What mental health initiative can effectively solve school problems that range from troubled and troubling students to disengaged learners? School-Based Family Counseling is the most likely initiative for both preventing and therapeutically resolving such problems. Its basic premise is that those struggling in school are best helped by efforts that link family and school and specifically focus on integrating school and family interventions. School-Based Family Counseling: An Interdisciplinary Practitioner's Guide is the indispensable resource for resolving problems and transforming the lives of students and their families. It should be in the hands of all mental health and school professionals.Len Sperry, MD, PhD, editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Family Therapy; professor, Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program, Florida Atlantic UniversityThis is a book of considerable breadth and substance. The conceptual basis of SBFC is comprehensively set out at the start, and provides a point of common reference throughout all chapters. The specific applications explored in individual chapters extend the SBFC paradigm into the practical reality of helping professionals in a wide range of contexts. Each chapter provides information of relevant resources that can be accessed in addition to extensive references. As such, the book is directly relevant to practitioners, students and researchers. In total, for anyone working at the therapeutic interface between school and family, this book is a compendium of sound resources, inspiration and challenge.Hans Everts, PhD, Lately coordinator of counsellor education and senior lecturer, faculty of education, University of Auckland, New ZealandThe editors have developed a must-read primer for mental health professionals interested in school-based family counseling. Read this book and learn from those who have taught and been at the forefront of the SBFC movement. Indispensable for all interested in integrating school and family intervention services! William Evans, PhD; professor and chair, Human Development and Family Studies program, University of Nevada, RenoYoung people grow and excel during school days, and yet this period is also full of turmoil and frustrations. Having competent mental health professionals adopting a multidisciplinary approach will be absolutely crucial. This book is state-of-the-art with chapters contributed from key leaders in the field of school-based family counselling.Cecilia L.W. Chan, PhD, RSW, JP; Si Yuan chair, professor in Health and Social Work, chair, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (SAR)This book is a very important contribution in supporting and promoting a paradigm shift in addressing the social and emotional needs of those involved in education and learning. The School-Based Family Counseling approach is a growing and evolving meta-model that is fluid and comprehensive. This work no doubt will provide the reader with a thorough understanding of this systemic worldview as it applies to the Educational System and the tools to intervene effectively. Ralph S. Cohen, PhD; professor and director, Marriage and Family Therapy Program, Central Connecticut State University This book is an excellent application-based resource for both mental health practitioners in the field and mental health graduate students. It is packed with helpful diagrams, tips, "how to" lists, activities, and more. In addition, this book is organized in a very accessible format which is perfect for busy practitioners.Carol E. Buchholz-Holland, PhD; associate professor, School Counseling, Department of Counselor Education, North Dakota State University, Fargo, North DakotaThis is an important book for all those who appreciate the important relationship that both families and schools play in a child’s life. Despite its strong pragmatic and therapeutic approach, it also provides the reader with a multifaceted theoretical understanding of School-Based Family Counseling. An indispensable read for practitioners and academics alike!Maria Marchetti-Mercer, PhD; professor, Department of Psychology, School of Human and Community Development, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa A brilliant text by a concerned group of scholars for school based family counselors. Highly commendable is the broad-based and sensitive treatment of mental health issues that draws on the strengths of school and family relationships and deliberate efforts to de-pathologize intervention and prevention.Nyna Amin, PhD; associate professor, Curriculum Studies, School of Education, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South AfricaSchool-Based Family Counseling: An Interdisciplinary Practitioner’s Guide is an impressive, thoughtfully edited and written book, which provides an integrated conceptual framework and clear directions for working with the two most powerful systems in a child’s life: school and family. This is an essential textbook for practicing therapists, counselors, educators, administrators, and policy makers working with children and their families, as well as students preparing to work with this population. Teresita A. José, PhD, R. Psych; psychologist, Calgary, Alberta, CanadaSchool-Based Family Counseling: An Interdisciplinary Practitioner’s Guide addresses one of the most important areas of education systems nowadays - family counseling processes within school context. The authors explore and present challenges, as well as emerging issues of SBFC and provide evidence-based strategies and skills for successful interventions. Each chapter examines a specific agenda of family counseling and encourages collaboration and working with students' families. This unique book is a must-have resource for practitioners, school psychologists, teachers, principals, family therapists, as well as for researchers of family studies, sociology of education, and other interrelated disciplines. Nurit Kaplan Toren, PhD; associate professor, Department of Learning, Instruction, and Teacher Education, Faculty of Education, University of Haifa, Haifa, IsraelThis book is a comprehensive study of the work of school-based family counseling (SBFC) and mental health provision to students of all ages. It is a profoundly impressive and pragmatic contribution to the canon of SBFC with a systemic formulation of how to understand and approach the emotional, psychological, and mental health needs of students and their families. There is a thought provoking understanding of the complexity of school-based mental health strategies and a practical "how to" approach with a vast array of worksheets, case vignettes and theoretical explanations of systemic theory and application. There is a strong emphasis on a multicultural sensitivity and attention to the significance of collaborative relationships and partnerships. The wealth of experience is apparent from the many contributions from different SBFC clinicians and educators which are outlined in each chapter. All recommendations for clinical practice are grounded in coherent and compelling experience with case conceptualizations. This is a classic text and the most significant contribution to SBFC I have encountered in twenty-five years of working in the field of school-based mental health.Stephen Adams-Langley, PhD; senior clinical consultant, Place2Be, United Kingdom
