Interactional Family Therapy: A Faith-based Perspective

When working with individuals and families of faith, the perspective of the practitioner is critical to a successful outcome. The professional techniques or personal expressions of the practitioner can either hurt or heal these vulnerable participants in the counseling or therapeutic process. This book explores an approach in initiating, facilitating, and sustaining strategic change in guiding practitioners from an interactive faith-based perspective when working with individuals and families, to applied learned professional behaviors and acquired personal wisdom as therapy in a spiritual dimension of care expressed in faith.

When working with individuals and families of faith, the perspective of the practitioner is critical to a successful outcome. The professional techniques or personal expressions of the practitioner can either hurt or heal these vulnerable participants in the counseling or therapeutic process. This book explores an approach in initiating, facilitating, and sustaining strategic change in guiding practitioners from an interactive faith-based perspective when working with individuals and families, to applied learned professional behaviors and acquired personal wisdom as therapy in a spiritual dimension of care expressed in faith. It provides some basic theory and resources for the application and improvements of therapeutic practice and approaches to engage participants in interactive faith-based processes. The terms operationalized in this book to describe the faith, beliefs, and practices in various traditions are intended to respect all faith traditions, not to promote any one faith tradition. Multiple tools are included to help guide the process and assist students and practitioners alike in implementing a faith-based approach to marriage and family counseling and therapy.

Dale F. Hansen, PhD, DMin, ThM, is an educator, author, and consultant. He remains in private practice as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and has served as a Clinical Member of the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) and the Arizona Association of Marriage and Family Therapy (AzAMFT). He is a retired Colonel in the US Army and has served as a chaplain for several law enforcement agencies. He retired after 24 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the Phoenix Division and spent his summers as a chaplain at Quantico. Dr. Hansen attended California Lutheran University with post graduate work at Arizona State University. He holds a Doctorate in Family Counseling and a Doctorate of Ministry and a Masters in Theology from Dallas Theological Seminary. He completed graduate studies at the American Institute of Family Relations and Trinity Theological Seminary. Dr. Hansen currently teaches graduate courses in Family Systems and Counseling Theory at Ottawa University in Arizona.