ABSTRACT
While psychotherapists who are not family therapists may at times be faced with the task of working with dysfunctional families, this chapter will deal principally with the specific stresses family therapists are liable to face. Family therapy will be defined as psychotherapy which aims primarily to bring about changes in the functioning of family systems. While this may or may not involve meeting the whole family group at every therapy session, the focus is on promoting change in the family system, rather than on any particular member. Change in individual members of the family, which is what is often sought, may be expected to follow changes in the functioning of the family system as a whole.
