Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

This study aims to contribute to the evaluation of online therapy during Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns, by exploring family therapists’ experiences of therapy for twelve Sibling Sexual Abuse (SSA) families in the Netherlands. Seven transcripts of interviews with highly specialised Dutch family therapists were analysed using thematic analysis (TA). Two main findings emerged from this study. First, the Dutch therapists reported no acute worries about their clients’ sexual safety during the pandemic lockdowns. Nonetheless, the switch to online therapy for the SSA families created concern regarding victim safety in speaking out freely at home. Second, while the sudden switch to online therapy enabled SSA therapists to stay connected with their SSA families, therapists experienced a decline in therapy quality and in their own well-being. In the therapists’ experience, it was almost impossible to conduct their most fundamental interventions online, such as intervening in family relationships.

This paper sets out to explore the use of a systemic reflexive exercise called “Collective Cut-Outs”, detailing its methodology and usefulness with “frontline” mental health practitioners within supervision and teaching contexts. We draw on the use of storytelling, image, creativity and the usefulness of the left hand (right brain) in clinical mental health contexts and focus on its value in reflexive supervisory groups. We also aim to give voice to the experiences of “frontline” Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) clinicians in an inner-city mental health team during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Collective Cut-Out exercise and its methodology provide a framework to help facilitate reflexive spaces that promote mindful group exercise and the subsequent expression of personal and professional resonance. The subjects of clinical challenge and collective resilience are also brought forth. We offer a case study in the second part of the paper, outlining the use of the exercise in a reflexive group supervisory context. The team in focus have kindly given us, the authors, permission to use their experiences and “cut-outs”. We have either adapted or removed identifiable information from the writing to protect and respect the identity of the team and individuals involved.

In the UK, in 2019, there were 2.9 million lone-parent families, a family with children that is headed by one parent; ~90% of lone-parents are mothers. I am one of them. Using a social constructionist approach, I look inward at my self and back outward at social-cultural context in response to my observations, within systemic practice and training, of possible privileging of a dominant social discourse of family—a father, a mother and children—that positions lone-mothers as other. My experiences in vignettes, my data, are analysed using a daisy model. Emergent salient themes are discussed. The findings hopefully prompt an elicitation of responses and resonances that will act as impetus for necessary future dialogue within systemic practice and inquiry.

The October 2019 thawra (revolution) in Lebanon saw unprecedented mass protests across the country in response to governmental corruption, mismanagement and a looming economic disaster. Students learning family systems theory as part of the Clinical Psychology Program at the American University of Beirut faced, at this time, a disconnect between applying systems theory at the individual family level, and their overwhelming experiences at the collective national level. A contextual pedagogical approach was used to apply systems theory to observations of societal level processes during the revolution. Students reported positive feedback about the approach, particularly for being responsive and flexible to student needs, and demonstrating the relevance of systems theory at the community level and not just the family level. Lessons learned, such as sensitivity to both divided and multiple perspectives on national events, are also presented.

This paper evaluates whether Reflecting Team Practices (RTP) are a helpful tool to a team (i) undergoing change and (ii) to facilitate staff being heard across the hierarchy. We hypothesised that RTP would enable staff to speak and be listened to, in relation to their experiences of organisational restructuring. We offered three team away-day and follow-up processes. Due to the paucity of systematic research in this area, we designed a qualitative process, utilising individual interviews with four team members aged 30–59 years. Interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. Thematic analysis yielded seven themes, which enabled understanding of our team’s experiences of separating talking and listening. It has also led to wider changes in our teams functioning and our communication with other parts of the organisation in which we work. The results are very limited due to the small sample size, but further research in this area is warranted.

Abstract The activities of extremist groups are perceived as a key threat to modern democracies. However, much remains unknown about the role families can play in prevention or disengagement from such groups. A scoping review identified seven studies that were eligible for inclusion. The findings suggest that there is limited, yet some, support for family-directed services to directly prevent engagement in extremist groups. Rather, family directed services may indirectly influence this by strengthening family members' resilience and thus their ability to engage with the family member. Additionally, professionals working with families where a member is on a path to developing extremist ideology should continuously reflect upon their professional conduct and develop a narrative approach to reduce resistance. An important limitation to these findings is the different contexts and countries they have been conducted in, spanning from East Africa to Northern Europe.

Responsibility is a dimension often overlooked in systemic and family therapy, possibly because of its connection with blame, especially toward victims of violence or abuse. Systemic-dialogical therapy, however, gives relevance to responsibility, in the form of positional responsibility; that is, the responsibility one may take regarding one’s position in the relevant systems and contexts one is embedded in, and the ability to find one’s place within them. To help clients in such efforts, therapists must, in turn, take responsibility for the development of the therapeutic process. The process of taking responsibility in therapy, therefore, is twofold: it concerns clients, of course, but it also involves the therapist. This article proposes a method for working on positional responsibility in clinical work, illustrating it with clinical examples.

Suicide bereavement evokes particular emotions that can hamper recovery processes, if neglected. This Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) study explored five women’s experiences of bereavement following the death by suicide of a male relative. One superordinate theme, directing from the shadows, and three interrelated subordinate themes: roller coasting, speaking the unspeakable, and finding meaning and living with suicide were identified. This study highlights that women bereaved by suicide may occupy a complex position in the family when trying to balance caring for themselves and others, sometimes leading them to negate their own support and therapeutic needs. However, women in this study felt supported by timely, flexible and sensitive professional responses and found a proactive outreach approach, peer support groups and counselling helpful at different stages in their bereavement process.