Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

Narrative therapy conversations seek to develop and enrich the strengths, skills and values people hold that can be storied through wonderfulness interviews. The practice of wonderfulness interviews requires therapists to draw on decolonising discourses and resist discourses that may individualise and essentialise skills, values and attributes. Taking up a decolonising discursive position in Aotearoa New Zealand involves the ongoing restoration and uplifting of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge). This article lays out a decolonising therapeutic approach, weaving Māori worldviews and narrative therapy in order to respond to two key questions. The first is how can we speak about the wonderfulness of rangatahi Māori (Māori young people) in ways that strengthen their cultural identity? The second, how can rangatahi take up the idea of a poho kererū (pride—see glossary for explanation) whilst also holding onto hūmārie/whakaiti (humbleness)? The article introduces Te Whare Pouhāpai (A House of Support), an approach to engage rangatahi alongside their whānau (family) in wonderfulness conversations. The approach has been developed alongside rangatahi and whānau Māori in both wharekura (Māori medium schools) and kura auraki (mainstream schools) but is still relevant for pākeke (adults). Central to this approach is the metaphorical use of te whare tūpuna (ancestral house), representing the influential figures in the life of rangatahi. The pou (posts/carvings) of the whare (house) become entry points for conversations that explore collective mana (strength, prestige and ability), uara (values), intergenerational knowledge, pūmanawa (skills passed down) and pūkenga (skills). The approach honours multiple forms of mana, recognising that identity and ability are shaped relationally, not individually. Whakataukī (proverbs), the metaphor of the whare tūpuna, and mātauranga Māori are presented to guide ways of understanding identity and wonderfulness. Together, these whakaaro (ideas/thoughts) construct an approach that can assist therapists to resist dominant discourses that individualise strengths, skills and wonderfulness.

The Circle of Security-Parenting program is an attachment-based intervention designed to strengthen parent–child relationships and improve parental reflective capacity. It has proven benefits for children's behavioural and emotional adjustment. However, its application with carers of children with chronic illnesses, such as cystic fibrosis (CF), remains unexplored. The aim of this study was to share observations and experiences from carers of children with CF who participated in two Circle of Security-Parenting groups. This paper also highlights insights from clinicians who facilitated these groups to inform future service delivery. Carers of children with CF aged 6 and under were recruited during clinic appointments at a tertiary children's hospital. Groups were delivered via telehealth over 8 weeks. Experiences from carers were recorded at the end of the program. Observations from clinicians were recorded weekly after peer-supervised reflection sessions. A descriptive qualitative design was used, with reflexive thematic analysis applied to carer reflections and facilitator debriefs to generate key themes. The risk of cross-infection for children with CF limits families from in-person social networks and parenting groups. Telehealth delivery of the Circle of Security-Parenting program fostered meaningful connections and parent-led support systems. Telehealth enabled participation but presented difficulties in replicating the emotional ‘holding’ environment integral to the program. Shared carer experiences created strong group bonds, promoting openness, mutual support and sustained connections beyond the program's end. Recruiting participants was difficult due to carer burdens, but those who attended valued the program for its emotional support, shared experiences and increased parenting confidence. Parenting groups have historically been in-person, limiting access for carers of children with CF. Adapting the Circle of Security-Parenting program for telehealth has meant more opportunities for support, especially in the initial years post diagnosis. This work highlights important considerations for clinicians and services supporting families affected by chronic illness.

Taiwanese society has historically marginalised Indigenous people, often using stigmatising labels. The power imbalance between Han and Indigenous populations in Taiwan is well documented. This paper uses a case to illuminate the challenges faced by intercultural couples in Taiwan. It further explores how narrative therapy can be employed to empower the couple to reconstruct their narratives and celebrate their diverse identities. The author delves into the couple's stories and the strategic approach to intervention. Three key implications are proposed. First, recognising the significance of local spiritual beliefs in shaping individual identity and meaning-making. Second, identifying and challenging dominant discourses that perpetuate marginalisation. Third, treating the couple as active agents in their own story rather than passive recipients of therapy.

This paper grew from a shared act of translation and memory. In bringing Norman Heitkøtter's chapter, ‘A Small Incident in the Mountains’, into English, the authors found themselves drawn to questions of lineage, attention and care. Both of us recall childhood encounters with men who embodied an ethic of observation; one replacing a stone to protect the heather and moss around it, the other lifting a dead badger with reverence for the life it had been. These gestures of care are metaphors for systemic practice itself, a discipline of noticing and responding, yet without a desire for control or domination. Through alternating narrative, reflection and dialogue, the paper traces how ways of seeing are inherited across generations and how ecological and familial systems inform each other. It invites readers to consider translation, therapy and conservation as parallel acts of relationship within a living world that is both fragile and entangled.

A conversation takes place between a therapist academic and a research academic about humanity's million-years-old evolved nest, the species-normal way to raise children and maintain a cooperative human nature. Humanity's evolved nest refers to lifelong practices that have helped our species survive and flourish across generations. Nine components have been studied and associated with child and adult wellbeing. These are common practices in traditional societies all over the world. They include nature immersion and partnership, regular restorative healing, self-directed social play, warm responsive relationships, positive touch, a welcoming social climate, multiple nurturers and mentors, soothing perinatal experiences and child-directed breastfeeding. The authors dialogue about how therapy can deploy evolved nest principles.

This paper introduces diunital therapy, a multidimensional therapeutic approach rooted in diunital logic, an Indigenous African wisdom tradition and a decolonial healing framework. It examines how the legacies of colonisation, White supremacy, patriarchy and neoliberal capitalism have shaped therapy theory and practice. Drawing upon concepts developed in Indigo Alchemy: Diunital Healing, Multi-Dimensional Wellbeing, my forthcoming book, this paper describes how diunital therapy integrates storytelling, body–mind awareness, land-based belonging, community care and spiritual resilience with selected elements of Western therapies, while maintaining a critical lens on systemic oppression. Healing and therapy are presented as inseparable from liberation, with personal restoration, ancestral memory and social transformation woven into a single, relational process.

This paper is an invitation to think about our relationship with more-than-human worlds and how this influences wellbeing, or lack thereof, in the myriad contexts of our lives. What lived and told stories do we, individually and collectively, have about our relationship to nature and how do these stories inform and influence how we show up in our relational and environmental worlds? And, perhaps most importantly, what does nature teach us about how to be in life-giving relationship with one another?