Wow! eBook
Transforming the Legacies – Couple Therapy with Survivors of Childhood Trauma
Author(s): Kathryn Karusai Basham (Author), Dennis Miehls (Author)
- Publisher: Columbia University Press
- Publication Date: 12 Nov. 2004
- Edition: Illustrated
- Language: English
- Print length: 368 pages
- ISBN-10: 0231123426
- ISBN-13: 9780231123426
Book Description
To serve the increasing numbers of individuals who have survived interpersonal and domestic violence, or as refugees, have sought asylum from political violence, armed conflict, or torture, Transforming the Legacy presents an innovative relationship-based and culturally informed couple therapy practice model that is grounded in a synthesis of psychological and social theories. This unique couple therapy model encompasses three phases of clinical practice: Phase I entails a process of establishing safety, stabilization, and a context for changing legacies of emotional, sexual, and/or physical abuse. Phase II guides reflection on the trauma narrative. The goal of phase III is to consolidate new perspectives, attitudes, and behaviors. Within these phases, the model-illustrated with rich case studies-focuses on specific issues, including: intersubjectivity between the client and clinician (such as transference and countertransference, vicarious traumatization, and racial identity development); intrapersonal, interactional, and institutional factors; the role of the “victim-victimizer-bystander” dynamic in the couple and therapeutic relationships; preserving a locus of control with clients; flexibility in decisionmaking regarding clinical processes; and specific practice themes, such as the composition of a couple, the role of violence, parenting, sexuality, affairs, dual diagnoses, and dissociation. A dramatic departure from formulaic therapeutic approaches, this biopsychosocial model emphasizes the crafting of specific treatment plans and specific clinical interventions to show how couple therapy can transform the legacies of childhood traumatic events for a wide range of populations, including military couples and families, gay lesbian/bisexual/transgendered couples and families, and immigrant and refugee couples and families. This thorough attention to issues of cultural diversity distinguish Transforming the Legacy from the current literature and make it an invaluable resource for clinicians in a wide range of professional disciplines.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Transforming the Legacy is an outstanding resource… This book should be required reading.–Katherine van Wormer, MSSW, PhD “Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addications”
This book adds to the literature of couple therapy because of its well-developed depth of presentation.–Debra Nelson-Gardell “Social Work”
This book is a tour de force… [and] needs to be read from beginning to end.–Marcia Kraft Goin “Community Mental Health Journal”
This readable, optimistic volume covers history, theory, practice, case vignettes, case illustration, and issues of therapist involvement…Highly Recommended.– “Choice”
About the Author
Kathryn Karusaitis Basham and Dennis Miehls are both associate professors of clinical social work at Smith College School for Social Work. Each maintains a private practice in clinical social work in Northampton, Massachusetts.
