“Becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist: 24 Essays” available now

My new book offers straightforward, practical guidance on becoming an MFT and developing in the family therapy field.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

Becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist: 24 Essays by Benjamin E. Caldwell, PsyDThe book is mostly a collection of the most popular posts from this blog, though it concludes with a special essay about the future of the field for those just at the beginning of their careers in it. That essay is less a crystal ball and more a call to action (emphasis added):

The more I learned about the history of marriage and family therapy, the more I came to see its early trailblazers as activists and rebels. We would not even have a profession of family therapy if the Virginia Satirs, Murray Bowens, or Jay Haleys of the world had been satisfied with the status quo. The future of family therapy depends on the next generation of MFTs being similarly unsatisfied with simply following in the footsteps of those who came before. We need loud, passionate voices who share their views beyond their clinic walls. We need loud, passionate voices who know that improving the health of individuals means working to change relationships and families, and that improving the health of families means working to change communities and societies. And we need loud, passionate voices who know that creating change – doing therapy – works differently on those different levels.

It’s worth reading. The whole thing is. It makes an especially good gift for those new to the MFT profession or considering becoming a family therapist. But, of course I would say that. I’m biased.

“24 Essays” is available now for Kindle (and less than 10 bucks!), which has the added benefit of preserving all the active links from the original blog posts. Additional formats to come in the next few weeks; rather than do a separate post each time a new format becomes available, I’ll simply announce them on my Facebook page and my Twitter feed.