Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy最新文献

The aim of this review is to identify detailed descriptions of specific family processes and relational actions that contribute to and support well-being in transgender and non-binary (TGNB) family members. A scoping review was conducted using the Arksey and O'Malley framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Five databases (APA PsycINFO, MEDLINE, Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed) were searched for keywords relating to transgender and non-binary identity, family processes and well-being. The search was run in April 2025 and yielded a total of 1359 studies; 152 texts were selected for full review and 68 articles were included in the analysis. Basic content analysis was used to synthesise the results. Sixty-eight studies were included in the final review and content analysis identified that families engage in three main family processes underpinned by specific relational processes; this appears to have a developmental trajectory for families adjusting to change. The three key processes are (i) actively seeking out education and support independently from the TGNB family member, (ii) acceptance and affirmation communicated through specific relational actions and (iii) engaging in advocacy on behalf of the TGNB family member inside and outside the family system. Findings suggest that future research should include TGNB adults and their family systems, and explore the perspectives of transfeminine family members, fathers as parents of TGNB people and TGNB people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds.

While Bakhtin's contribution to dialogical practice includes his conceptualisation of dialogue and polyphony, the literature on dialogical therapies including Open Dialogue makes little if any mention of another of his major contributions, Rabelais and his world. This theoretical paper makes available to interested practitioners the author's distillation of key ideas in Rabelais and his world following a careful reading of the text. Reflective prompts are offered that invite the reader to consider the relevance of these ideas to practice. The six key concepts presented include laughter, the language of the marketplace/billingsgate, the body and the bodily lower stratum, ambivalence, the grotesque and carnival and the carnivalesque.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex illness that typically onsets during adolescence and has severe consequences. Family-based treatment (FBT) is currently regarded as the leading treatment option for adolescents with AN; however, there is confusion within the literature as to what exactly constitutes FBT. This meta-analysis aimed to examine the specific efficacy of FBT in increasing weight gain and reducing eating disorder (ED) symptomology for adolescents with AN. Inclusion criteria required that studies followed the manualised FBT model, be restricted to adolescents, and have patients with diagnosed AN. Several databases were searched: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses, and SCOPUS, and retrieval was limited to between 1984 and November 2023. Once identified, studies were screened and coded by two researchers who met to resolve any disagreements. Thirteen studies met the eligibility criteria. The impact of FBT on treatment outcomes revealed a large effect size for continuous (d = 0.955, 95% CI [0.386–1.523], p < 0.001) and remission (d = 2.32, 95% CI [1.827, 2.807], p < 0.001) outcomes. However, outcome measures varied across studies. These findings corroborate previous literature finding that FBT is an effective treatment for adolescents with AN. They also demonstrate the applicability and utility of this treatment across different cultures. FBT is a promising treatment modality to alleviate adolescents' physical and psychological suffering while also enhancing family relationships. Additionally, as an outpatient and low-resource-intensive treatment, it helps to reduce the healthcare burden.

As the climate crisis worsens, family therapy, like other therapeutic approaches, is beginning to ask: What must be done? In this article, we argue that we first need to ask ‘how do we as individuals understand and navigate the turmoil in which we find ourselves, together with the systems in which we are embedded?’ Drawing on the authors' extensive practice and research experience in climate psychology, we seek to explore these questions. From the vantage of family therapy, we can readily agree that relational, rather than individual, approaches, are required—frameworks that connect emotions experienced by individuals, including ourselves, with the complex and connected systems in which they emerge. Here, we demonstrate an approach that matches form—and methodology—with content: Our dialogical practices refuse a singular, authoritative voice and are capacious enough to include more robust selves and stories. We describe our approach and then reproduce a dialogue between ourselves—a pre-existing community of practice incorporating psychotherapists, psychologists, facilitators and researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds, geographical settings and life stages. Rather than offering a particular programme or agenda for family therapy in the climate crisis, we hope to show a relational stance and method that will encourage the kind of questioning and learning we feel is necessary to deal with a catastrophe of unprecedented scale and complexity—as well as an example of substantive community possible in its shadow.

This paper explores the mutual influence of emotions and family secrets, a central theme emerging from a qualitative inquiry, using grounded theory analysis, involving seven adult children who experienced family secrecy during childhood. Utilising the elements of constructivist grounded theory, the research employed in-depth interviews, which were conducted and analysed simultaneously. The findings illuminate how emotions both shape and are shaped by the presence of secrets, silences, partial truths and disclosures within families where secrecy is integral to their communication patterns. Key themes, such as loss, grief, family loyalties, attachment patterns, family dynamics and fractured relationships, are critically examined, emphasising the profound emotional impact of secrecy within the family context. The study introduces an ‘emotional rollercoaster’ diagram, which not only encapsulates the collective experiences of the participants but serves as a conceptual model for potentially guiding therapeutic interventions with individuals and families affected by such dynamics. This model offers a framework for understanding the complex emotional trajectories from childhood to adulthood within secretive family environments.

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.

A commitment by policymakers and practitioners to the best interests of the child is uncontroversial. The child's right to be with their birth family is enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, unless ‘separation is necessary for the best interests of the child’ (Article 9). But how do we understand 'best interests of the child'? Does this encompass only childhood or extend across life? Can 'best interest' be determined by ideology or principles alone? How does the permanency principle interact with best interest? For children exposed to serious abuse or neglect and removed, will ‘locking-in’ long-term care arrangements yield best outcomes in childhood, adolescence, adulthood, parenthood? Should reunification be prioritised? In this opinion piece, I argue that evidence must inform understandings of whether specific child and family support strategies are likely to do more good than harm and that this must consider the child's full life trajectory, including parenting capacity—the driver of intergenerational outcomes—and pay attention to the entire family. In the context of child removal, support and healing for the parent—with the possibility for reunification—will enhance the wellbeing of the entire family, including the removed child and any siblings (including those yet to be born). To achieve the desired response, budget allocations must be aligned with aims. In Australia, budget allocations massively favour child removal over intensive support for birth family, and also favour spending to address the harmful consequences of child abuse and neglect rather than disrupt the harm cascade. A refocus on birth family is critical. Treating birth parents with compassion is a good idea for the child, for the family, for society and the budget bottom line.

This special issue makes a vital contribution to how we may better understand the contexts of vulnerable children and families and the way intergenerational trauma impacts, influences and manifests within and across family systems. The articles within this special issue carefully challenge a sometimes commonplace attribution of harm solely to individual behaviours. Instead, we seek to shine a light on the role that moral condemnation plays in perpetuating cycles of disadvantage and family hardships.

Parents who struggle to provide good enough care for their children, who may abuse, neglect or inadvertently expose them to harm, are difficult for many people to understand. It is easy for people to respond empathically and with compassion to the children who are harmed, but much more difficult for people to respond to their parents with the same care and consideration. However, these parents were often child victims themselves. When families are embedded in systems of intergenerational disadvantage and trauma, the trauma that flows between generations can powerfully affect the quality of parental care. The emotional judgements that people make in response to severely compromised parenting, combined with narratives that warn against condoning harmful behaviour, can entrench conscious or unconscious moral condemnation, hindering therapists' capacity to provide effective whole-family care.

Within this special issue, we explore the imperative to identify and address moral condemnation, the role of shame in motivating difficult-to-understand behaviours and innovative ways that practitioners have found to respond, without condemnation, to traumatised parents and their children. Effective and meaningful support for vulnerable families requires approaches that address entrenched (mis)understanding and advocate for family-inclusive practices that reflect the lived realities of those involved. Moral condemnation offers little beyond a sense of privileged and positioned ‘knowing’, it should be pushed aside in favour of practices that seek to unpick the intergenerational threads of trauma. Practitioners and therapists—broadly conceived—are in a unique position to pioneer such approaches, challenging atomised views of family dynamics, and how multiple and interconnected factors impact family interactions and parental capacities. Insights from diverse fields and settings beyond traditional therapy offer valuable perspectives for advancing holistic, family-centred care. Several of our contributors within this special issue would not see themselves as family therapists, or even therapists, some are new to academic writing, and this is deliberate. Working with traumatised, vulnerable families and children requires us to stretch beyond our traditional boundaries to find ways to meet the challenges of providing compassionate and effective care.

As an editorial team, we are based at Centacare Catholic Community Services, a leading non-government or