Engaging Fathers in Family Therapy with Violent Adolescents

Violent behavior in adolescents can often signal profound distress or pain arising from family conflicts, hostile marital separations, sudden losses and other family turmoil. By circumventing blame the therapist engages the family in a constructive process that allows adolescents to change and grow and parents to share pain and sorrow about their own issues and responsibilities for their children. This re‐establishes healthy generational boundaries, produces a clearer co‐parenting alliance (e.g. after divorce) and creates sibling support. This paper describes an experiential approach, for working with violent adolescents in family therapy influenced by the pioneer work of Satir and Whitaker. It integrates systemic and developmental theories linking the presenting problem to relevant family events. The therapist: (1) explores adolescent development in the family and social context; (2) establishes a therapeutic alliance through understanding the interpersonal context for violent behavior, and (3) re‐directs negative actions into positive connections with family members. Segments of family therapy sessions with two adolescent boys and their families from different cultural backgrounds illustrate the impact of paternal absence for adolescent well‐being and the need to actively engage fathers in family therapy. Mario, the father's ‘tumor’, and Juan with his despairing violence are two problematic adolescents brought to therapy because of their aggressive behavior at home and/or in the school. The paper describes how to give them a different voice and build a therapeutic alliance with the family.     

Punctuating a Neck: Adoption,Chroming and Crisis in the Life of a Family

An extraordinary case is presented. The father had been admitted to an emergency ward following stabbing by his first son. The son had become uncontrollable and used many substances, constantly and reduced family life to a battleground with his mother. The two older boys were adopted, the third was miraculously conceived. In about ten sessions, the family's story was told in dramatic ways. Over twelve years later, the boys have become fathers and the grandparents are doting.     

Assault on Self: Intimate Partner Abuse and the Contestation of Identity

The complexities of intimate partner abuse and violence have been studied from a range of theoretical, conceptual, and methodological perspectives. It is argued here that symbolic interactionist analyses offer specific and powerful insights into this particular interactional domain. This article is based on data generated by a topical life‐history case study of a well‐educated, middle‐class, middle‐aged man, whose wife subjected him to sustained unilateral violence and abuse, resulting in deleterious consequences for his health and well‐being. Data were gathered via a series of in‐depth interviews and a personal diary. The analysis draws on Goffman's conceptualization of “possessional territory” as one of the “territories of the self,” in order to examine the role of possessions in the interactional routines of intimate partner abuse.     

An Exploration of Family Violence Among the Homeless

Abstract

This research found a high incidence of family violence among homeless people. The most common form of violence was physical; the least common was sexual abuse. The data also reported a high percentage of violence among homeless people confronted with mental illness. The policy and practice implications for these findings are discussed.     

Multidimensional Family Therapy: A Science‐Based Treatment System

MDFT is a family‐based intervention for adolescent substance abuse and associated mental health and behavioural problems (Liddle, 2010). Integrative in several ways, MDFT uses an ecological or contextual conceptual framework to understand the developmental tasks of teens and their families. Research‐derived knowledge about risk and protective factors, and proximal causes, correlates and contributors to adolescent drug and related problems inform clinical thinking and interventions with every case. A multisystems approach, MDFT assesses and intervenes in four areas: (1) the adolescent as an individual and a member of a family and peer network; (2) the parent(s), both as individual adults and in his or her role as mother; father or caregiver; (3) the family environment and family relationships, as manifested in day‐to‐day family transactional patterns; and (4) extrafamilial sources of influence such as peers, school and juvenile justice. Interventions are made within and coordinated across domains. Progress in one area or with one person has implications for and use in others. Individual meetings with parent(s) and teen set the stage for family sessions, and family meetings may offer content and new outcomes that need to be brought to extrafamily meetings with juvenile justice or school personnel. MDFT was developed and tested as a treatment system rather than a one‐size‐fits‐all approach. A treatment system offers different versions of a clinical model that vary according to factors such as clinical sample characteristics (older versus younger adolescents, juvenile justice involved versus no involvement in juvenile justice systems), and treatment parameters (type of clinical setting and treatment dose).     

Adolescent Violence—Strategies,Outcomes and Dilemmas in Working with Young People and their Families

MATTERS is a program of Berry Street, and has been in existence since 1990. The service is funded to address parent/adolescent conflict and the service delivery model has developed over time in a direction which incorporates family therapy and conflict resolution techniques. Many families come to the service seeking assistance for problems regarding violence, and increasingly around a young person's violence to parents and other family members. In some instances, violence has been present over a long period and has become normalised within the family's experience. When working with families who present with problems of adolescent violence, the service aims to find a pathway for the young person/family to confront violent behaviour and move to a different position about the meaning of violence in their lives. This paper describes the team's approach to working with adolescent violence, utilising ideas from narrative family therapy and psychodynamic theory, and incorporating issues of power in society, culture and gender. Outcomes, dilemmas and future directions are also discussed.     

Generative systemic-constructionist psychotherapy in the face of crisis in the context of armed violence in colombia: Case of MM,Montes de María – Department of Sucre

This article aims to show a process of systemic-constructionist and generative therapy in the face of crisis situations experienced by MM. MM is a woman victim–survivor from the region of Los Montes de María in Colombia, a territory hard hit by armed violence between 1990 and 2008. Methodologically, the fragments presented are those that are repeated in three sessions. Psychotherapeutic work is a combination of dialogical and interactive resources, opportunities, and capacities that combine three kinds of time in MM's daily life. These are: first, the past of the violence; second, the present comprised of the presence of memories of violence, social and family interactions, together with psychiatric diagnoses; and third, the sense of a future based on the hope of reducing their suffering and taking action against the violence. Analysis and interpretation are hermeneutical constructions carried out throughout the psychotherapeutic process and in the midst of generative dialogues. On the one hand, the scientific and everyday knowledge that helps to process and transform the crisis is recognised. On the other hand, it shows a form of knowledge that distances itself from the parameters of science and positivist approaches. In conclusion, this article is an opportunity to question traditional positions within the field of mental health in the light of moments constructed with MM in the framework of systemic-constructionist therapy, seen as a relational space where generative contexts are built.     

Emotional Dysregulation: The Key to a Treatment Approach for Violent Mentally Ill Individuals

Prior research has suggested that psychopathy, substance abuse, and the presence of a personality disorder increase an individual's risk for violence toward others. Substantial clinical literature has established emotional dysregulation as a risk marker for violence toward self. It is hypothesized that emotional dysregulation may be an important component in a constellation of risk markers for violence toward others and may interact with psychopathy and substance abuse in individuals with personality disorders to enhance risk for violence. If these hypothesized relationships exist, it suggests that the development of an intervention approach which directly targets these factors may hold promise. A potential intervention approach based on dialectical behavioral therapy, with case illustrations, is provided.     

The Infrequency of Family Violence

We examined the frequency of domestic violence and verbal altercations relative to the level of domestic conflict using survey data from the United States and Korea. We found evidence that individuals are generally less likely to use violence during an altercation if the antagonist is a family member than if the antagonist is a stranger. People apparently have stronger inhibitions about hitting family members than about hitting strangers, and, as a result, domestic violence is infrequent relative to the level of domestic conflict. In addition, verbal altercations are more likely to occur in conflicts with partners and children than in conflicts involving strangers, suggesting that the relaxation of rules of politeness contributes to the expression of grievances and ultimately the use of violence in these relationships.     

Conflict,Power, and Violence in Families

Research on conflict, power, and violence in families in the 2000s developed a promising focus on the interconnections between types of violence and between the experience of violence and locations in larger structures of power and inequality. I examine research on poly‐victimization, typologies of violence, dyadic research, and links between violence and inequalities of gender, race, class, and sexual orientation. Additionally, this review evaluates research on the connections between violence in families and other arenas of family study, including teen pregnancy, marriage formation, cohabitation, and divorce. The review concludes with a discussion of studies showing declines in rates of abuse within families in the 2000s.     

Do Child Abuse and Interparental Violence Lead to Adulthood Family Violence?

The cycle of violence posits that victimized children grow up to victimize others. Three forms of the cycle have never been tested: whether exposure to physical victimization and interparental violence additively or interactively increase risk for adulthood (a) child abuse perpetration; (b) partner abuse perpetration; or (c) partner abuse victimization. These hypotheses were tested in a nationally representative data set (1985 National Family Violence Survey) comprising 6,002 participants. Dually exposed, compared to singly exposed, women had significantly increased risk for adulthood family violence. Frequency of family‐of‐origin violence predicted adulthood child and partner abuse through both main and interactive effects.     

The Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics: An Interview with Bruce Perry

In this interview with Bruce Perry, MD, PhD, Senior Fellow of The Child Trauma Academy, Laurie MacKinnon discusses with Dr Perry developmental trauma and the Neurosequential Model of Therapeutics, an approach to clinical problem solving that utilises a developmental lens and incorporates advances in neurobiological development. Dr Perry gives his perspective on the causal connection between childhood abuse and later psychiatric diagnosis, the child's contact with a violent parent post‐separation, the importance of interventions that address the organisation and functioning of lower parts of the brain and his perspective on the use and limitations of psychotropic medications, cognitive behaviour therapy and family therapy.     

大学生实施网络道德暴力的探讨

网络道德暴力在"道德、正义"的名义下,通过网络平台向特定对象发起大规模舆论攻击,甚至由网络平台发展到现实社会的围攻,以使对方受到道德惩罚或迫使对方改变自己的行为。网络道德暴力具有"暴力"的性质,扰乱了网络生活甚至是现实生活秩序,客观上妨害了良好社会道德风气的形成。大学生实施网络道德暴力既有内因也有外因。内因是言论自由的异化和群体动力,外因是社会情绪郁积和"匿名制服"效应。基于"共享共治"的基本精神,通过大学生网民、学校、家庭、社会的共同努力,携手行动是解决大学生网络道德暴力问题的主要方向。     

The Bouverie Information and Assessment Schema (B.I.A.S.)

The Bouverie information and Assessment Schema (B.I.A.S) has been designed to assist family therapists in the organization of case material. It is intended for use in the review of individual sessions, or of a whole therapy (in Assessment and Termination Summaries), and is thus suitable for case recording. It is specifically designed for use by family therapists taking a Systemic/Strategic approach to therapy. It is not a guide for interviewing in family therapy. A case example illustrates its use.     

Integrative Family Therapy for Child Behavioural Problems in a Parenting Support Agency

This paper describes family therapy for behavioural problems in a parenting support agency. It discusses the literature on the effectiveness of family therapy with child behaviour problems within a community support environment. The paper presents a detailed family case study, which is discussed from an integrative family therapy framework. Narrative therapy is used as an overarching framework for integrating systemic therapy and parenting skills to help a family with a mixed cultural Aboriginal and Australian background. This allows sessions that are meaningful for the family and encourages a connection to their own resources and to their community, besides creating a safe space for a dialogue that hears and values all voices.     

An Approach to Childhood Stealing with Evaluation of 45 Cases

Childhood stealing is a distressing problem for families and may have wider community costs since childhood stealers often become adult criminals: This paper describes a therapeutic ‘map’ that emphasises direct engagement of the child, along with his/her family, in regrading the child from ‘stealer’ to ‘honest person’. Analysis of therapy with 45 children revealed a high level of family engagement and initial behaviour change. Furthermore, a follow-up telephone call made 6–12 months after completion of therapy sessions revealed that 81% of the children had not been stealing at all or had substantially reduced rates of stealing.     

Johnson's Differentiation Theory: Is It Really Empirically Supported?

Michael Johnson's differentiation of “types” of domestic violence has had a significant impact on courts and providers, in part because of its claim to an empirical basis. Unfortunately, the label “situational couple violence” has already been used by judges and evaluators to minimize abuse claims in custody cases. Johnson's repeated assertion that SCV is the most common form of domestic violence reinforces the marginalizing of domestic violence. But what do his data actually show? Here Professor Meier takes a close look at the research Johnson relies on and finds that it fails to prove his thesis. Rather, the data suggest that Johnson has it exactly backward: Control-based abuse is probably far more common than “situational” domestic violence.     

Circular Questioning and Shifting Relationships

This article is a contribution to the necessary development of process evaluation in family therapy. A videotaped case, consisting of six sessions, is reviewed and the changes in the various family relationships are described. Attempts are made to look for correspondences between circular questioning in one of the sessions and shifts in relationships.     

A Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Substance‐Dependent Domestic Violence Offenders: An Integrated Substance Abuse‐Domestic Violence Treatment Approach (SADV)

The current study evaluates a therapy for substance‐dependent perpetrators of partner violence. Sixty‐three males arrested for partner violence within the past year were randomized to a cognitive behavioral substance abuse‐domestic violence (SADV; n = 29) or a drug counseling (DC; n = 34) condition. Seventy percent of offenders completed eight core sessions with no differences between SADV and DC conditions in the amount of substance or aggression at pretreatment. SADV participants had fewer cocaine‐positive toxicology screens and breathalyzer results during treatment, were less likely to engage in aggressive behavior proximal to a drinking episode, and reported fewer episodes of violence than DC participants at posttreatment follow‐up. SADV shows promise in decreasing addiction and partner violence among substance‐dependent male offenders.