The Handbook of Disability-Affirmative Systemic Therapy

This comprehensive handbook provides therapists, social workers, educators, and mental health professionals with effective clinical interventions for working affirmatively with disabled clients and their families.

Using an intersectional and strengths-based perspective, Manasi Shankar brings together interdisciplinary experts to outline the history of the disability community in the United States, their resultant experiences, and best practices in clinically affirmative care. Chapters are authored by disabled scholars, marriage and family therapists, disability activists, and researchers to amplify the voices of disabled experts. Topics include models of disability, ableism, disability in older populations, sexuality, disability and persons of color, moving toward the critical role of marriage and family therapists and the ways they can integrate affirmative approaches into their work.

Filled with case vignettes, this handbook offers clinical applications of treatment strategies as well as pedagogical features for educators to supervise and instruct graduate students in working with disabled clients in therapy. It aims to inspire therapists to incorporate disability dialogue into clinical practice, deconstructing the fragmentation of disability as outside the scope of marriage and family therapy.

This text is essential reading for graduate and licensed marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, counselors, and educators in MFT, counseling, and psychology.

 

About the Artist

Mariam Paré became a quadriplegic after surviving an act of gun violence at the age of 20. Determined to pursue her passion for art, she relearned how to paint by holding brushes with her mouth, evolving into a distinguished visual artist and mouth-painter. With over two decades of creative experience, Paré is known for her exceptional mouth-painting technique and compelling multimedia works that often explore the disability experience. She is also a proud member of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists Worldwide.

www.mfpausa.com

www.mariampare.com

About the Cover Artwork

Portraits of Spinal Cord Injury: Oppo (2023)

Watercolor on paper

8" x 8"

Painted by mouth

Image Credit

“By courtesy of the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists Worldwide.”