ABSTRACT
The Assimilative Family Therapy model enables a therapist to help a child, adolescent, young adult or adult to find the strength to review life's troubling issues by forming new perceptions and outlooks, facilitating behavior changes and offering possible solutions to life's dilemmas. When formulating one's thinking about a client, a therapist needs to be able to identify contextual variables that flow within the bloodstream and mind of the client. Contextual variables are important because they provide the foundation for how a client views his dilemmas and life history. Through the creation of the contextual chart aided by the contextual questionnaire and the clinical interview, the therapist can visualize the many components that create the client's context: the client's age, ethnicity, culture, racial background, sex, gender, socioeconomic level, chronic illness, and spiritual affiliations. A therapist needs to understand the many complexities of his/her own personal context and how it contributes to his/her perception of the client's contextual history and processes.
