ABSTRACT
SUMMARY. This paper demonstrates the clinical utility of the Circumplex Model for assisting therapists to effectively assess the type of family system and plan treatment intervention with severely dysfunctional families. The Model helps the therapist move beyond focusing on the presenting problems or symptoms and facilitates movement into intervention. The inter-related concepts of balance and curvilinearity are described. Clinical intervention aimed at moving families extreme on the Circumplex dimension towards more balanced levels is concretely demonstrated.
