This text will enable students to gain beginning proficiency as a family therapist along with understanding the impact of a client’s race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender issues, age, socioeconomic status, disability, and differences from the “traditional” family on family assessment and intervention.
 
The book has six goals, as follows:
 
- acquaint students with the theoretical underpinnings of various approaches to assessing and intervening with families
- assist students in understanding the similarities, differences and strategies of change among the major models of family therapy
- introduce the student to the current available research on the effectiveness of different approaches to family intervention - help students assess family functioning from a life cycle perspective and make a valid plan, taking into account client’s race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, disability, gender issues, age, socioeconomic status, disability, and differences from the “traditional” family
- help students develop techniques and strategies related to stages of the intervention in family therapy
- enable the student to critique the appropriateness of the theoretical models and its intervention techniques according to family developmental factors as well as the particular needs of the family.