For some time the family therapy field has been moving away from a problem-based approach to work with clients. Ideas such as "creating a new family story", focusing on strengths and solutions, and making contracts with family members have all shifted interest toward a new approach to therapy. Ray and Keeney have been in the forefront of this thinking for several years and they have been experimenting with their ideas by working together with clients in order to create their own coherent, effective model for therapy. Resource Focused Therapy is the result! This model does not dwell on the mental maps which families use to construe problems or solutions. Instead, it aligns people with resources which enable them to behave and ultimately see themselves differently. These resources may spring from many places: internal maps, family relationships, neighborhood groups, or untapped community resources. The authors work alongside their clients to create a resourceful event or a resourceful environment in which the family will have their own unique experience. Such experiences often have the effect of enabling the family to see strength or resources they were previously not aware of.
"Wendel Ray and Bradford Keeney have beautifully merged a sensible and practical approach with the creative theoretical strategies of my father, the late Milton H. Erickson, M.D. What a pleasure to read state-of-the-art therapeutic methodology that so clearly carries forth the essence of Erickson's work." - From the Foreword by Betty Alice Erickson
