ABSTRACT
Using the Stepfamily Cycle as a guide to intervention, psychotherapists, as well as guidance counselors, clergy, pastoral counselors, and medical personnel with some knowledge of stepfamily dynamics and developmental tasks can make the difference between hopeless struggle and constructive movement in a floundering stepfamily. It is possible to do almost irreparable damage by treating stepfamilies as if they were first-time families. On the other hand, it is usually not necessary for well-trained helping professionals to develop an entirely new array of skills in order to facilitate the process of becoming a stepfamily. Clinicians and other helping professionals can, like the supervisee in Chapter Six, Case Four, draw on already existing skills in individual and systems therapy. The interventions to be described in this chapter range from primarily educational, appropriate to a wide range of people who interface with stepfamilies (clergy, teachers, medical personnel), to primarily therapeutic, appropriate for those with in-depth clinical training.
