Doing Contextual Therapy: An Integrated Model for Working with Individuals, Couples, and Families

Contextual theory, as developed by Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, has been hugely influential in the family therapy field; the contextual approach has become a model of human experience and family life whose goals are widely admired, assumptions widely endorsed, and concepts widely borrowed. And yet, for many clinicians, its practice has been a mystery. Doing Contextual Therapy is designed as a workshop between covers to remove this mystery. Peter Goldenthal explains Boszormenyi-Nagy's deeply ethical approach in practical terms. He briefly touches on theoretical underpinnings before setting out to answer practitioners' clinical and practical questions: What is contextual therapy really about? What does it set out to accomplish? What do contextual therapists actually do? How can I use these techniques to help my patients? Concepts such as fairness, loyalty, exoneration, and constructive and destructive entitlement, as well as the core concept of multidirected partiality, are simply yet comprehensively explained. Contextual therapy is shown to be intergenerational, taking into account both the impact of the therapy on all who might be affected by it and the influence of past generations on the present. Contextual therapy is also resource-oriented, as therapists help patients look for opportunities to give to each other and to acknowledge each others' efforts to give, thus focusing on resources for building trust and balancing relationships. Goldenthal illustrates the concepts and methods he has found most useful and those that can most readily be combined with a variety of other therapeutic approaches. The book is divided into two parts. Part One presents the concepts and converts them intoclinical techniques and guidelines, which are illustrated in short clinical vignettes. Part Two is a demonstration of contextual therapy: a case study involving family sessions with a ten-year-old boy and his parents, individual sessions with his mother, and a three-year follow-up.

Peter Goldenthal, Ph.D., ABPP is Clinical Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, and Director of the Valley Forge Contextual Therapy Institute.