More children are living in stepfamilies and other family forms - such as single-parent, gay/lesbian, adoptive, and foster - than ever before. As the number of stepfamilies increases, they will soon outnumber first-marriage families. In this authoritative book, Drs. Emily and John Visher proceed from the view that for success in therapy, stepfamilies must simply be regarded as different - not better or worse than the nuclear family. Coverage spans stepfamily integration; working with stepfamily differences; areas of difficulty including unrealistic beliefs, life-cycle discrepancies, power issues, and loyalty conflicts; interventions; helping the children in stepfamilies; and ingredients of successful stepfamilies.