Collaborative Helping

Praise for Collaborative Helping: A Strengths Framework for Home-Base Services

"I really like how the authors point out that a strength-based approach does not have to be unnecessarily cliché. This is an important message to the field and cannot be stated enough. This book is great at showing how being strength-based can be real and useful to supporting change in people. Also it provides the reader with a clear understanding of why the collaborative helping approach is important and how to implement the approach. The vignettes and examples are excellent! I see this book as a teaching tool and I would use the book in a course geared for future helping professionals. It provides useful information that encourages helpers and the organizations in which they work to be more "people -centered".
—Mario Hernandez, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Child and Family Studies, College of Behavioral and Community Sciences, University of South Florida

"This book will be helpful for those who struggle with establishing, developing, planning, and motivating clients, as it offers many examples and solutions for helping those clients most difficult to reach and engage in the treatment process. Reading this book will enrich practice methods for many in the helping professions."
—Richard J. Gabriel, LCSW, Manager BHS Social Work

"The often polarized and fraught relationship of front line mental health and social service workers and the pained and troubled families with whom they work is at last replaced with one capable of generating hope, resiliencies and lasting change. Madsen's original Collaborative Therapy Model is vibrantly transformed here – a living tapestry weaving multiple complex theories in to an accessible practice shaped by the sheer humanity of care-givers and care-receivers in the most dire circumstances. From students and brand new human service workers to long experienced therapists, supervisors and program directors – all must read this book. Hold tight to the stories within – as they fill your head, your heart and your imagination, you will do more compassionate and effective work with those you meet next."
—Evan Imber-Black, Ph.D., Professor and Program Director, Marriage and Family Therapy, Mercy College

"Respect and regard for people served resonates throughout, and helpers reading this book will feel understood and encouraged. Influences from Narrative therapy, Wraparound, and Motivational Interviewing are intelligently integrated in the framework, guiding service providers, supervisors, and consultants to put connection, curiosity, and hope into practice. The text addresses sensitive issues, difficult dilemmas, complicated scenarios, and serious matters in pragmatic and empathic ways, showing "collaborative inquiry," "contact before content" and "connection before correction" in action."
—Marisol Muñoz-Kiehne, Ph.D., Clinical Psychologist, Associate Director of Training at Marin County Mental Health and Substance Use Services, San Rafael, CA

"Collaborative Helping provides a practical, principle-based approach for working alongside people in the community. Case managers and paraprofessionals who work in health, mental health, employment, and other organizations will benefit from reading and adopting both the collaborative, strength-based stance and the strategy for "mapping" client plans and goals as described in this book."
—Benjamin M. Ogles, Dean and Professor of Psychology, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

"Madsen and Gillespie have drawn strategically from cutting edge material from family therapy, as well as community and organizational development, to promote collaborative ways of working with individuals and families. Tempered by their practice wisdom and management experience, the book includes a wide range of clinical strategies that can be applied immediately by new and very experienced practitioners. Their writing truly is grounded in a spirit of respect, connection, curiosity and hope."
—Peter J. Pecora, Ph.D., Casey Family Programs and the University of Washington

"Collaborative Helping is a major contribution to helping relationships of all kinds; personal and professional. Drawing on many years of experience as professional helpers, the authors offer a comprehensive set of practical and wise principles that?@inform the creation of collaborative, compassionate and empowering helping relationships in a way that is both useful and inspiring. I found this book to be immediately relevant and useful in my own work as a psychotherapist and supervisor and highly recommend to all who are interested in improving their capacity to help others."
—Andrew Tatarsky, PhD, President, Division on Addiction, New York State Psychological Association; Director, The Center for Optimal Living

"Rarely have I read a book that so clearly links theory to practice in such a useful way. Madsen and Gillespie have produced an insightful guide to how we can make Health and Human Services across a wide range of contexts more sympathetic to those who become part of complex systems. This is a book that not only provides excellent examples of how to share power and make people feel respected, avoiding the perils of blame and resistance that can cause worker burnout, it is also the story of how workers themselves find creative ways to become a positive part of their clients’ lives. Based on years of experience as a trainer and agency director, Madsen and Gillespie describe a hopeful, engaging model of practice that will help workers and their agencies respond in effective ways to families in crisis. It is a must read for every front line worker and agency supervisor."
—Michael Ungar, Ph.D., Co-Director, Resilience Research Centre, Professor of Social Work, Dalhousie University

"Collaborative Helping is a must read for all community-based workers in multi-stress social contexts. Prevalent intervention models, focused on reducing youth and family deficits, too often become problem-saturated and defeated by clients' overwhelming life challenges. In contrast, the authors’ strength-based family centered approach-- immediately practical and effective--breathes new hope, possibilities, and vision into their lives, encouraging their best efforts and mutual support toward their aspirations and positive growth."
—Froma Walsh, PhD, Co-Founder & Co-Director, Chicago Center for Family Health; Mose & Sylvia Firestone Professor Emerita, The University of Chicago; Author, Strengthening Family Resilience