Matters of Interpretation presents and develops a self-reflective approach to preventive therapeutic interventions and psychosocial research that is particularly relevant to working with children and adolescents at risk for negative life outcomes. The approach recognizes the value-laden aspects of human science and allows for the integration of the therapist's and the researcher's values into the processes of psychological inquiry and clinical or counseling psychology.

At the core of this orientation is an explicit acknowledgment that therapists and researchers are not objective observers, but instead bring values, judgments, and prejudices to every client interaction and to every act of psychological inquiry.

In this book, a distinctly expressed connection is made between the abstract realm of hermeneutics and the real-world work of applied psychology, youth development, and psychosocial inquiry. The authors present a dynamic system wherein therapists and educators simultaneously interpret their clients' and students' concerns and their own responses to these concerns. This interpretive process is presented both as a form of intervention and as a systematic approach to the study of human growth and change.