Adoption And The Family System: Strategies For Treatment: Strategies For Treatment - Hardcover

..".Overall, the book will be particularly helpful to therapists whose clients are dealing with adoption-related issues. However, researchers interested in close relationships might also find this book useful for its extensive description of the impact of adoption on family dynamics. I hope that developmental, personality, and social psychologists, as well as therapists interested in the family, will see the benefits to be gained from studying adoption processes in understanding family interactions and personality development." --Review by Valerian J. Derlega. Extracted from CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY. "ADOPTION AND THE FAMILY SYSTEM is a landmark publication in the adoption field. Reitz and Watson have given us a sensitive, thorough, and insightful analysis of the dynamics of adoption as it is experienced by all members of the adoption triangle. As a resource for clinicians, this book should prove to be invaluable. The authors' approach to clinical assessment and treatment is well grounded in family systems theory. Intervention strategies are clearly described and supported by excellent use of case examples. The book fills a glaring gap in the clinical literature on adoption. It undoubtedly will be well received by those professionals who work with adoptees, adoptive parents, and members of birth families. This is a most important book." --David M. Brodzinsky, Ph.D., Rutgers University "This book is a unique contribution to the literature on adoption and family therapy. For the first time, family therapists will now understand how to handle adoption within a family therapy context; and adoption workers will understand the implications of adoption in the family system. Never before has there been a volume which brings together family systems theory and adoption. Especially helpful are the numerous case examples, useful interventions, and examples of good practice for working with all members of the adoption triad and their extended families."--Dirck Brown, Ed.D., coauthor of CLINICAL PRACTICE IN ADOPTION ..".a first-rate book that provides a sensitive and insightful look at adoption family dynamics. Undoubtedly, this book will be well-received by clinicians who work with members of the adoption community." --David M. Brodzinsky, Ph.D., in The Quarterly ..".an innovative and creative approach for clinical work with adopted persons and their adopted families...Reitz and Watson have written a timely, comprehensive volume...They have made a major contribution to the adoption and family systems literature. Clinicians, especially those working in the adoption field, will benefit by reading this book." --Marvin W. Clifford, B.C.S.W., D.S.W., Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal ., ."Overall, the book will be particularly helpful to therapists whose clients are dealing with adoption-related issues. However, researchers interested in close relationships might also find this book useful for its extensive description of the impact of adoption on family dynamics. I hope that developmental, personality, and social psychologists, as well as therapists interested in the family, will see the benefits to be gained from studying adoption processes in understanding family interactions and personality development." --Review by Valerian J. Derlega. Extracted from CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY. "This book effectively creates a bridge between discourse on family systems and adoption reform. It also offers a practical and inclusive framework for enhancing the knowledge and skills of clinicians working with clients and their families who have been impacted by adoption.""This book challenges the myth of adoption as a 'solution' to the socially linked problems of infertility and unplanned pregnancies. The authors recognize and address pain and loss as the foundation on which undergirds adoption.""The range and breadth of the authors' treatment of the issues is striking."., ."this book provides a comprehensive, thoughtful, and inclusive perspective, blending clinical theory and strategies with enhanced awareness of the dynamics inherent in adoption experiences. The authors successfully expand the reader/clinician's understanding that the impact of adoption is far greater than 'the occasional person or family seeking help.'" --Journal Marital and Family Therapy Offers practical guidance for implementing differential treatment and effective clinical procedures....Theauthors tranlate complex theory into useful technique, and use poignant case materials to further illuminate each topic.' --Adolescence The authors translate complex theory into useful technique, and use poignant case materials to further illuminate each topic.' --Family Therapy "This book is intended primarily as a guide for clinicians about clients' and families' problems associated with adoption and the therapeutic interventions that might be effective. However, the book also addresses broader themes--such as secrecy, attachment, and a sense of belonging--that should interest a wider audience of readers, including developmental, personality, and social psychologists, as well as researchers interested in studying close relationships....The book will be particularly helpful to therapists whose clients are dealing with adoption-related issues....Researchers interested in close relationships might also find the book useful for its extensive description of the impact of adoption on family dynamics." --Contemporary Psychology "Reitz and Watson's approach is distinctive for its equal sensitivity to and empathy for all members of the adoption triad...This book provides theory and intervention strategies that will guide therapists involved with families touched by adoption. An extensive bibliography covering both adoption and family systems as well as a thorough index graces this volume, which is well written and highly useful." --Hospital and Community Psychiatry "ADOPTION AND THE FAMILY SYSTEM: STRATEGIES FOR TREATMENT, by Miriam Reitz and Kenneth W. Watson is a comprehensive examination of the problems and treatment strategies therapists might encounter when dealing withbirth parents, adoptees, and adoptive parents at all stages of the adoption...The book is so thorough and so insightful that it will be invaluable to therapists dealing with birth and adoptive families." --Adopted Child "As noted in the Preface, the literature dealing with either family therapy or adoption continues to proliferate while the "treatment" of families involved with adoption remains neglected. Recognizing the lack of quality research in this area, Reitz and Watson draw together the limited data that are available and the somewhat greater number of findings culled from field research to provide a basis for informed clinical practice with birth and adoptive families linked in adoption....This highly readable but scholarly volume links together the basic facets of "the adoption triangle"--birth parents, adoptive families, and the adoptees--in a manner which has hitherto been given limited consideration by writers in this field. While theory is not neglected, there is much practical guidance to be found in these pages. Both authors are very well-qualified social workers who have practiced and taught in the areas of family therapy and child welfare for many years." --CHILD & FAMILY BEHAVIOR THERAPY "They (the authors) provide, with admirable detail and specificity, a coherent conceptual model, assessment foci, and clinical actions. I also liked that they covered issues that are frequent aspects of work with adopted clients....a reader familiar with basic family systems theory will find it easy to use their adaptation of general principles to the special case of adoption. They present their approach with confidence and authority, based on their obvious extensiveclinical experience. The rest of the book delineates the specifics of the general principles with a refreshing distinctive style....I think this would be an excellent source book for the practicing clinician who works a lot with adopted families....A required reference for agencies serving adoption families and teenage mothers and fathers." --Journal of Family Psychotherapy "Miriam Reitz and Kenneth W. Watson have made a valuable contribution to the literature...Practitioners from a multitude of disciplines will undoubtedly enjoy the thorough treatment of both practical and theoretical issues, the jargon-free language, and the authors' inclusion of developmental sequences experienced by all parties to the adoption process...The important contribution made by Reitz and Watson to our understanding of adoption and the family system is both significant and necessary. Their writings are a pleasure to read while also providing an education much needed." --Psychotherapy in Private Practice "This book represents the first integration of adoption and family-systems theory, two major domains in social work and the mental health fields...The major strength of this book is its dynamic interplay between family-systems theory and adoption...Though this book is intended for professionals, nonetheless, adoptive parents, birthparents, and adult adoptees can clearly benefit from its material. The authors provide numberous case illustrations from their combined clinical experience, giving triad members something concrete with which to relate. Parents, especially, can gain valuable insight into specific problems. "Adoption and the Family System" is recommended reading for professionals and other adults interested in improving the quality of clinical assessment and treatment provided to adoption triad members and their families. The combining of family-systems theory and adoption represents a breakthrough in the integration of these two significant disciplines and is thus a contribution to both." --OURS magazine of the Adoptive Families of America, Inc. "In "Adoption and the Family System: Strategies for Treatment," Miriam Reitz and Kenneth Watson have delivered a book that a wide range of practitioners, students, and scholars will find useful. Practitioners in many fields will find here a fresh point of view on adoptions. Therapists will find solid explanations for a variety of adoption-related symptoms and strong suggestions for treatment. Counselors involved in private or agency adoptions will find food for thought in considering the long-term emotional health of the families with whom they work. Social workers in child-protection-related areas will find new respect and compassion for parents whose rights are involuntarily terminated by the courts....I recommend this book highly to all clinicians whose practice is touched by adoptions and would also suggest it to adoptive families. It is a book that encourages examination of one's own attitudes toward adoption." --Social Service Review

First published in 1992. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.