Includes bibliographical references (p. 467-495) and index.

This book presents a transtheoretical 'response system framework' for understanding family practice. This framework organizes theoretical information, assessment protocols, skills, and intervention strategies into a learning structure that helps students understand myriad client situations and the intervention strategies that would be most appropriate for those specific situations. Using this over-arching structure, and focusing on two systems of response--action systems (how family members behave and interrelate) and processing systems (how family members interpret/feel)--Ragg guides readers through the five parts of the book with the goal of building holistic family intervention skills. These five parts are comprised of: 'Family thinking', or knowledge of family systems; 'Assessing families'; 'Building the Working Alliance'; 'Change-Focused Intervention'; and 'Working with Multi-Problem and High-Risk Families.'.