Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

This paper presents two accounts of therapeutic work using Minecraft with families that include autistic children and children with ADHD. These accounts show how a popular videogame can be adapted to become the site for systemic interventions and a reflective space for families to explore strengths, difficulties, and relationships. With preparation, a range of systemic techniques and practices – including externalisation, sculpting, circular and reflexive questioning, and perspective-taking exercises – can be adapted for and implemented within the game. The paper outlines how these approaches were integrated into online systemic therapy, how practical and safety considerations were addressed, and how the families experienced the process. In both accounts, Minecraft provided an accessible, engaging, and flexible environment that supported therapeutic aims while also fostering moments of shared enjoyment, creativity, and bonding. The paper concludes by inviting practitioners to consider Minecraft as a medium for creating more inclusive and accessible services for families that include autistic children and children with ADHD.

This study examines the experiences of Israeli therapists in conditions of collective trauma following the devastating events of October 7, 2023. The study is based on eight in-depth interviews conducted with six therapists, a director, and a clinical supervisor at the Sdot Negev Resilience Centre in southern Israel, conducted during the period May to July 2024, 8–10 months after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas. The interviews focussed on (1) the challenges of providing mental health treatment after the October 7 terrorist attacks, (2) adapting professional interventions to the new reality, and (3) personal coping resources of the therapists. A thematic analysis of the interviews raised five main themes: the need for mental flexibility and creativity in therapeutic interventions in emergency situations; the challenge of maintaining professional involvement against the backdrop of the crisis of trust in the state's systems; the impact of strong identification between therapists and clients against the background of the shared traumatic experience; the increased importance of self-care for caregivers; the added value of systemic work with families and communities. The findings of the study indicate the need to develop a new treatment paradigm adapted to situations of collective trauma, while recognising the complexity of therapeutic work when the therapist is part of the affected community.

This study examined the impact of the Tuning in to Kids (TIK) parenting programme for military fathers, their spouses and their children aged 4–6 years. TIK is designed for parents of children aged 4–12 and provides guidance on enhancing parental emotion socialisation. The programme uses an emotion-focused approach to improve parent emotional functioning, emotion coaching, parent–child relationships, and children's emotional, social and behavioural functioning. In this study, TIK was delivered separately to mothers and fathers in group settings. Participants included 12 military fathers, their spouses, and their children aged 4 and 6. An experimental design without a control condition was employed. Measures included the Children's Emotion Knowledge Test, Social Problem Solving Skills Scale, and parent report measures of Reactions to Children's Emotions and Coping with Children's Negative Emotions Scale. Findings indicated that TIK participation was associated with increases in parents' reported emotional socialisation behaviours. Children's also showed improvements in emotion understanding and social problem solving skills. These preliminary findings suggest the programme may benefit military families, highlighting the need for further evaluation with larger samples.

Dialogical and collaborative approaches for mental health crises have become increasingly popular worldwide. Although many of the ideas taken up in dialogical therapy, such as Tom Andersen's reflecting team, are widely practiced, little is known about how this practice supports relational reflexivity during dialogical meetings with families. This study used Systemic Functional Linguistics to explore reflecting team dialogues and the immediate responses of family members during 14 Open Dialogue network meetings. We found markers of reflective and dialogical interactions including the presence of mental processes expressed as spatial metaphors; epistemic modality to invite perspectives; and expressions that expand on themes in the families' talk. In the moments immediately after team reflections, network members took up these metaphors, moved into broader contextual reflections, and used language that acknowledged multiple viewpoints. These results offer insights into how dialogical therapies may support interpersonal reflection, recovery, and healing.

Parent–child relationships observe many changes when adolescents grow up to be young adults. The Three Good Things intervention has been used in different contexts (e.g., couples' relationships) but not much in different relationship contexts such as parent–child relationships. Therefore, the present study aimed to adapt the ‘Three Good Things’ intervention for parent and adult child relationships and study its impact on the parent–child relationship. Intervention design (pre, post, and follow-up) having two groups—intervention group (n = 32 pairs) and control group (n = 30 pairs) was utilised to study the intervention's impact on parent–child closeness, relationship, parental stress, emotional involvement and perceived criticism. Participants were college students (18–24 years old) and any one of their parents. The results of the study report that the intervention did not have any significant impact but resulted in a slight improvement in the relationship. The findings support the need for further studies applying this intervention in the context of parent–child relationships on varied children groups.

Family therapy intervention for eating disorders has deep roots in family therapy discourse and its evolution is closely entwined with wider developments in the history of family therapy over the past fifty years. In this paper we argue that this family therapy intervention holds seminal insights for longstanding debates within family therapy well beyond the domain of eating disorders. These relate to the limits of any exclusive social constructionist framing of family therapy and particularly that relating to our engagement with external reality. We draw on the paradigm of family therapy intervention with the ‘real problem’ of an eating disorder to make this case. The paper considers the potential in co-constructivism and critical realism to expand our theoretical lens beyond social constructionism, to draw out and help formulate a systemic philosophy of practice encompassing the knowledge, expertise and values that underpin our work and based on which we inevitably take a position on reality whether this remains implicit or preferably is acknowledged and made available for reflexive critique.

Grounded in the Social–Emotional Ability Development (SEAD) framework, this study examined how social–emotional abilities are associated with romantic relationship quality, consisting of relationship satisfaction, positive interaction, and emotional bonds, with relationship commitment as a mediating factor. Structural equation modelling was conducted with data from 1268 married individuals to test direct and indirect effects. Findings revealed that social–emotional abilities were positively associated with romantic relationship quality, and commitment significantly mediated this association. Individuals with great emotional awareness, regulation, and empathy reported strong dedication to commitment, which in turn enhanced relationship outcomes. These findings underscore the importance of social–emotional development in sustaining healthy relationships. Because social–emotional abilities can be cultivated throughout the lifespan, they represent meaningful targets for prevention and intervention. Moreover, relationship quality has spillover effects on the psychological and relational well-being of couples and their children; the findings offer practical implications for marriage and family counselling, psychoeducation, and relational health programs.