-oriented techniques with multigenerational and multicultural insights, and provides an understanding of children and adolescents’ issues, couple crises, and losses and life adversities, and shares stories of resilience from families all over the world. Chapters explore how family and couple therapy can be used to address a variety of challenges, such as engaging children’s voices in sessions, couples in which a partner suffers from a chronic illness or disability, strengthening family healing and resilience, teens at risk of suicide, the intricacies of power dynamics in couples, infertility, and much more.This text is essential reading for mental health and human service practitioners, researchers, and policymakers, as well as graduate-level trainees in all mental health disciplines.

Detailing a wide range of systemic approaches to mental health and relational issues, this essential guide demonstrates the power of family systems therapy as a means of fostering genuine human, relational, and societal transformation.With contributions from more than 50 internationally recognized family therapy scholars and practitioners, this text illustrates how family systems therapy can provide a comprehensive, effective, and more humane approach to the dominant paradigm of mental health treatment. The book offers an integrative approach that blends action-oriented techniques with multigenerational and multicultural insights, and provides an understanding of children and adolescents’ issues, couple crises, and losses and life adversities, and shares stories of resilience from families all over the world. Chapters explore how family and couple therapy can be used to address a variety of challenges, such as engaging children’s voices in sessions, couples in which a partner suffers from a chronic illness or disability, strengthening family healing and resilience, teens at risk of suicide, the intricacies of power dynamics in couples, infertility, and much more.This text is essential reading for mental health and human service practitioners, researchers, and policymakers, as well as graduate-level trainees in all mental health disciplines.

Therapy with couples on the brink of relationship dissolution involves unique challenges. Partners present with high levels of conflict, low levels of intimate connection, disdain and discouragement, and limited patience or hope. These couples have often tried therapy without lasting success, and announce that “this is our last chance". Partners want to see evidence in the first session that the therapist can offer something new and that change is possible.Peter Fraenkel presents a practical, creative, integrative approach that combines action-and insight-oriented techniques to help last-chance couples manage conflict, modulate intense negative emotions, address power struggles, develop mutual compassion, and restore emotional intimacy and pleasurable connection. Special attention is paid to developing a collaborative therapeutic alliance when partners have little motivation for therapy or faith that it can be effective. Through engaging in “nonbinding experiments in possibility", partners can then better evaluate whether to “stay or go”.

Peter Fraenkel here gives a vivid account of a childhood in a middle-class, non-observant Jewish family in Nazi Germany, forced to emigrate to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in 1939. Here the contrast could hardly be greater, from persecuted Jew, to 'enemy alien' in colonial Northern Rhodesia, to re-assimilation into the privileged colonial elite. Following education in Northern and Southern Rhodesia he worked for the Northern Rhodesian and later, Central Broadcasting Service. Here his pioneering work and support for racial equality in a deeply racist society connected with his earlier life - 'no fixed abode' but in tune with humane liberalism.

This volume presents a groundbreaking understanding of incest and an innovative, family-based approach to treatment. The authors show that while not all incestuously abused children experience the classic diagnostic symptoms of trauma, virtually all do experience relational trauma --disruptions in the sense of safety, security, loyalty, and trust that may block connection and communication with nonoffending family members. Systematically combining individual and family sessions, the relational treatment model focuses on strengthening the child's protective relationships, mobilizing the family to help resolve the child's emotional and behavioral symptoms, and building the family's resiliency. Filled with annotated case material that illuminates the challenging treatment choices and dilemmas facing the clinician, this book offers essential guidance for anyone working with families in which incest has occurred.

This text and professional resource offers an alternative approach to thinking about and working with “difficult” families. From a nonpathologizing stance, William C. Madsen demonstrates creative ways to help family members shift their relationship to longstanding problems; envision desired lives; and develop more proactive coping strategies. Anyone working with families in crisis, especially in settings where time and resources are scarce, will gain valuable insights and tools from this book.

Peter Fraenkel here gives a vivid account of a childhood in a middle-class, non-observant Jewish family in Nazi Germany, forced to emigrate to Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in 1939. Here the contrast could hardly be greater, from persecuted Jew, to 'enemy alien' in colonial Northern Rhodesia, to re-assimilation into the privileged colonial elite. Following education in Northern and Southern Rhodesia he worked for the Northern Rhodesian and later, Central Broadcasting Service. Here his pioneering work and support for racial equality in a deeply racist society connected with his earlier life - 'no fixed abode' but in tune with humane liberalism.