Journal of marital and family therapy最新文献

Service members, Veterans, and military families regularly seek clinical care from civilian providers, and military cultural competence is critical for effective service provision. This study outlines the development and evaluation of three brief measures designed to assess military cultural competence among human service helping professionals. Participants were 258 diverse professionals. A series of psychometric analyses were conducted, including confirmatory factor analyses, tests for measurement invariance, and assessments of scale reliability and validity for each measure: Perceived Military Cultural Knowledge and Skills, Military Client Intervention Confidence, and Informed Practice Serving Military-Connected Clients. Results indicated good model fit. Measures were internally consistent, showed convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity, and demonstrated invariance over time. This initial study demonstrates that the three measures appear to be distinct, reliable, valid, and appropriate for use. Helping professionals and researchers can use these measures to assess military cultural competence for self-assessment, in training programs, and/or in research.

Emotionally focused couple therapy (EFCT) is an empirically supported treatment for relationship distress. Yet, despite EFCT's substantial evidence base, to date, there have been no studies that have integrated LGBTQ+ clients' experiences and therapeutic needs into the EFCT process. Thirty-five EFCT clients participated in theater testing focus groups to generate client recommendations for the use of EFCT for LGBTQ+ relationships. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Participants drew on their own lived experiences, their experiences receiving EFCT, and EFCT video observation to make recommendations about the use of EFCT for LGBTQ+ relationships.

Open Dialogue approaches to family therapy emphasize the voicing of multiple perspectives in a supportive collaborative environment. In a novel application of Open Dialogue, this study explored how parents of students at an Australian independent school experienced Open Dialogue meetings within a school setting. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we analyzed 4 h of audio recordings of three focus groups involving 14 parents. Parents reported that Open Dialogue meetings promoted closer relationships between the school, parents, and students and focused on adapting to the needs of the student. However, Open Dialogue meetings also interacted with parents' expectations and the school's reputation for student wellbeing to amplify parents' perceptions of the school's responsibility. Open Dialogue meetings promoted closer collaborative relationships between parents, students, and staff. Clinicians need to be mindful of broader social attitudes that influence a parent's experience, and to set up appropriate expectations to mitigate potential problems.

This qualitative study explores how family therapists (n = 15) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, assist couples in navigating divorce decision-making, addressing a gap in research on divorce ideation in non-Western contexts. Thematic analysis of the interviews revealed four key themes: (1) Therapists as experts, (2) Respect for client autonomy, (3) Therapist neutrality, and (4) Clarity in the decision as the goal. Each of the themes is situated in the social context of Dhaka, the capital city, where couple therapy is a fairly new mental health practice and beliefs about marriage and divorce are culturally informed. These cultural beliefs include ideas that divorce is shameful, is not religiously sanctioned, and is harder on women. Future research could focus on the experiences of therapists or other community helpers (i.e., religious or kinship networks) in rural areas and among less-educated populations to better understand the broader landscape of divorce decision-making in Bangladesh.

Families play an influential role in promoting positive coping (PC) among youth, which has led to the development of family-based interventions, such as emotion-focused family therapy (EFFT). The present study examined trajectories of PC over 1 year following a 2-day virtual caregiver group EFFT intervention. Participants included 155 caregivers who attended the EFFT intervention. Caregivers completed measures on themselves and up to four children at six time points from pre-intervention to 12-month follow-up. Higher-order growth curve analysis modelled trajectories of PC for individuals nested within families. Participants exhibited an increase in PC over 12 months. Caregivers had higher initial PC levels than children and improved at a slower rate. Finally, participants in families with higher social support and lower family dysfunction had higher baseline PC. These variables did not predict change. Findings reveal that aspects of the family environment are related to PC, highlighting the importance of family-based interventions.

This qualitative systematic review aimed to synthesize and discuss family members' perspectives of helpful and unhelpful factors in family therapy (FT) sessions, to benefit the application of FT interventions and training. Eleven studies met eligibility criteria and were critically appraised and thematically synthesized. Four themes resulted: therapist qualities contributing to the therapeutic alliance, practitioners' use of therapeutic techniques, intervention delivery, and family engagement with the process. Helpful factors included therapist warmth, kindness, and genuine care; therapist connecting with family in a sensitive, respectful, and nonjudgmental manner; effective use of therapeutic techniques that facilitated self-reflection, emotional expression, communication, and perspective-taking; therapy sessions conducted collaboratively with active family participation; focusing on family strengths and resources; and tailoring format to family needs. Unhelpful factors included participants sharing before ready, therapist siding with a family member, therapy process not matching family needs, and insufficient progress early on. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.