ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates the overlap between the five phases of intervention. An ecological practice focuses attention on changing both the client and the client's social ecology in a non-linear fashion and promotes the continual anticipation of what the client will do after counseling ends. While many other approaches to working with children, youth, and families are also effective. The chapter shows that adding ecological principles to one's practice can make clinical work more engaging and outcomes more sustainable in complex social ecologies. At the level of the family, an ecological assessment examines the transgenerational transmission of values and behaviors such as substance abuse, school drop out, and the trauma caused by exposure to racism. A good ecological assessment moves beyond the evaluation of specific factors to the assessment of interactions. When the focus of the clinical work becomes one obvious problem, it is difficult to think more ecologically.
