By Trudy Gallant
Terry Hargrave is Department Chair of Behavioural Sciences at Amarillo
College in Texas. He is the co-author, with William Anderson of
“Finishing Well - Aging and Reparation in the Intergenerational
Family” (1992 - Brunnel/Mazel, New York). He also wrote “Families
and Forgiveness“ Healing Wounds in the Intergenerational Family”
(1994 - Brunnel/Mazel, New York). Hargrave’s style is an accessible
blend of the conceptual with case studies and interventions strategies.
His language is poignant in its sensitivity to and respect for the
power of families to both hurt and heal. I suspect the two books
will appeal to both beginning and also more seasoned social workers
- especially assisting the former with a framework to approaching
family work with aging families. In any setting where the distress
of long standing family conflicts may arise, these companion works,
will offer valuable insights. In “Finishing Well”, Hargrave
and Anderson have structured the book into 3 parts; (1) Understanding
Aging Families (2) Beginning Family Therapy and (3) Therapeutic
Interventions - (case studies are drawn from a 2 year period of
family work done with 29 families in a case facility environment.
Briefly, Part I addresses the nature and the challenges of aging
as well as the development stages of the family life cycle. Part
II addresses the assessment of the aging family and introduces
the concepts of Life Validation and Life Review. Part III explores
more specific techniques for intervention - the work of forgiveness;
the contextual therapy model; and the use of multidirectional
partiality which is essentially the therapists role in helping
family members to have entitlements. As this process unfolds,
Hargrave and Anderson lay collective fingers on the dynamic tensions
of give and take that resonate through family relationships. They
also show us the importance of keeping those tensions in balance.
In “Families and Forgiveness” Hargraves’ focus
is on forgiveness. He lays out a framework of how movement through
the process of forgiveness can be achieved in stages. Starting
with the basic notions of love and trust, he shows us how to repair
violations to those principals through insight, understanding,
creating opportunities for compensation and finally, the act of
forgiveness. I also appreciated that Hargrave never seems to take
a tone that says, “mine is the only way.” Instead
he seems to offer, to suggest, to question, to consider. In doing
so, Hargrave opened new windows, for me, new ways of seeing some
old and familiar problems.
“Transitions in Dying & Bereavement”
Find the words - and the deeds - to meet the psychosocial needs
of chronically ill and dying people, their families, and caregivers
in this first-ever strengths-based, step-by-step guide through
the labyrinthine process from diagnosis to death to bereavement.
Transitions in Dying and Bereavement puts a human face on a difficult
yet unavoidable and universal topic. This book comprehensively
covers the key transitions that dying people and their families
face and the most effective interventions to facilitate the transitions.
Counselors and health care professionals from the Victoria Hospice
Society: Moira Cairns, Marney Thompson, M.A., and Wendy Wainwright,
M.Ed. make available their book in June 2003 from Health Professions
Press. For a copy, call Login Brothers Canada at 1-800-665-1148.
