Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

A staggering number of post-separation parenting apps are now available in Australia. These apps vary in cost and features and generally offer a messaging tool, shared calendar, expense tracker and the ability to export records for legal purposes. In this article, we report on an online survey of 140 separated parents who were using a post-separation parenting app or had done so in the past. Our sample largely comprised separated parents in high conflict or where one parent was fearful of the other. The most common reason for using an app was to manage interparental conflict, followed by the desire to simplify post-separation parenting arrangements and lastly to improve personal safety. Just over two-thirds of respondents felt that using a co-parenting app had a mostly positive effect on their relationship. The messaging and third-party access features were seen as the biggest contributors to interparental conflict.

The philosophical dominance of social constructionism over the past 35 years, in many parts of the world, created space for important developments in narrative and other dialogical, language-based forms of therapy. However, the downside was an ultimately limiting linguistic reductionism in which talking about the world was replaced with talking about talk about the world. Discursive epistemology flourished, whereas ontology—what the world beyond our ideas is like—was often left unsayable. Roy Bhaskar's (2016) critical realism retains the valuable insights of moderate versions of social constructionism but places them alongside a non-naïve realist ontology. It offers a structured, stratified, multicausal, open-system view of reality that exists relatively autonomously from our socially constructed knowledge, enabling us to evaluate competing knowledge claims through ‘judgemental rationality’. It is argued that we can, do and should make choices about which ideas to support and that keeping such decisions out of awareness disguises the exercise of our power. Critical realism is able to embrace the whole field of systemic psychotherapy and has the potential to end many of the dualisms that have dominated its development. By providing a metatheoretical scaffold for a wide plurality of theories, it enlarges the pool of conceptual resources that therapists can bring to co-constructed therapeutic encounters. Positivist accounts of science are shown to work only in closed systems. Critical realism, by contrast, explains how underlying but variable causal tendencies operate in open systems, making science—including social science—fit for the real conditions of practice. Despite the strong focus on theory and causality in this paper, theoretical concerns are ultimately positioned as servants to the relational processes of psychotherapy, embedded in caregiving love in the pursuit of human flourishing.

This article profiles a framework innovated by the primary author, an experienced Māori therapist, social worker and mental health and trauma specialist, which describes the therapeutic journey from the perspective of te ao Māori (Māori worldview). ‘Oranga Harakeke’ draws on traditional processes surrounding the flax plant, symbolic of whānau (family) and integral to Māori life and hauora, or wellbeing. Planting, harvesting, preparing and weaving are metaphors for Ahurutanga, a place of safety in which the process of engagement begins; Taukumeme, the narration of stories; Tinorangatiratanga, being true to yourself in critical analysis; and Kaitiakitanga, finding courage for the path forward. It is vital that therapeutic practice with Māori practices is grounded in our worldview if the therapeutic relationship is to offer pathways for wholistic healing.

Systemic family therapy has a long history including the pioneering work of the Milan School in the 1970s and developing into post-Milan with further integration with the dialogical approach since this time. This paper documents the adaptation of the post-Milan method to complex case reviews in the field of youth forensic cognitive impairment. The aim was to support care teams working with people with cognitive impairment who have offended, including violence and sexual offending, focusing on enhancing their understanding of relational processes, to enhance community safety, support the amelioration of behaviour and support the care teams themselves. This article is written for family therapists interested in forensic work, forensic professionals who have had little prior exposure to systemic practice and those who support people with cognitive impairment involved in the justice system.

This article explores the therapeutic alliance as a central challenge for the family therapist in practice. Using a detailed case study of a family following a teenage son's suicide attempt, the author illustrates the complexities of forming meaningful connections with each family member—especially those who are hesitant or reluctant to participate. Drawing on psychotherapy research, the article emphasises the importance of empathy, flexibility and therapist authenticity, highlighting the therapist's role in navigating diverse narratives without excluding anyone's perspective. Implicit theoretical perspectives, such as narrative psychology, dialogical theory, systemic thinking and critical realist philosophical ideas, inform the therapeutic stance, even when not explicitly referenced. The paper argues for the integration of scientific knowledge with creative, responsive practice, urging therapists to cultivate an intuitive, reflexive relationship with theory.

This article reflects on the evolving role of theory in contemporary couple and family therapy. It observes a diminished role of theory today in relation to clinical practice and calls for more attention to theory. It traces the historical development of systemic thinking and examines how shifts in epistemology, research and cultural context have shaped the field's theoretical foundations. The discussion highlights the ongoing tensions between scientific empiricism and constructivist perspectives, strongly arguing for a critical realist perspective that incorporates empirical investigation as a major input in informing practice. It also argues for the importance of common factors and shared strategies in systemic therapy, as well as for considering the cultural context and therapist and client preferences. Rather than advocating for the primacy of any single model of therapy, the paper argues for a pluralistic and integrative stance that acknowledges theory as a living, contextually situated resource for practice. The article concludes by emphasising the continued importance of theoretical reflection in advancing the field's responsiveness to diverse clients, evolving clinical challenges and the broader social environment.

An important accomplishment in systemic consultations and interventions is helping the family's coparents—individuals mutually responsible for the child's care and upbringing—to become more mindful about ways they can ally together to support their children. One means of stimulating coparenting dialogues is to guide intentional reflection on coparenting-related actions related to engagement, teamwork, conflict and child focus. One instrument designed to evoke such reflection, the Coparenting Scale, is effective in triggering parent insights and dialogues about coparenting behaviours and dynamics if used intentionally by therapists. The instrument is uniquely designed to provide visuals for parents (stick figure cartoons) portraying two adults and a child in everyday activities connoting signs of affection and togetherness, handling discipline in the family, differences of opinion with the coparent and actions engaged in when alone with the child which affect the solidarity of the coparenting alliance (covert coparenting). Reflection on these items builds insight into behaviour not always consciously in mind, and dynamics not typically discussed openly or effectively with their coparent. Primed to enable such conversation, while resolute about the meaning of coparenting behaviour for children's family-level security, practitioners can help coparents strengthen determination to mindfully engage in behavioural changes to promote greater family integrity at home through teamwork and to reduce child-related conflict. Cases from Italy, Sweden, the United States and Israel illustrate implementation variations and impact.

In the backdrop of systemic family therapists' engagement with critical perspectives on the meaning(s) of mental health and how these inform practice developments, this rendering is neither scientific nor systematic, but an invitation to exercise our imagination around our relationship with certain nomenclatures, diverting from the generally accepted definitions and uses (i.e., applications) of some mental health diagnoses. The invitation is to divert from a comprehensive intent of classification to aid diagnostic processes, without presenting this diversion as an alternative to such frameworks. I propose a few examples with a sense of lightness applied to words that tend to present themselves in conversations loaded with heavy meanings. Tourette syndrome, ASD, ADHD, depression, OCD and psychosis are explored here from the perspective of possibilities that the patterns receiving these names point at, if considered in relationship with other contextual levels, different from the ones normally connected to the way we make sense/meaning of them. I propose diverting in the way we make sense of these psychiatric labels, which is different from both correcting and adhering, moving away from lineal notions of progress when considering matters of change, development and growth.

In recent decades, the field of family therapy has undergone a paradigmatic transformation. This article explores the evolving role of theory in family therapy. It contrasts the classical, prescriptive understanding of theory with a dialogic, relational approach that views knowledge as emergent, situated and co-constructed. By emphasising dialogue and relationship as central therapeutic processes, I attempt to reposition theory not as a static guide but as a participatory practice that shapes, and is shaped by, the therapeutic encounter.