Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

Family-based treatment (FBT) is an evidence-based treatment for adolescent eating disorders that incorporates many principles from family therapy. It uses the externalisation of anorexic thoughts and behaviours to separate the person from the anorexia nervosa (AN) through language and metaphor. Little is known about how clinicians understand, conceptualise and support families to externalise. Semi-structured interviews conducted with FBT-trained clinicians working in child and adolescent mental health services were analysed using thematic analysis. Three themes emerged: the clinician’s use of externalisation, the impact on family functioning and the barriers to externalisation. Externalisation can support a young person’s recovery from AN when used in conjunction with other therapeutic skills. Clinicians should be aware of potential barriers to the implementation of externalisation, such as problem awareness, age and duration of illness.

Family therapy practice in the UK, as elsewhere in the world, takes place within the context of structural and systemic racism. Hence the practice of family therapy has the potential to mirror racist and colonialist tropes found within society. There are low levels of satisfaction by people from Black and ethnic minority backgrounds to the level of sensitivity to culture and racism that takes place in therapy. This paper explores ways a systemic psychotherapy might be more sensitive to differences in race and culture. Drawing upon systemic and anthropological constructions of culture, suggestions are made for practice that is more questioning of the barely conscious or unconscious assumptions made by the therapist, which can then lead to open scrutiny of these assumptions. In doing so, I draw upon my own experiences, and those of my own family, of racism, of culture and of movement across cultures.

This article discusses the settler colonial roots of family therapy, positing that much of what is considered the standard or ideal family form comes from colonialism. Utilising settler colonial theory as a guide, I identify how the colonial nations, built through the violent exclusion of Indigenous and exogenous peoples, utilised the family to further their goals. Rather than suggest settler colonialism was an historic event, I consider how it continues today, privileging white families of European descent. To move the conversation forward on how white therapists from majoritised cultures can engage with racialised clients, I describe the negotiated spaces as a meeting ground where therapists and clients navigate differing worldviews. In these negotiations, our clients trust us, and to be accountable to this trust, we can unsettle the influence of settler colonialism. To conclude this paper, I discuss four possible pathways to begin the complicated process of unsettling.

Evidence demonstrates the deleterious impact of ongoing and poorly resolved parental conflict on children’s wellbeing. ‘No Kids in the Middle’ (NKM) is a multi-family programme that aims to help high-conflict separated parents find new ways of communicating. The aim of this study was to adapt, deliver and evaluate NKM in three UK pilot sites. This paper reports findings from interviews exploring families’ experiences of this intervention, and questionnaires which measured change for families over the course of the programme. Parents reported reductions in hostility and conflict when discussing parenting issues. Children reported improved wellbeing with respect to family life, and a reduction in ‘avoidance’ with respect to talking or thinking about parental conflict. Parents reported reduced internalising symptoms in children. The findings indicate that NKM could be a promising intervention for high-conflict separated parents and their children, deliverable by frontline practitioners.

This paper addresses the challenge to organisations seeking to address institutional racism. It is argued that racism is systemic in its historical roots, anchored in racialising discourses, bolstered and fused by the ideology of Whiteness. It describes an approach to organisational consultancy, where the consultant can facilitate change in organisations by adopting an anti-racism stance and approach which disrupts Whiteness and engages the organisation in anti-racism praxis, towards dismantling institutionalised racism. Ways in which this process can be facilitated are outlined, as part of the change process towards institutionalising anti-racism praxis.

The Turning Points for Families (TPFF) therapeutic intervention program for severely alienated children and their alienated parent was evaluated to determine whether it was safe, did not cause harm, and led to positive changes in the alienated parent–alienated child relationship. Court orders and video recordings of the 4-day intervention were reviewed for indications of improvements over the course of the intervention in relational communication, social support and communal coping, which refers to the family members jointly ‘owning’ a problem and proactively taking responsibility for it together. Improvements in the parent–child relationships were noted, and the TPFF helped to improve family members’ communal coping scores. Participation did not lead to negative changes on any measure. This preliminary evidence indicates that TPFF, similar to other therapeutic structural interventions, is a safe and effective treatment option for severely alienated children.