Couple and Family Assessment 4th ed by Sperry, Len;

Short description:

This fourth edition text features the latest, most common, and important assessment measures and strategies for addressing problematic clinical issues related to working with families, couples and children.

Long description:

This fourth edition text features the latest, most common, and important assessment measures and strategies for addressing problematic clinical issues related to working with families, couples, and children.

Chapters provides strategies for systematically utilizing these various assessment measures with a wide range of family dynamics that influence couples and families. These include couples conflict, divorce, separation, mediation, premarital decisions, parenting conflicts, child abuse, family violence, custody evaluation, and child and adolescent conditions, i.e., depression, anxiety, conduct disorder, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, autism, Asperger’s syndrome, and learning disorders that can significantly influence family dynamics. Filled with extensive clinical case material that illustrates the use of these various assessment measures and strategies in an array of clinical situations, this edition is filled with new assessment devices as well as a new chapter on family trauma and family chronic illness.

This book is essential reading for both students in family and couple therapy courses as well as practitioners working with families, couples, and children.

“Len Sperry’s new edition of Couple and Family Assessment wonderfully updates a classic text in systemic therapy. The well-chosen and well-written chapters in this book provide an orientation to the most important broad aspects of assessment and case conceptualization in working with couples and families as well as in depth coverage of the most important specific sub-areas in assessment. Offering a comprehensive current guide to systemic assessment, this book should be read by every student learning couple and family therapy and is an ideal text for courses in couple and family assessment and therapy.”

Jay Lebow, Ph.D., clinical professor and senior scholar, The Family Institute at Northwestern and Northwestern University

“Couple and Family Assessment: Contemporary Measures and Cutting-Edge Strategies, Fourth Edition is a must-read resource for both beginning and experienced mental health professionals. It contains 125 assessment approaches described with case examples, and a clarity, that will enable practitioners to rapidly improve the way they assess couples and families.”

 Brian A. Gerrard, Ph.D., chief academic officer, Western Institute for Social Research

"Effective clinical work with couples and families emerges from sound assessment and Len Sperry’s multi-dimensional approach in this volume is the best available.  Chapters offer a synthesis of rich conceptual understanding, evidence-based grounding, and practical clinical wisdom applied to working with the full range of couple and family dynamics.  I appreciate the attention to diverse methods, initial and ongoing assessment, and considerations for particularly sensitive situations (e.g., divorce, abuse, family trauma, etc.).  This is one of the books that will always sit within reach of my desk."

Steven J. Sandage, Ph.D., licensed psychologist and professor, Boston University

Table of Contents:

1. Choosing Effective Couple and Family Assessments

            Len Sperry 

2. Assessment and Case Conceptualization with Couples and Families

            Len Sperry 

3. Qualitative Assessment of Couple and Families

            Lori Pantaleao, Ronald J. Chenail, and Maureen Duffy

4. Standardized Assessment of Couples and Families

            Len Sperry 

5. Observational Assessment of Couples and Families

            Robert B. Hampson and  W. Robert Beavers 

6. Ongoing Assessment of Couples and Families

            Len Sperry

7. Couple Assessment

            Dennis A. Bagarozzi and Len Sperry

8. Child and Adolescent Assessment

            Ali Cunningham Abbott

9.  Parent–Child Assessment

            Len Sperry

10. Child Custody and Divorce Assessment

            Sloane E. Veshinski and Christine Sacco-Bene

11. Child Abuse Assessment

           Tiffany E. Vastardis, Vassilia Binensztok, and Len Sperry

12. Family Trauma and Illness Assessment

            Tiffany E. Vastardis and Len Sperry