Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

We are facing devastating effects of the climate emergency and systemic environmental breakdown. These impact on mental health and wellbeing. Family therapy has only marginally engaged with these crises and the relationship between people and ecosystem. This Delphi survey identifies key elements to include in family therapy training to attend to the ecosystem and the climate and ecological emergencies. Participants generated ninety-six statements that were clustered into six overarching ‘topic areas’ (theories, orientations, schools, integrations/transformations, methods, and techniques). There were sixty-six statements agreed at a high level of consensus and seventeen with a moderate level of consensus, while there was no consensus over the remaining thirteen items. All participants opted to suggest references, which form a reading list to accompany these ideas.

The aim of this paper is to examine the experiences and views of parents whose child lived with type 1 diabetes (T1DM) and eating disorder (ED), specifically ‘diabulimia’ and the professional support offered to them. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was employed as a methodology to explore the experience of three parents (mothers) living in the United Kingdom, regarding their chronically ill children. Four themes emerged from the analysis: battling, blaming, surviving and loss. These were interpreted through the lens of systemic theory. Within the framework of the results and the discussion, further research and the provision of systemic family therapy for children, parents and families in both paediatric and adolescent-to-adult transition diabetes clinics is recommended.

Parenting a child with anorexia nervosa (AN) is highly stressful, and the struggles around eating have a large impact on family functioning. Parents get involved in conflicts with their child and/or accommodate to the eating disorder symptoms. Non-violent resistance (NVR) offers an additional treatment option for these families. NVR aims at helping parents effectively deal with their child's (self-)destructive behaviour and their own helplessness, by non-violent and non-escalating means. In our pilot, we examined whether NVR was helpful in reducing stress and improve parent–child interaction. In six parents, it was found that parenting stress was significantly reduced at post-assessment and at 3-month follow-up. For parent–child interaction, a non-significant trend was found for improvement. Change in body mass index of the adolescents was not associated with the decrease in parenting stress. Although preliminary, the results of this pilot suggest that NVR can be a feasible treatment alternative for families of adolescents with AN.

This paper reports on the results of a study exploring sibling stories of parental mental distress and the societal discourses that may have contributed to the adult siblings' sense-making. Four sibling pairs were purposively recruited and interviewed, using a narrative inquiry approach. Two main plots were constructed through analysis of the participants' narratives: ‘The story of us’ and ‘We are who we are because of what happened’. Results highlighted that the identity construction of each sibling and the collective identities of the sibling pairs are influenced by the parental mental health context. The findings also suggest a change in the siblings' meaning-making from childhood to adulthood. These findings are considered along with the implications for systemic practice and research.

This article presents research that explored the ways that systemic and family therapists might approach the support of families living with dementia. A constructivist grounded theory methodology was used to interpret interviews with four systemic family therapists working in the United Kingdom. All participants had professional and/or lived experience of dementia. Transcript analysis and theoretical sampling led to the development of five categories, each related to different aspects of considering systemic therapy in a dementia context. These categories were further developed into a ‘systemically informed dementia orienteering’ conceptual framework, which is presented in this paper as a learning resource. Findings are related to existing literature, and recommendations for future research are made.

A total of 32% of children whose parents have some mental health problems are estimated to be diagnosed with some mental disorder later in life. As a consequence, a need arises to offer preventive psychological interventions aimed at these children. The aims were to investigate whether there are significant changes before and after the KidsTime program. In total, 101 people participated in the program, and pre-intervention and post-intervention data on self-stigma, self-esteem, resilience, parenting practices and strength and difficulties of thirty-three parents with mental illness were obtained. Significant pre-post differences were found in the ‘expression of affection’ subscale of the parenting practices and in self-stigma. In the group of parents with a mental illness, the KidsTime program showed improvement of parents' emotional support for their children and a reduction in their self-stigma as well. Multi-family interventions are key to improving self-stigma and parenting skills, and this can lead to prevention of future mental health problems in their children.

Couples raising a child diagnosed with autism spectrum condition (ASC) experience unique challenges that can affect their relationship. This grounded theory study explores how couples maintain functioning in their relationship despite ongoing stressors related to raising a child on the spectrum. The presented model shows what couples can do to create and maintain their relationship functioning. It utilises four major themes developed from our analysis of interviews with 19 couples in the United States with a child diagnosed with ASC. This study increases understanding of couple functioning when raising a child on the spectrum. The grounded theory defines couple functioning for couples with a child diagnosed with ASC as balancing four mutually influential themes: togetherness, adaptability, resilience and communication. We also discuss clinical implications for systemic therapists to work with couples with a child diagnosed with ASC effectively.

This study presents a mixed-methodology pilot study of a narrative-mantra multi-clinician group, which is an integrative systemic and mindfulness-based intervention, to promote the well-being of mental health clinicians working at a local child and adolescent mental health service in London, UK. The study also served as a nonclinical sample pilot for a narrative-mantra multi-family group trial for adolescents awaiting treatment and their parents. In total, nine clinicians participated in the study: five participants and four controls. Descriptive analyses were conducted on self-reported measures, GHQ-12 and SCORE-15. Slight improvements were found in the clinicians' mental well-being and their significant relationships. Five global themes emerged from the thematic analysis of a focus group discussion, including ‘voices that connect and liberate’ and ‘connecting ingredients for integration’.

Problematic alcohol use (PAU) has been a marginalised subject within the systemic field. The present article brings PAU into focus and discusses the conceptualisation of PAU. Reflected in the dominance of individually orientated treatment approaches, PAU is widely seen as an individual condition with aetiology and maintenance attributed to individual pathology and behaviour. Pathologising and stigmatising dominant discourses surrounding PAU also appear to perpetuate this individual conceptualisation, the implications of which are discussed in this article. The present article maintains PAU is a relational illness, with relational aetiology and maintenance, thus with relational implications for treatment. Implications for the systemic field, including clinical practice, are highlighted.

This article discusses the status and challenges related to the basic perspective of knowledge and science in systemic practice. This article points out that some parts of the field (i.e. collaborative dialogical practice) have a preference for knowledge obtained through qualitative rather than quantitative studies. This is problematised, partly based on methodology and partly on the bias this entails in the provision of knowledge to students and systemic practitioners. The consequences of such a preference may be that systemic practitioners will lack significant knowledge, and that they are not encouraged to conduct or participate in quantitative studies. This issue highlights a stronger focus on the field's basic perspectives, as well as key political, ethical and professional policies. In response, the article presents the theories of interactive constructivism and critical realism and proposes that these become the guiding paradigm for systemic practice.