Social Work With Families: Content and Process

The authors draw upon the contributions of family therapy, symbolic interactionist social psychology, as well as a century's tradition of social work with families. Without duplicating existing compendia of family therapy methods, they develop a clear, flexible approach, which accommodates family and individual intervention and multiple methodologies, as well as the social institutional contexts where social workers work. Key concepts developed to integrate the various theory bases are process and content. Process is an interaction sequence, taking place between family members at different stages of family development, and with the social worker. Content reflects the purposes of the intervention, helping family members to reconstruct relationships.