In this seasoned and lucid book, a team of female clinicians offers professional practitioners and families a means for uncovering, distinguishing, and challenging a family's belief system in order to facilitate healing. Professionals often will privilege their own stories about illness, but the authors of this volume illustrate the power of recognizing and using the stories and experiences of families. Beliefs, they show, are at the heart of health and healing.

Although physical illness can have a significant impact on individual and family functioning, this book describes how each family member - with his or her own particular beliefs - influences the health of the family. This book is the first to offer a specific method to explore, assess, and intervene with family members' beliefs.

Nurses, social workers, psychologists, family therapists, family physicians, and other health professionals who assist families experiencing illness will appreciate the in-depth description of this clinical approach. Beliefs fills a void in family health care literature and sounds a convincing, compassionate voice within the community of professionals who work to alleviate emotional and physical suffering.