This book was originally published in 1996 and was intended for mental health professionals. Emily and John Visher, who were the founding "parents" of the Stepfamily Association of America, referred to it as the definitive work on stepfamily interventions. It was apparent that it had perfect utility for stepcouples especially when they were working with a professional counselor. Recently the book went out of print. The authors consider it far too important a work to let it disappear and obtained the rights back. In this digital age it is being given new life and has been redesigned as a dual use book for partnerships between stepcouples and helping professionals. The model utilized is called a normalizing model in that stepfamilies are considered to be normal families undergoing multiple adjustments at the same time. There is an economy of intervention using this model and it avoids the extensive data gathering often associated with the medical model where pathology is assumed. Much of the data was gathered by the authors in their specialized practice with stepfamilies. The power of the model is seen in the fact that these families often arrived in terrible distress, yet the average number of sessions was only eight.
About the Author: Mala S. Burt, M.S.W. is a social worker trained at the University of Marylland. She is a stepmother and was a founding board member of the Stepfamily Association of America. She served as president of the Association and was active nationally in promoting beneficial changes in the national view of stepfamilies. Together with her husband, she founded their clinical practice serving stepfamilies in crisis. With the data obtained from interventions with hundreds of stepfamilies they used their experience and expertise to write this definitive work on crisis intervention with stepfamilies. In addition to this work, Ms. Burt also edited Stepfamilies Stepping Ahead, a book devoted to guiding stepfamilies through their lengthy adjustment period. Roger B. Burt, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist trained at Duke University. He is a stepfather and was a founding board member of the Stepfamily Association of America. He served as president of the Association and was active nationally in promoting beneficial changes in the national view of stepfamilies. Together with his wife he founded their clinical practice serving stepfamilies in crisis. With the data obtained from interventions with hundreds of stepfamilies they used their experience and expertise to write this definitive work on crisis intervention with stepfamilies. Dr. Burt also authored Whatever Happened to Community Mental Health? a book outlining experiences in the early days of community mental health. The normalization model used in their stepfamily interventions was formulated during that period.