Blended Family Counseling
Annotated Bibliography
Alegria, M., Atkins, M., Farmer, E., Slaton, E., & Stelk, W. (2010). One size does not fit all: Taking diversity, culture, and context seriously. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 37(1-2), 48-60.
There is sufficient evidence to prove that the mental health systems that are used currently are failing to provide high-quality health care for diverse families and children. The authors explain the critical domain that misses to improve health care. They show how attention is given to culture, diversity and context. The journal also discusses the definition of understanding the context and culture at family, individual, community, and societal level. Reading it will help understand families and what can be done to improve personal relationships among members. It concludes by suggesting the changes that can be done in organizational culture to strengthen natural support for enhancing the mental health of children.
Burnes, T. R., Singh, A. A., Harper, A. J., Harper, B., Maxon-Kann, W., Pickering, D. L., & Hosea, J. U. L. I. A. (2010). American Counseling Association: Competencies for counseling with transgender clients. Journal of LGBT Issues in Counseling, 4(3/4), 135-159.Retrieved from: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15538605.2010.524839
This document describes suggested competencies that are used in counseling different types of clients. Such skills are aimed at helping professional counselors who work with families, transgender individuals, communities, and groups. The journal shows that the competencies are mainly based on resilience, wellness, and strength. The authors come from different professional and theoretical backgrounds. A strength-based approach is used by authors to illustrate resilience and strength of transgender people. The authors also believe that family counselors are in a good position to make changes in places of residence. It is also stated that counselors should come up with safe counseling settings for people from different cultures.
The authors are transparent about theoretical frameworks used. The assumptions made about transgender individuals are not revealed to other people. It is shown that people hold biases that they not aware. It is worth noting that the authors met biweekly or weekly to find out the biases and to develop competencies based on strength. The authors were guided by independent reviewers who had previous experience in supervision, research, training, and advocacy with transgender issues in counseling. The authors used concepts from the approach through counseling which mainly integrates multicultural communities. Theoretical approaches are used to identify and document working experiences of transgender people. The approaches used are helpful in providing a framework for working with multicultural communities. The document also shows how the identity of gender intersects with different sociocultural identities.
Crippen, C., & Brew, L. (2013). Strategies of cultural adaption in intercultural parenting. The Family Journal, 21(3), 263-271.Retrieved from: http://opensample.info/order/b10a445c1e3e8f580288b46193e0710f46b09a55
In the study conducted, participants were asked about parenting to understand how people deal with cultural differences within families. The study involves intercultural and heterosexual couples with different sociocultural heritages. Individuals participating in the survey have distinct cultures. The authors also describe how couples were brought up. Different strategies of adaptation such as cultural transition, assimilation, dual biculturalism, and cultural amalgamation have been explained. The framework presented can be used by counselors to understand how couples adapt to different cultures to raise healthy families.
Gonyea, J. G. (2013). Changing family demographics, multigenerational bonds, and care for the oldest old. Public Policy & Aging Report, 23(2), 11-15.
The author describes the issues encountered in families. Gonyea addresses the importance of social connection as well as that of the family. Changing multigenerational bonds, family demographics, and care for senior citizens are addressed. The author explains gender and family roles thus making it easy for the reader to understand how people relate to each other. The journal is important because it helps in determining which approaches can be used when counseling individuals in a blended family.
Harper, F. G. (2011). With all my relations: Counseling American Indians and Alaska Natives within a familial context. The Family Journal, 1066480711419818. Harper describes how people access counseling services. He shows that tribal resources are not used by individuals who seek to counsel people such as the American Natives. The primary objective of the study made by Harper is to address counseling in families. Other issues of concern include awareness of acculturation, competency, and utilization of counseling theories. Most of the issues discussed are in the context of tribal and family unity. Guidelines for counseling blended families are also addressed.
McDowell, T., Goessling, K., & Melendez, T. (2012). Transformative learning through international immersion: Building multicultural competence in family therapy and counseling. Journal of marital and family therapy, 38(2), 365-379.
The authors of this book conduct a study that explores various experiences of students who successfully pursued their courses while being facilitated by family therapy. The participants of the study were used to show how the courses were professionally and personally transformative. The journal discusses how international students spending time in a foreign country learn from different cultures thus increasing global and social awareness for multicultural sensitivity. Experiential reflection, understanding new concepts and dialogue result in consciousness among participants thus showing how the above aspects can be of help in the counseling process. The authors discuss how learning processes on multicultural sensitivity can be of help to family counselors and therapists.
Simón, C., & Hirst, Y. W. (2011). Types of Families.
This journal describes in detail the different types of families. It gives the reader a clear understanding of what a blended family is and how it is formed. It also shows that blended families have become quite common in the modern day. It explains the past and present experiences of people in such families. The challenges encountered in blended families have also been discussed. Different ways of making blended families successful have also been stated. Types of blended families and ways of making them survive have also been explained. This source is important to this research because it helps understand various aspects of blended families thus improving understanding on the topic.
Mindrup, R. M., Spray, B. J., & Lamberghini-West, A. (2011). White privilege and multicultural counseling competence: The influence of field of study, sex, and racial/ethnic exposure. Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work, 20(1), 20-38. Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwjlt42tpKfPAhViF2MKHedNANMQFgggMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ucalgary.ca%2Fcrds%2Fdocs%2FGregor_Wolbring%2Fabilityprivilegefor%2520Tennesseewolbringhutcheon.pptx&usg=AFQjCNG8ecNqmSuJmAjesk8zSTsWr0_N0w&sig2=W3YFm7xs55BJ8p7LeeeIYA
The journal explores an association between multicultural counseling competencies and privilege attitudes among students in social work and clinical psychology. Results from the study conducted shows a significant association between multicultural counseling competencies and white privilege attitudes between people from a common background or interacting frequently. It also illustrates the difference between students pursuing different courses. The book also shows how gender affects multicultural awareness. The content will help in relating different cultures and counseling.
Hernandez‐Wolfe, P., & McDowell, T. (2012). Speaking of privilege: Family therapy educators’ journeys toward awareness and compassionate action.The family process, 51(2), 163-178. Retrieved from: https://graduate.lclark.edu/live/files/17074-mcdowell-teresa-2014-2015
Diversity in different sections of this book includes practical applications of specific theories with certain populations. Different chapters have a different approach to racial/ethnical diversity in addition to sexual identity diversity. The detailed sections provide the reader with suggestions, cautions, and adaptations with a given population. Evidence-based treatment of families and couples has been discussed in different chapters. Internal family systems have also been discussed in detail to show how family members relate among themselves. Theories have been considered before documentation of cases. Feedback from organizations and instructors has helped the author in giving detailed information about various aspects of family therapy and relationships.
Wendt, D. C., & Gone, J. P. (2012). Rethinking cultural competence: Insights from indigenous community treatment settings. Transcultural Psychiatry,49(2), 206-222.
This document is quite relevant to the topic under discussion because it explains different aspects of cultural competence, multicultural counseling, first nation people, evidence-based practice, and indigenous people. The book discusses how multicultural professional psychologists assert that psychotherapeutic issues require culturally competent ways of delivering information to protect different cultural orientations of clients. It also shows that disciplinary conceptualizations of cultures have a great influence on knowledge, awareness, and skills of individuals. It describes how integrative efforts made by different communities show the chances of intentional, local, and agentic reconstructions of people’s mental health interventions in different ways.
