ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on fourteen different theories to guide the planned change process. Engagement is a critical phase of the planned change process. Successful helping requires that the worker engage the client or members of a client system. Multi-theoretical social work recommends the mastery of many theoretical frameworks and familiarity with each framework's metaphor-based conception of the helping role and engagement style. A social worker might tailor his or her engagement style to the particular features of the client's person-in-environment (PIE) configuration, or the social worker might start with one engagement style and switch to another engagement style as client and life space circumstances change. Walsh provided an example of matching a theory-informed engagement style to client characteristics and basic needs. He developed a profile of clients diagnosed with serious mental disorders but living in the community not in a psychiatric facility.
