title: Critical consciousness, accountability, and empowerment: key processes for helping families heal.
abstract: Families are inextricably embedded within their larger sociopolitical contexts, an observation acknowledged by many theorists. The field of family therapy is working on its translation into comprehensive and effective approaches for helping families change. This article illustrates the use of the Cultural Context Model to help families change, guided by the linked foundational concepts of accountability, critical consciousness, and empowerment. The authors support their discussion of theory with examples illustrating the ways in which social patterns connected to race, gender, class, and sexual orientation shape the dilemmas that family members encounter, as well as their access to solutions.
authors.affiliation: Marriage and Family Therapy Program, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 92182-1170, USA. phernand@mail.sdsu.edu
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hernández
authors.forename: Rhea
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Almeida
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dolan-Del Vecchio
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D005196:Family Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D018452:Homosexuality, Female; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D008297:Male; D008960:Models, Psychological; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012725:Sexual Behavior; D012923:Social Class; D012935:Social Justice; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors