Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

This study aims to analyse how internal family relationships and dynamics are manifested during funeral ceremonies in Chinese society. As an emerging farewell practice, living funerals in Chinese societies depart from traditional death rituals, challenging established funeral paradigms and providing a platform to scrutinise the inner family dynamic and experiences. The study utilises a multidimensional data collection approach, including interviews with the living funeral holders and attending family members, detailed field notes during the living funeral and whole video recordings of the event. Employing narrative analysis, it delves into the family's life experiences as narrated during the funeral, providing insight into the emotional and relational shifts that occur. The findings suggest that while living funerals allow for exploring family roles and emotional landscapes, they also highlight the complex interplay of cultural practices and familial relationships. The study contributes to understanding how traditional taboos around death may be navigated through contemporary practices. Findings underscore the profound exploration of living funerals on family dynamics within Chinese culture. The practice provides a vital lens for examining the interconnectedness and emotional underpinnings of family relationships. Participation engages families in a process of navigating collective and individual histories, aiding reconciliation and affirming familial identities. Research highlights how living funerals powerfully express love, regrets and unspoken words, fostering deeper understanding and continuing bonds before death. Living funerals represent a meaningful contemporary practice, challenging traditional death taboos and offering therapeutic benefits for family therapy and end-of-life care. The paper contributes to the literature by addressing a crucial gap regarding living funerals within Chinese culture and expanding family perspectives on death. By examining how these ceremonies influence familial interactions, the study offers new insights into emotional and cultural dynamics, enhancing understanding of the practice and broader death-related family issues.

Digital technology profoundly impacts family dynamics, posing challenges for therapists. This article explores how excessive technology use affects family interactions, illustrated through three case studies. The aim is to highlight the implications of overuse rather than the inherent properties of technology. Using Bowen family systems therapy and socioculturally attuned family therapy, a blending of these systemic approaches, the therapist designed targeted interventions to address excessive technology use within diverse family systems. Interventions shifted pre-intervention attitudes and technology-related beliefs, where family members viewed technology as either a source of conflict or an integral part of daily life. Six 90-minute family therapy sessions were conducted where families, with varied pre-intervention perspectives on technology, transitioned towards technology moderation, fostering digital mindfulness and offline family activities. Understanding and addressing the interplay between technology and family dynamics are crucial. Cultural considerations and sensitivity towards generational, ethnic and technological cultural differences were emphasised. An immigrant family and their first-generation American children exemplify the intersection of cultural identity, generational technology gap and technology integration, advocating for socioculturally attuned therapeutic approaches.

This study investigates the effect of problem-solving training on the interpersonal problem-solving skills of mothers of children with special needs. The parallel randomised controlled trial was conducted between August 2021 and March 2022. A priori power analysis was conducted, and 98 mothers who met the inclusion criteria were included in the study. The analysis indicated that a sample size of 39 participants per group was required. Data were collected using a personal information form and the Interpersonal Problem Solving Inventory. The mothers were divided into control and experimental groups. The participants in the experimental group were given a problem-solving training program, while the control group was not exposed to any intervention. There was no significant difference in the pre-training test scores for any of the dimensions (p > 0.05). However, the post-training test scores in the experimental group were significantly higher than post-training test scores in the control group (p < 0.05). There were significant differences between the pre-training and post-training test scores in the experimental group (p < 0.05). Interpersonal problem-solving skills can be improved by providing problem-solving training to the mothers of children with special needs. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that psychiatric nurses provide training to protect and improve the wellbeing of children with special needs and their families.

Exposure to domestic violence can lead children to adopt specific roles or behaviours to cope with violent situations, which can have detrimental effects on their lives and require significant resources to address. Domestic violence can also severely damage the parent–child relationship. Adults who experienced childhood abuse often feel the need to repair these relationships, but the lack of trust in the abusive parent makes this process particularly challenging. This study aims to explore the subjective interpretations and experiences of victimised adults in Taiwan as they work to restore parent–child relationships following the cessation of domestic violence. Employing a hermeneutic phenomenological approach, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with eight participants. Data analysis yielded three overarching themes related to the interpretation of restored parent–child relationships and eight themes pertaining to the experiences of restoring these relationships. These themes revealed that the core theme of the experience of restoring parent–child relationships among adults who experienced childhood abuse is ‘forgiveness and rebirth’. The study's findings emphasise that the restored parent–child relationship is not an ideal one but rather a relationship that acknowledges the limitations of both parents and children. It is a relationship where children can demonstrate filial piety without being undifferentiatedly obedient. In the context of Chinese culture, where relationships hold great significance, the researcher suggests that relational resilience serves as the driving force that enables family systems to progress towards relational wellbeing. Mental health practitioners must recognise and respect the client's cultural identity. When assisting adults who endured childhood domestic violence in mending their parent–child relationships, efforts should focus on fostering self-in-relation to promote their wellbeing.

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.