Creative Family Therapy Techniques:

Play, Art, and Expressive Activities
To Engage Children in Family Sessions

Edited By
Liana Lowenstein

Forward by
Augustus Y. Napier

Bringing together an array of highly creative contributors, this comprehensive resource presents a unique collection of assessment and treatment techniques. Contributors illustrate how play, art, drama, and other approaches can effectively engage families and help them resolve complex problems. Practitioners from divergent theoretical orientations, work settings, or client specializations will find a plethora of stimulating and useable clinical interventions in this book.

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Testimonials

“Engaging children in the therapy process is often one of the most challenging tasks of the family therapist. Liana Lowenstein has edited a wonderful compendium of helpful family therapy interventions, activities, and techniques for use with children. Drawn from the experiences of in-the-trenches therapists, and unlike most books on family therapy, this book will be immediately useful for all levels of practicing family therapists.”

--Terry S. Trepper, PhD
Professor of Psychology, Purdue University Calumet
Editor, Journal of Family Psychotherapy

"This comprehensive collection contains a wealth of innovative ideas for involving children in family therapy sessions. The techniques are easy to understand and readily implemented in a variety of settings. The interventions are classified into sections so therapists can easily select and apply them. A valuable resource for mental health professionals who work with families."

--Charles E. Schaefer, PhD, RPT-S
Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ
Co-Editor, Family Play Therapy

“Lowenstein's book is an exceptional tool for both the experienced family therapist as well as the newly licensed practitioner. A clear and concise introduction to family therapy precedes dozens of creative family therapy techniques thoroughly described by some of the most seasoned family therapists. This resource should be an essential part of every practitioner's library.”

--Gregory K. Moffatt, PhD
Psychologist, Atlanta, GA
Author, A Violent Heart

“All change comes out of new experience. It cannot be otherwise as the same experience simply reinforces what we already knew or were. For me, new experience is always some form of play –non-intentional, without agenda, and intimate. It is, after all, how humans learn most of what they know. Since I believe that this is the pathway to change – which is the goal for clients who come to therapy and therapists who hold themselves out as agents of such change – I think Creative Family Therapy Techniques is a must read. As with all therapy, it is the process, not the facts, that foster growth, change, and movement forward down the path. Here is a wonderful companion to take with you on that journey.”

--Patrick T. Malone, MD
Psychiatrist, Chapel Hill, NC
Author, The Art of Intimacy

“This book is a treasure trove of spontaneity! It is a must for anyone working therapeutically with children and families, or in fact with individuals or groups. User friendly and accessible it is an essential resource for reaching the parts words alone just do not reach. It has become a staple at the Institute of Family Therapy in London. Combining ideas from a range of creative therapies into a coherent and easily referenced whole, it is a long overdue gem in child focused family work.”

--Chip Chimera, MSc
Director, Centre for Child Studies, Institute of Family Therapy, London, England

ISBN #: 978-0-9685199-6-7
352 pages
Retail Price: $35 US / $39 CDN