Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

Monica McGoldrick stands as a towering figure in the field of family therapy. Initially earning a Masters in Russian Studies, she then pivoted to social work and systems thinking. McGoldrick's illustrious career has been marked by significant contributions to family therapy, particularly through her work with family genograms, mapping family relationships and histories to identify patterns across generations. She expanded the use of genograms to incorporate cultural, ethnic and gender contexts, revolutionising the field. Her work emphasises understanding individuals within their historical, social and cultural contexts. She has authored multiple seminal texts, including ‘Ethnicity and family therapy’, and Genograms: Assessment and treatment, which are essential reading in family therapy training. McGoldrick has also been a trailblazer in addressing issues related to gender and power in family therapy. In this candid interview, she contextualises and frames her experience in a historical scaffold at a pivotal time in the evolution of family therapy. Monica details her involvement in the development of important endeavours such as the Multicultural Family Institute and the Women of Stonehenge where she emphasises the vital role of women in our community and the profound contribution of women in our profession, often dismissed and undervalued. We also discuss her notable contribution in the development and expansion of family genograms where she highlights the central and fundamental role of culture.

This paper delves into the pragmatic integration of positive psychology, particularly Seligman's PERMA model, and brief psychotherapy to foster a vision of a thriving future for clients. Despite the entrenched tribalism within psychotherapy that often resists the incorporation of new techniques, a deliberate and flexible approach to integration, rooted in congruence with theoretical frameworks, can overcome these barriers. Positive psychology dovetails neatly with the goals of family therapy by highlighting strengths and resilience. The PERMA model—encompassing Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment—captures the essence of a flourishing life. While primarily applied in non-clinical settings, its potential to enhance wellbeing and mitigate depressive symptoms is becoming evident. In the clinical realm, PERMA can pivot conversations towards solutions, especially within the high-pressure context of acute mental health care. By guiding clients through an exploration of activities aligned with the PERMA domains, therapists can facilitate a rapid transition from problem-saturated narratives to ones imbued with hope and possibility. This method not only strengthens the therapeutic alliance but also clarifies roles and responsibilities, fostering a sense of agency and optimism in clients. Employing the PERMA model in therapy promotes future-focused dialogue and goal setting, empowering clients to envision and work towards their preferred futures. This paper presents a practical means of externalising a person's PERMA profile by representing it on the outline of the person's hand. By externalising these discussions and concentrating on tangible goals, therapists can support clients in achieving meaningful change and enhancing their overall wellbeing. Integrating positive psychology into brief psychotherapy thus holds significant promise for helping clients envision and realise a thriving future.

In this paper, we report on findings from a three-part enquiry into the essence of working with families of origin where all members are adult. Findings, in conversational form, describe the nature of adult family ruptures encountered, pathways to repair and unique factors associated with the therapeutic encounter with adult families relative to those with still dependent children. In exploring emergent themes, we hoped to come to some understandings of the models and unique skill sets that characterise and enhance family therapy with adult families. We found that, unlike families with younger children, adult children are often the more motivated sub-system and indeed the drivers of a referral for therapy. The therapeutic focus centred around legacy work from prior unresolved family traumas or disrupted developmental processes. Features of the therapeutic process included supporting new and more proportional narratives about ingrained wounds, together with redefinition of caregiving relationships and a future gaze towards becoming an independent yet connected family structure. We consider the therapist's posture in validating the adult child's experience, contextualising parent histories and clearing emotional barriers that block healthy giving and receiving of care. Key decision points in the therapist's work included how to balance the past context of the rupture with its current legacy, and the place of exoneration versus forgiveness in the progression towards secure individuation. Findings may help refine therapeutic methods in the application of systemic therapies with adult family forms, particularly on the intersection with the adult mental health system.

Recent national and international events have shone a spotlight on structural inequalities and institutionalised racism, igniting a contemporary struggle for equality and evoking the UK systemic community to affirm its commitment to social justice and anti-racism. This article sets the scene by examining how systemic theory and research have historically addressed racial inequality and cross-cultural practice, before describing a small but pioneering qualitative study which explored the practice of cultural sensitivity via in-depth interviews with five experienced systemic psychotherapists in Northern Ireland (NI). While confirming some similarities with other UK regions, tentative but important nuanced differences emerged in the NI context given its protracted history of sectarian division, political conflict, and more limited immigration. Self-imposed ‘silence’ with regard to one's own religious/cultural identity in the context of the NI political conflict emerged as a key theme, alongside therapist under-explored Whiteness; theoretical paradoxes influencing therapist reticence; and perceived therapeutic benefits of exploring cultural differences and lived experience of racism. Study limitations and implications are discussed, identifying the need for further research and renewed efforts (in theory, training, and practice) to assist therapists to break the ‘culture of silence’ in their local sociopolitical context and address wider social inequities.

The birth of a child with a disability is often experienced as traumatic and life altering to the members of the family. Current marriage and family therapy programs and curricula require very little, if any, clinical training or supervision related to disabilities, and this prompts many therapists in the field to consider therapy with families experiencing disability to be outside their scope of practice. As a part of its nature, Down syndrome (DS) is a spectrum disorder with varying levels of health and general functioning from individual to individual, which change over the course of the lifespan. Parents of children with disabilities often experience greater levels of stress and are at higher risk for developing relational/psychological distress than parents of neurotypical children. Unique parental stressors include ambiguous loss, balancing multiple parental roles, increased demand for resources, and discrimination stress. This study interviewed married couples to observe the unique experience of parenting a child with DS and the diagnosis' effects on the individual parent, as well as marriage and family dynamics. From the gained narrative observations, clinical implications are presented to assist therapists in appropriate treatment of couples and families navigating life with DS.

A common thread woven throughout the diverse papers in this special ANZJFT issue on Bowen family systems theory, or Bowen theory, is the recognition that focusing solely on symptoms obscures the intricate emotional processes within families that underlie symptom development. At its core, Bowen theory is distinguished from other psychological frameworks in its embodiment of the natural and evolutionary sciences. Bowen theory posits that the family functions as the unit of treatment. Triangles – the three-person configurations managing anxiety, conflict and connection – serve as the smallest unit of treatment, interconnected within the broader family system.

Bowen theory's emphasis on growing emotional maturity amidst challenging relational dynamics in one's own family underscores its transformative potential in guiding individuals through adversity and addressing distressing symptoms within familial contexts. The articles in this special issue highlight this, speaking authoritatively to the endurance and relevance of Bowen family systems theory, forged through the pioneering work of psychiatrist, scientist and visionary Dr Murray Bowen.

Now, 25 years after its seminal articulation in 1999, Jenny Brown and Lauren Errington's article, ‘Bowen family systems theory: Illustration and critique revisited’, emerges as a pivotal update. This second edition not only provides a comprehensive overview of Bowen theory's conceptual framework but also explores its innovative developments, including the role of differentiation in therapeutic practice and introduces many clinicians to how coaching with an individual constitutes family therapy with one person. Moreover, it addresses misconceptions surrounding Bowen theory and offers clarity on its nuanced approach to balancing emotion and intellect within the family system.

Dan Papero's acute understanding of the mechanisms that underly the family emotional system is highlighted in his article, ‘The family emotional system’. Papero discusses the togetherness–individuality equilibrium, that delicate balance that exists between what it takes to belong and care for other members of the group, which may mean suspending or sacrificing one's individual goals or wishes in order to maintain belonging and how this is counter-weighted with the move for more autonomous and self-directed functioning. A more equal ratio between these forces equates with greater differentiation of self - autonomy in connection. When this ratio leans too much towards togetherness, this more often contributes to symptom development in one or more family members – regression more than progression, despite the apparent harmony that pervades the system. The paper stresses how understanding these processes can inform clinical practice and how work on differentiation of self can foster family resilience.

Anne McKnight's ‘Two perspectives on family rifts: The concepts of estrangement and cutoff’ provides a much-needed d

In clinical work with families in which a young person is at real and significant risk of self-harm or even death by suicide, predictable emotional triangles both within the family and within the treating system intensify. As understandable fear and worry in parents and clinicians rises in response to potential risk, these emotionally driven relational processes become even more rigid. This typically results in a reduction in cognitive and behavioural flexibility, which can potentially and unwittingly increase the risk of self-harm by suicide. This article outlines some basic principles pertaining to the notion of emotional triangles, a central concept in Bowen family systems theory; its relevance for clinicians working with suicidal youth and their families; and its application to the context of a community child and youth mental health service. Practical application of theory to clinical work is demonstrated through clinical vignettes that describe the work of two clinicians and their clinical supervisor. The authors reflect on their understanding of the development of emotional triangles in the vignettes presented alongside their efforts to navigate these triangles through the regulation of their own anxiety and more objective thinking.

Family violence is becoming increasingly visible in Australia, with many state and federal governments taking on more responsibility to address family violence and its impacts on those affected. Current efforts are focused on practice frameworks, identifying and responding to risk factors, and social justice frameworks including legislating against family violence in a range of jurisdictions and addressing more broadly the structural and cultural forces that perpetuate violence and further oppress those victimised. Family violence is not unique to Australia, with prevalence rates internationally suggesting family violence occurs irrespective of country, race, age, culture, effectiveness of social policies or socioeconomic status. This paper explores relevant foundational concepts of Bowen family systems theory (BFST) as it relates to family violence and explores opportunities to evolve practice in this area. BFST offers a unique contribution towards addressing family violence, particularly in relation to the public health challenge of addressing family polyvictimisation. The paper also explores how BFST conceptualises family violence and the role of the professional in working with the family as a single emotional unit. The unique focus of BFST on observing and defining self within the emotional family unit through observation of the underlying multigenerational emotional patterns of functioning provides unique opportunities to evolve and develop both the capacity of clinicians and responses to families who are navigating the serious and challenging impacts of family violence.

The family emotional system (FES) regulates the functioning of the human family. As described by Bowen, the FES contains several components. Two forces, the togetherness and individuality forces, function in proportional opposition to one another. Anxiety, the emotional response of the organism to real or imagined threat, provides the motivational energy that powers the system. Two equilibria lie at the centre of the family emotional system, emotional equilibrium and functional equilibrium. When the two are in balance, a condition Bowen called emotional harmony prevails. A third equilibrium, the togetherness–individuality equilibrium, regulates the lability of emotional harmony. Disturbances of emotional harmony result in the activation of automatic mechanisms and processes that support the restoration of emotional harmony. Like the mechanisms that support homeostasis in the living organism, they work optimally when rapidly engaged and quickly disengaged when balance is restored. Prolonged disturbance of emotional harmony results in a resetting of the togetherness–individuality equilibrium in favour of increased togetherness, establishing a new, more sensitive set point around which the FES now stabilises. To maintain the new more labile condition, one or more of the mechanisms becomes chronically engaged, indicating an emotional adaptation of the system and a potential for the development of a symptom as a consequence of the adaptation. Finally, the work on differentiation of self (One of eight concepts that comprise the formal Bowen theory, the scale of differentiation of self places human functioning on a single continuum based upon ‘… the degree to which people are able to distinguish between the feeling process and the intellectual process (Bowen, 1978, p. 355)’. The degree of differentiation, according to Bowen, affects how people manage themselves in personal relationships and in their efforts to adapt to the challenges of life (Bowen, 1978). The work on differentiation, an aspect of family psychotherapy, describes the effort people make to become better observers of themselves in relationships and in the processes of problem-solving related to challenge. It involves the effort the person makes to manage emotional reactiveness, an instinctive, reflexive response to stimuli encountered, to guide behavior thoughtfully, and to enhance emotional autonomy within the network or system of family relationships.) can lead to a progressive reset of the balance from less to more stable, representing an enhancement of adaptive competency.