This book presents a transtheoretical "response system framework" for understanding family practice. This framework organizes theoretical information, assessment protocols, skills, and intervention strategies into a learning structure that helps students understand myriad client situations and the intervention strategies that would be most appropriate for those specific situations. Using this over-arching structure, and focusing on two systems of response--action systems (how family members behave and interrelate) and processing systems (how family members interpret/feel)--Ragg guides readers through the five parts of the book with the goal of building holistic family intervention skills. These five parts are comprised of: "Family thinking", or knowledge of family systems; "Assessing families"; "Building the Working Alliance"; "Change-Focused Intervention"; and "Working with Multi-Problem and High-Risk Families."