& Development. He received his doctorate in counselor education from Idaho State University in Pocatello in 1975.
Jim has received awards for outstanding teaching in the College of Human Development and Community Service at California State University, Fullerton, and for outstanding scholarship in the Clemmer College of Education at East Tennessee State University. In 2015, Jim won the American Counseling Association’s Don Dinkmeyer Social Interest Award. He has taught in graduate counseling programs in three universities and has authored or coauthored four books as well as more than 60 articles and chapters.
Jim is the featured expert on Adlerian family therapy in the Allyn & Bacon/Psychotherapy.net series Family Therapy With the Experts, and he has offered workshops in Canada, England, Greece, Ireland, South Korea, New Zealand, and Peru as well as throughout the United States. He was introduced to Adlerian family counseling by Manford A. Sonstegard, with whom he worked for more than 30 years.
Jim studied and worked for 10 years with one of the pioneers of family therapy, Virginia Satir. He was a trainer in her Process communities for three of those years and published an article and a number of chapters with her before her death in 1989. He is a past president of AVANTA, Satir’s training network.
Jim currently sees couples and families together with graduate students at East Tennessee State University’s community counseling clinic. He continues to develop Adlerian counseling models for individuals, groups, couples, and families. His focus on a fully present relationship in all forms of counseling is an integration of Adlerian counseling and the work of Virginia Satir, Erv and Miriam Polster, and Michael White, all of whom have trained Jim in the past.
Jim has been married to Lynn Williams for 37 years; they have two grown daughters, Alison and Nora Williams. In his leisure time, Jim likes to travel, collect stamps, play basketball, and read.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
No one writes a textbook like this without a lot of help, and I have had wonderful support from the very beginning, starting with Carolyn Baker, Nancy Driver, and the rest of the team at the American Counseling Association. Special thanks to Beth Ciha for copyediting the project, and also to my daughter, Alison Williams, who carefully proofread every page of this book. In many ways, this is the third edition of a textbook I wrote back in 2009. Sherry Cormier served as a developmental editor, friend, and confidant for that first edition. Her wisdom is still in every chapter. And of course, this book would never have been started without the kindness, support, and constant encouragement of Jerry Corey.
Special thanks are extended to the chapter reviewers who provided consultation and detailed critiques. Their recommendations have been incorporated into this text:
Chapters 1–4: Gerald and Marianne Corey
Chapter 4: David Kleist and I cowrote the original chapter, and Mark Young updated and improved it
Chapter 5: Jill Scharff
Chapter 6: Jon Carlson (now deceased and much missed) and Richard E. Watts
Chapter 7: Betty Carter and Monica McGoldrick
Chapter 8: Jean McLendon and John Banmen
Chapter 9: Harry Aponte
Chapter 10: Madeleine Richeport-Haley
Chapter 11: Jane Peller
Chapter 12: Don Bubenzer and John West; and J. Graham Disque
Chapter 13: Roberta Nutt and Patricia E. Robertson
Chapter 14: Frank Dattilio
Chapter 15: Rob Freund and Jon Sperry
Chapter 16: Brent Morrow
Chapter 17: Harville Hendrix
Chapter 18: Gerald and Marianne Corey
I also want to thank the students in the couples and family counseling concentration of the Counseling Program at East Tennessee State University who gave this text an initial trial run and offered many helpful additions and corrections.
To each and every person who contributed to the completion of this book, my heartfelt thanks.
PART 1 Basic Issues in the Practice of Couples and Family Counseling
CHAPTER 1 Introduction and Overview
CHAPTER 2 Genograms of Couples and Family Counseling
CHAPTER 3 The Couples and Family Practitioner as Person and Professional
CHAPTER 4 Virtue, Ethics, and Legality in Couples and Family Practice
• • •
CHAPTER 1
Introduction and Overview
Fifty years ago, family practice promised greater effectiveness than had been achieved with either individual or group counseling. Because these relational approaches sought to change the very systems in which individuals actually lived, many professionals hoped that the changes enacted would endure and that both individual and system relapse would disappear. Although
