Three's Company: Family Therapy with Only-Child Families

The only child and his or her parents may have special problems when it comes to settling the issues of parent-child identification and attachment. Children, regardless of birth order or number of siblings, cope more easily with the developmental tasks of the oedipal period if there is not pressure to remain loyal to just one of the parental pair. The child without siblings and his/her parents face a continuing oedipal triangle unless the parents maintain a comfortable and united partnership at best, or at least are able to encourage independence in the child.     

Family Therapy with Black, Disadvantaged Families: Some Observations on Roles, Communication, and Technique

Within a system concept role delineation and communicational patterns of black, disadvantaged families are evaluated on the basis of 15 years experience. The observations made at best are suggestive and meant to highlight certain features of a black, disadvantaged family system. In the light of these observations some suggestions regarding technique are offered, notably the use of multiple family therapy as a way of increasing therapeutic effectiveness and facilitating movement in the system.     

Depression,the Family,and Family Therapy

The potential contribution of family therapists to the treatment of depression remains underdeveloped. Family therapists need to articulate how changes in family functioning might benefit depressed persons, as well as how other problems in the families of depressed persons tend to go unrecognised. Furthermore, family therapists need to be alert to how undetected depression in adults and children may interfere with their ability to meet their goals with families who seek therapy for other persons. This article provides family therapists with (1) an overview of the nature and experience of depression; (2) an introduction to antidepressant medication; (3) a summary of research findings relating depression to its family context and (4) a brief overview of developments in the marital and family treatment of depression.     

Applying the Developmental Family Therapy Model to Issues of Migrating Families

Migration creates a substantial amount of stress for relocating families. Families lose the predictability of familiar surroundings and they often find themselves without the support systems that existed in their previous homes. Especially, they experience tensions between the primary values of the old and new cultures. This stress and the absence of support can lead to developmental problems for both the adults and children in the family. Developmental family therapy has grown out of individual and family developmental theories (Erickson, 1963; Duvall, 1977; Carter & McGoldrick, 1989; Steinglass, Bennett, Wolin, & Reiss, 1987). This model assumes that problems develop when family patterns block normal development of the family and its members. Family therapy then assists families to make changes in those dysfunctional patterns in order to promote the normal growth of the members. Developmental Family Therapy can help families successfully manage the transition between cultures. This paper first examines the impact of migration on families from a developmental viewpoint. Next, it identifies family therapy strategies helpful to families in that transition.     

Child-Focused Family Therapy: Behavioural Family Therapy Versus Brief Family Therapy

We examined the effectiveness of behavioural family therapy (following the treatment agenda outlined in Fleischman, Horne and Arthur, 1983) and brief family therapy (following the procedures outlined in Fisch, Weakland and Segal, 1985), in the treatment of child psychological disorders. The parents of the 49 children referred to the outpatient unit of a children's hospital completed the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) (Achenbach and Edelbrock, 1983). Three scales of the CBCL were examined to assess the effectiveness of the two therapeutic approaches pre- to post-treatment. Significant pre- and post-treatment differences were found for behavioural family therapy on the Internalizing, Externalizing, and Sum T scales and for brief family therapy on the Internalizing and Sum T scales. Sum T scales represent the sum of scores across all sub-scales of the CBCL. Neither treatment was found to be more effective than the other.     

Visitation Orders,Family Courts,and Fragile Families

Despite proposals to make parenting time a part of all new child support orders, limited research has examined why some unmarried are more likely than others to establish legal visitation agreements. This mixed‐methods study draws on qualitative data collected from unmarried mothers and fathers living in New York (N = 70) to develop hypotheses about the contexts in which parents set up visitation orders, which are then tested in a large sample of unmarried parents living apart (N = 1,392). Both qualitative and quantitative findings show that disengagement, cooperation, and conflict in the coparenting relationship postseparation influence unmarried parents' decisions about whether to establish a legal visitation agreement. The qualitative data further illustrate how parents' distrust of the court system, preference for informal agreements, and uncertainty about the custody of nonmarital children inform their decisions. The article concludes by considering approaches for helping low‐conflict coparents set up visitation agreements outside of family court.     

Strengthening Australian Families: Socioeconomic Status,Social Connectedness,and Family Functioning

Abstract

Social connectedness has been promoted as one factor that may facilitate optimal functioning for families experiencing economic adversity. Using data from 218 Australian families, the current study explored the relative importance of social connectedness to the functioning of economically diverse families. Overall, results indicated similar levels of social connectedness and family functioning across low- and high-income groups. However, important differences were identified with regards to the relative contribution of social connectedness to the functioning of families across the economic spectrum. Clinical implications arising from these findings include the potential benefit of exploring social connectedness as a routine part of clinical assessment and ongoing intervention for families experiencing economic vulnerability.     

Family Therapy for Kids Without Families: Working Systemically With Children and Young People in Residential Care

A significant proportion (4%, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2008) of children and young people in Australia live in some form of residential care, usually in small group‐homes staffed by residential care workers in shifts. However, as Hawkins‐Rodgers (2007) points out, these placements are often not resourced to heal the effects of trauma and multiple attachment disruptions in their residents. The lack of an archetypal ‘family’ has led in the past to family therapists considering that there is little work to be done with such clients. This leaves such placements to be supported most frequently by clinicians who specialise in behaviour management and other linearly founded models of practice. The Alternate Care Clinic (ACC) is the first mental health service in New South Wales dedicated entirely to children and young people in out of home care with a high level of complex needs. This article examines the systemic therapeutic model the clinic has developed in the last two years. In particular, the article seeks to explore the importance of ‘meaning making’ in a diffuse parental system, particularly with regards to the term ‘family’. The complexities of working in this area and possible ways forward are illustrated with a closely worked case study.     

Strengthening Families Through Volunteerism: Integrating Family Volunteerism and Family Life Education

This article builds on increasing interest in family volunteering by presenting it as a family life education tool for strengthening relationships and family functioning. In this context, family volunteering is similar to service learning in which families learn together while giving back to their community. Informed by a discussion on bioecological systems theory, psychosocial development theory, and select studies on volunteering, this article seeks to discover how family volunteering benefits individual and family growth. Existing research indicates that, due to its rich resources, it can deepen relationships, reinforce effective interpersonal skills, and help individuals overcome life's crises. Implications for family life educators and future research are presented, including the need for collaboration and stronger data on which to base flexible and fun volunteer opportunities for families.     

Family Therapy: Inner,Outer and the Issue of Pathology

This paper sets out to examine the relationship between ‘the inner’, ‘the outer’, and ‘the issue of pathology’ in the family therapy field. It begins with the observations that ‘pathology’ has become a rarely mentioned issue in family therapy, and ‘what is wrong’ is increasingly located in ‘the outer’: the family ‘game’, ‘linguistic activity’ or ‘the cultural discourse’. At the same time, family therapy often hosts forums in which presenters are ‘attacked’ for not seeming to hold the ‘correct view’. The paper considers these phenomena in tandem, looks at the matter of ‘method’, and applies James Hillman's critique of psychoanalysis to family therapy. The suggestion is that family therapy has been blinded by its own metaphor of ‘seeing’, symbolised and literalised in the one way screen. Alternative metaphors privileging intuition, feeling and aesthetics are put forward, before discussion points are raised, and before this paper on therapy concludes poetically, or this paper concludes that therapy may be poetry.     

Family Therapy for the Trainee in Family Therapy*

The growth and self understanding of the therapist as a person are considered by most training centres to be a significant part of the training process. This article reports on a pilot project which provided marital and family therapy for trainees in a two-year program. Therapy was established on a contract basis and included individual, conjoint, family intergenerational and small group. Interns and family members responded favorably to the program. Supervisors found the experience enabled trainees to maintain an experiential consistency with a general systems model utilized as the core theory of the training program.     

Gender and Families: Feminist Perspectives and Family Research

This review provides a selective overview of scholarship on gender and families over the past decade. First, we discuss four characteristics of feminist perspectives to theoretical and methodological issues in social science. Then we describe briefly how feminist sensibility has been reflected in family scholarship over the past decade. We conclude with brief observations on the disjuncture between academic work on gender and the feminist backlash apparent in the contemporary culture.     

Deception in Family Therapy: Recognition,Implications, and Intervention

Deception, in its many forms, is present in families and relationships across the globe. The impact of the presence and discovery of family secrets or deceptive acts on the individual, the family unit, and the therapeutic process, particularly in the field of marriage and family therapy, has not been thoroughly studied or discussed. Further, deceptive acts during the therapeutic process may have implications for effective treatment planning. This article defines the various forms of deception and its systemic effects on relationships and on the therapeutic process. Possible interventions to address deception in a family therapeutic setting are proposed.     

Religious Cults: Family Concerns and the Law

The activities of contemporary religious cults cause concern and controversy among parents and mental health practitioners, both because they are perceived as threats to the well-being of their young adult members and because such cults are protected by the First Amendment. The primary issues discussed here are "mind control" and informed consent. Possible bases for legal redress of alleged injuries, as well as possible preventive measures, are suggested.