Adoption and the Family System: Strategies for Treatment

Miriam Reitz, PhD, LCSW is a family therapist currently in independent practice who has practiced, taught, and supervised in family therapy for many years in the Chicago area. After training as a clinical social worker, she began her career in a child welfare agency that treated children separately from their families. After early, enlightening exposure to systems theory applied to whole families, this became the basis for her work. She later returned to the University of Chicago to earn her doctorate in social work. A study of newly married couples for her dissertation provided research support for the practice model presented in this book.

Kenneth W. Watson, MSW, LCSW, is the Assistant Director of the Chicago Child Care Society. He has been in the field of child welfare for more than 35 years. Currently the Chair of the National Adoption Task Force of the Child Welfare League of America, he serves on the Board of the American Adoption Congress, and is a member of the Editorial Review Board of the journal, Child Welfare. He has held faculty appointments at four schools of social work and is nationally known as a trainer and an author of many articles and monographs on child welfare issues.