The legacy of Tom Andersen: The ethics of reflecting processes

Tom Andersen and his pioneering work with reflecting conservations has had a lasting influence on the field of family therapy and mental health more broadly. Most family therapists are familiar with his contributions related to reflecting teams; however, fewer are familiar with his conceptualization of reflecting processes, which offer practical ways to approach therapeutic conversations to address challenging problems. This article provides a brief history of Andersen's career and reviews four key elements of his approach, including: (a) his way of being in relationship, (b) appropriately unusual comments, (c) inner and outer dialogs, and (d) ethics of dialogical relating. Finally, this article introduces readers to the context of the video that will be analyzed in the articles that follow in this special section.     

Discursive Methodologies for Couple and Family Therapy Research: Editorial to Special Section

In this article, we aim to introduce the special JMFT section on discursive research methodologies for couple and family therapy research. These are qualitative research methodologies which resonate with the systemic emphasis on the semantics and the pragmatics of therapy discourse. First, we provide a brief overview of such methodologies and their use in the family therapy field. We then introduce the context and the content of the special section, where four approaches, including conversation analysis, discursive psychology type of discourse analysis, poststructurally informed discourse analysis (subject positioning analysis), and semantic analysis, are introduced by means of analyzed extracts from a Tom Andersen consultation session with a couple in distress and their therapist. We conclude with implications for the field. For Tom and Michael     

Issuing and Responding to Unusual Questions: A Conversation Analytic Account of Tom Andersen's Therapeutic Practice

Tom Andersen is considered one of the key contributors to the development of postmodern practice. Little is known, however, about the ways in which his ideas and practices are routinely carried out in situ. We used Conversation Analysis (CA) to investigate a session of couple therapy facilitated by Andersen. We show how Andersen and client participants oriented to and addressed problems of understanding that occurred between them. The source of this trouble was Andersen's use of unusual question formulations. We offer preliminary evidence that such unusual formulations served particular interactional and institutional (i.e., therapeutic) functions in their local contexts of use. We conclude by considering some implications of this analysis—and of conversation analytic inquiry more generally—for the practice of family therapy.     

Lessons From ‘The Hitting Place’: Reflections of a Family Therapy Novice

This case study is an account of a post‐traumatic family attempting to come to terms with life after violence, and the effectiveness of family therapy in supporting this transition. The fighting between two young girls had maintained the violence in the family dynamic and their highly anxious adolescent brother remained unable to let go of his protective position and move forward with his own life. The backdrop of the case was a novice family therapist and a mother with borderline traits who found it difficult to keep the therapeutic work within the bounds of the therapy sessions. Despite these difficulties meaningful change could be seen after only seven sessions of family therapy.     

Family Constellation — A Therapy Beyond Words

Family Constellation, a psychotherapeutic approach associated with the name Bert Hellinger, has become a popular yet also controversial form of systemic therapy in the German‐speaking therapy community. ‘Family Constellation’ (Familienstellen) means the individual client's physical‐emotional positioning and re‐positioning of substitute family members in relation to each other, with help of a therapeutic group. Family Constellation is a one‐session approach that addresses family‐of‐origin issues. The therapeutic process is highly experiential, utilising multiple sensory modalities. Hellinger locates his model within phenomenology, and his practice has roots in several therapy schools. His model offers complementary therapeutic techniques in our ‘languaged’ world of family therapy.     

South Australia's First Family Therapist — Jeff Gerrard Remembers: An Interview

Jeff Gerrard can claim the distinction of being the first family therapist in South Australia. Early on in his career as a psychiatrist he explored the growing field of psychotherapy overseas and observed, studied, and trained with some of the historical greats in the area. When he returned to South Australia in the early 70s, it seems to have been a natural step for him to begin practising family therapy and training other health professionals in the theory and practice of family therapy. The early training that Jeff led at the South Australian Children's Hospital enabled a cooperation between a number of early family therapists, such as Michael White and Anne Sved Williams, to train the first cohort of people who would later go on to become significant contributors to the family therapy field in Australia. In this interview, Lorraine Read invites Jeff to explore his early contributions to the field and to discuss the training and supervision experiences which were/are important in his development as a family therapist.     

Outside Expert Knowledge; An interview with Michael White

Michael White is an internationally renowned family therapist from Dulwich Centre in South Australia. In this interview, Michael discusses his ideas and experiences covering a wide range of topics including the re-authoring process, changing roles of therapists and persons in therapy, the reflecting team, training, and the future of family therapy.     

‘Let's Live,and See’: Interview with Moshe Talmon

Moshe Talmon, author of Single Session Therapy and Single Session Solutions, spoke to Lil Cox, family therapist from Oakrise Child & Adolescent Mental Health Service at Launceston, when she caught up with him at the Inaugural Pan‐Pacific Family Therapy Conference in Melbourne, Australia in September 2001. He spoke about his early life, training, his research showing that clients can get what they need from one session, and his current approach to therapy. Finally, he gives his reasons for continuing to live and work in Israel.     

Applying the Paradigm of Relational Ethics into Contextual Therapy. Analyzing the practice of Ivan Boszormenyi‐Nagy

Ivan Boszormenyi Nagy introduced with his contextual therapy a challenging theory into the world of family therapy. It is rooted in a relational ethical perspective on human relations and shifts the focus of therapy from pathology to evoking reciprocal care and a genuine dialogue, based on the conviction that inter‐human relations are resources for individual growth and health. This article presents a research project on the practice of the founder himself, to describe how the principles of the contextual theory and therapy can be integrated into concrete therapeutic interventions. Using the Constant Comparison Method, the authors found six clusters of interventions representing methodical elements through which Ivan Boszormenyi‐Nagy applies the paradigm of his approach.     

Sadness and Chronic Illness: A Conversation with Bruce Perham

Bruce Perham is a social worker and narrative therapist who works at Alzheimers Australia Vic., the peak body representing the interests of people affected by dementia. He previously worked at an adoption agency, the Spastic Society (now Scope), and the Multiple Sclerosis Society. Bruce trained in family therapy in Melbourne and in narrative therapy with Michael White at the Dulwich Centre. Bruce has created an extensive range of written and video resources for people with dementia and MS and their family members. He describes how his family of origin, his resultant personal struggles as an adult, and narrative therapy, have profoundly influenced his work with people with chronic illness and their families, in particular, his approach to sadness.     

Interviewing Ron Perry: Keeping the Conversation Going

Throughout his long career in counselling and family therapy, Ron Perry has seen enormous ups and downs in the field. He studied with, and worked alongside, family therapy masters such as Virginia Satir, Jay Haley, MRI and the Milan team and his dedication to counselling and psychotherapy culminated in an Order of Australia medal in 2005. In this conversation, Ron provides an intimate understanding of family therapy emphasising the value of teams and interventions that achieve good outcomes for families.     

Sometimes Words Just Ain't Enough – Enhancing the Contribution of Children in Therapy through Creative Expression

The meaningful inclusion of children in family therapy is an ideal that therapists readily align with and yet struggle to implement effectively. Within a practice that relies heavily on verbal expression, young children provide a unique challenge for therapists, who require developmentally appropriate opportunities for the child to express, document, and share his or her experience in all its richness and colour. In this paper the author utilises art therapy to support greater inclusion of children in family therapy by capitalising on their creative talents and facilitating the child's visual story within the family dialogue. This can assist in the formulation and treatment of systemic issues.     

Discursive psychology as a method of analysis for the study of couple and family therapy

The field of couple and family therapy has benefitted from evidence generated from qualitative approaches. Evidence developed from approaches relying on language and social interaction using naturally occurring recordings of real‐world practice has the benefit of facilitating practice‐based recommendations and informing practice. The aim of this article is to provide an overview of one approach to discourse analysis, Discursive Psychology (DP), demonstrating how a social constructionist framework and focus on discourse can provide an important contribution to the field of therapy. To illustrate the methodological decision‐making process for researchers and/or practitioners who utilize DP, we draw upon a video‐recorded therapeutic session involving Tom Andersen. To conclude, we make recommendations for practitioners using DP to explore and examine therapeutic practice.     

Setting the House on Fire: The Melbourne Interview With Salvador Minuchin

Brian Stagoll interviewed Minuchin via satellite in front of a conference plenary audience at the Inaugural Pan Pacific Family Therapy Congress in Melbourne, 2001. Minuchin looks back over his working life, and weaves the various leaders of the family therapy field in the US into an ‘American Quilt’. He also responds to questions about his own impact on the field, and his prediction that by 2000, family therapy would be triumphant.     

“None of The Following is True”: An Interview with Karl Tomm

Karl Tomm is Director of the Family Therapy Training Programme at the University of Calgary, Canada. He is known for his work on Circular Pattern Diagramming and articles detailing the Milan Systemic Approach to family therapy. In March he visited Australia where he conducted workshops in Adelaide and Sydney. The following interview was recorded at the end of the first day of the Adelaide Workshop.     

Schizophrenia and Family Therapy

The case presented is of a young man hospitalized twice for schizophrenic disorder before the commencement of family therapy. The therapy which dealt with the family system, specific pathological communication patterns and intra-psychic conflicts, is discussed. As the parents of the young man confronted their inter- and intra-personal problems, the function of his illness disappeared, along with his psychotic symptoms. While demonstrating the process of psychotherapy, the thesis that psychotic decompensation in young people often signifies severe family dysfunction is also presented. Accepting the ‘identified’ patient as such and ignoring the family dynamics may serve to create a chronic schizophrenic illness.     

Social Control and Emotions

This is the first article in Symbolic Interaction's symposium in tribute to Tamotsu (Tom) Shibutani (1920–2004). The author, a student in Shibutani's graduate course on social control, discusses his teacher's ideas and their evolution into his own. The article provides ample basis for the author's observation: a scholar's contribution can be measured not only by the cumulative corpus of his or her published work, but also by the influence that this individual has had on the work of others.     

Family Therapy: Out from Behind the Hero Narrative

Schools of family therapy have been highly selective in their presentation of the theory/practice nexus. Family therapy's method of teaching (the infamous workshop format) has hampered it's growth as a practice and academic discipline. An inadvertent, unhelpful legacy of Gregory Bateson has been that lesser scholars have aped his capacity to draw on other fields of knowledge without his rigour, or his propriety. Family therapy's cavalier dealings with bodies of knowledge and its reliance on miraculous case studies has resulted in the bypassing of individual suffering. The heroic narrative that has dominated family therapy has precluded other styles of stories for therapists, theorists and clients. Family therapy has been dominated by the myth of the hero, with its accompanying motif of the puer eternus (the eternal youth). Family therapy has been forever reinventing itself, forever the ‘new kid on the block’. This fascination with newness has interfered with family therapy's capacity, at times, to consolidate its genuine value as a therapeutic entity.