Applying Family Therapy – a Guide for the Caring Professionals in the Community Steven Walker & Jane Akister, Lyme Regis: Russell House Publishing, 2004, £15.95 pb, pp.123. ISBN 1903855403

This book is a guide for the professional with an interest in family therapy to the many different settings of children’s and family services. It emphasises the need for socially inclusive practice, for professional integration for the benefit of families, and for more family-friendly policies. It is excellent in its conceptualisation and in many chapters. Unlike other psychotherapy books, it raises family therapy issues by introducing the concept of family support as an integral part of therapy. By focusing on family support the authors emphasise that the family needs to be thought about and family support practised widely throughout public services. A detailed methodology for assessing and working with families is complemented by a good outline of culturally sensitive practice. ‘Socially inclusive’ ways of working with various groups of disenfranchised families and children such as refugees, young offenders, looked-after children and others are described. Attachment theory and its clinical applications (e.g. the role of social networks) are included in an imaginative and creative way. Ethical dilemmas concerning gender and power are given due consideration and quantitative and qualitative methods for evaluating family therapy are described.

This book has some irritating but minor inaccuracies and although the focus is on children, the ethical considerations are oddly based on work with older adults. The actual content is perfectly reasonable but there are plenty of ethical dilemmas with children that are not mentioned and are highly relevant to family therapists. The chapter on attachment theory is unduly complex and it is not always clear whether it is about the quality of adult relationships or the attachment behavioural system as defined by Bowlby.

The authors write about youth justice and drug addiction but the work and the reader would have benefited from a description of multi-systemic therapy, which has plenty of supporting evidence. Overall, I felt that the evidence base of family work was not always fully reflected. Community-based work was also described but in my view the reader would have benefited from the integration of the well-developed concepts of Boyd-Franklin (Boyd-Franklin & Bry, 2000).

The authors do not hide their critical view of the effects of globalisation in relation to families and children. Notwithstanding some criticisms, this was a refreshing read which I thoroughly recommend to all those who work with families or are interested in social and community approaches in mental health.