This text and professional resource offers an alternative approach to thinking about and working with & Introduction: Reflective Practice in Frenzied Times 1 Chapter 1. Working with Multi-Stressed Families: Recognizing the Importance of Relational Stance 15 Chapter 2. What We See Is What We Get: Reexamining Our Assessment Process 46 Chapter 3. Collaboration Is a Two-Way Street: Engaging Reluctant Families 87 Chapter 4. Developing a Proactive Vision to Guide Clinical Work: Collaborative Therapy Contracts 125 Chapter 5. Collaborative Inquiry: An Anthropological Approach to Intervening with Families 155 Chapter 6. Examining the Relationship between Clients and the Problems in Their Lives 187 Chapter 7. Helping Clients Shift Their Relationship to Problems and Develop Preferred Lives 215 Chapter 8. Developing Communities to Support New Lives 249 Chapter 9. Solidifying New Lives through Therapeutic Documents 284 Chapter 10. Sustaining a Collaborative Practice in the Real World 323 Appendix A. One Example of a Strength-Based Assessment Outline 354 Appendix B. Questions to Assess Externalized Problems Rather Than Families 356 Appendix C. Considerations in Collaborative Therapy Contracts 358 Appendix D. An Interview Outline to Consolidate Alternative Stories 360 Appendix E. Coauthoring Termination/Consolidation Summaries with Clients 362 References 364 Index 377