Exploring trends: tracking evaluations data over several months by therapists and parents of children with cerebral palsy

A pilot study was conducted at the outpatient rehabilitation unit of a children's hospital to explore the overall performance trends of children in daily life as perceived by their parents, compared to the evaluations of therapists. A performance goal was set for each child by his/her therapist and parent at an initial consultation. Over a six-month period, data were collected from the parents of children with cerebral palsy (N = 53), and therapists assessed children at each therapy session as well. The evaluations of both parents and therapists showed statistically significant upward trends in performance over several months.     

Family Mediation: A Guide for Family Therapists

Family therapists often see separating parents who need to agree on co‐parenting arrangements. This article provides a guide to current research and practice in family mediation. The limited available research suggests mediation is a useful approach for some separated parents and their children, but often is not successful with highly conflicted parents, parents with mental health problems, parents struggling to accept the separation from their partner, or parents with unrealistic co‐parenting expectations. We analyse ways in which mediation might be enhanced, and discuss the potential roles of family therapists to support separating families to negotiate positive co‐parenting.     

Working with ‘The Welfare’ in Child-at-Risk Cases

This paper, the second in a series concerned with family therapy in cases involving children at risk of abuse, focuses on how to establish a workable relationship between therapists and child protection professionals and child protection professionals and parents. After overviewing the difficulties faced by therapists in working with ‘the Welfare', we propose guidelines to overcoming common obstacles to successful case management, concluding that therapy often fails when therapists attempt to deal with intrafamilial issues long before external relationships are resolved.     

Deaf Families’ Unique Experiences and Obstacles

ABSTRACT

This article focuses on deaf children of deaf parents who grew up using American Sign Language (ASL) in deaf culture. Deaf children of deaf parents described their unique experiences of struggling with obstacles, including quality of education, low expectations from professionals, unwanted sympathy, mental health therapists’ lack of cultural competency, and not being asked for valuable perspectives or advice. The advice from deaf children of deaf parents is included in the article. By bringing greater attention to this population, mental health, school, and other professionals can increase their awareness of deaf families’ unique needs in their work environment.     

CHILDREN WHO SUE PARENTS: A NEW FORM OF FAMILY HOMICIDE?

In the past two decades, the legal doctrines of intrapousal and interfamily immunity have been weakened or stricken in many states. Spouses may now testify against each other and children may now sue parents. This article was written ot begin to familiarize family therapists with the complex psycho-legal issues inmvolved in these cases. It is suggested that this is a cutting edge arena of grave concern, as intrafamily lawsuits exacerbate existing contention and cutoffs in families—something many family therapists seek to prevent or reverse. This paper is predicated on the belief that therapists should be knowledgeable about the legal traditions and decisions that impinge on our patients' lives. First, a brief history of the legal origins about intrafamilial lawsuits is provided. Next, six categories of lawsuits are delineated. What becomes evident is that when adult children sue parents, the conflicts an schisms in the family are already fairly extreme and that, often, the lawsuit makes the rift irreparable. Perhaps family lawsuits constitute a less violent and slower form of family destruction that homicide.     

The Child's View of Death

This paper presents an overview of current theory related to the way in which children learn to cope with death. Additionally, the paper discusses ways in which therapists and parents might help children learn to deal more effectively with death. The paper suggests that an inability to cope effectively with death may have significant negative impact on the child's emotional life.     

Factors Influencing the Degree and Pattern of Parental Involvement in Play Therapy for Sexually Abused Children

Although much has been written about the role of therapists in children's recovery from child sexual abuse, relatively little attention has been paid to the role of nonoffending parents. This study investigated the work of a team of therapists who sometimes included such parents in therapy sessions with children. The study sought to understand what factors were influencing the degree and pattern of parental involvement and to understand what effect these patterns of parental involvement were having on the process and outcomes of therapy. The study successfully identified a range of factors influencing the patterns of parental involvement, but more research will be needed to understand the effect on outcomes.     

The Social Experiences of Children with Disability and the Influence of Environment: a framework for intervention

This paper explores the influence of environment on the quality of social experiences of children with disability in Sydney, Australia. The social experiences of four children with fragile X syndrome were described using ethnographic methods that included participant observation at 'special' and regular schools and in-depth interviews with parents, teachers and occupational therapists. An environmental perspective is presented here to complement existing individualist perspectives that address the social problems faced by children with disability. The environmental perspective involves (i) perceptions of disability, (ii) the child's family (relations, advocacy, encouragement, education, identity creation, dependence and separation), and (iii) the child's school (physical environment, other children, principal, teachers, therapists, policy and ethos). The paper serves as a basic framework to be adapted in further research and practice into the environmental influence of children's social experiences.     

Assertive training for low-income black parents

An assertive training program for parents is described, which was implemented in the Detroit Public Schools Region 7 by therapists from the Wayne State University Psychology Clinic. Fifty-nine parents of preschool age children were trained for 5 consecutive weeks and at one follow-up session. The major goals of the program were to increase the self-esteem of family members and to promote a happier atmosphere in the home. Parents were enthusiastic about this approach and stated that the discussions helped them feel more confident and therefore they were able to handle specific problems with their children more effectively.This project was supported, in part, by a grant from the McGregor, Fund and the Eloise and Richard Webber Foundation.     

Lesbian Parenting: Insiders' Voices

Lesbian parenting has entered the public arena over recent years via debates regarding access to fertility services and adoption, legal recognition of same‐sex parents and children's rights (McNair, 2002). Research in the area has been published for over 20 years, with an increasing shift towards delineating diversity rather than proving the legitimacy of these families. The ANZJFT — the major mouthpiece for Australian family therapists — has made curiously little contribution to the literature on lesbian parenting. The lack of discussion leaves trainees and family therapists largely ignorant about the lived experience of lesbian family life. This paper goes some way to filling this gap. We present data gathered from 151 Australian lesbian parents who answered questions about their own and their families' perceived strengths. Despite the constraints and challenges of living within a heteronormative and homophobic society and dealing with discrimination and legal, political and social non‐legitimation, this group of lesbian parents expressed great pride in raising well‐adjusted and happy children. They also described their families as thoughtfully planned, proud, accepting and celebratory of diversity and difference, flexible in gender roles, and as having interesting, supportive, extended kinship networks that included a wide range of positive role models for their children.     

Twenty american families' stories of adaptation: adoption of children from Russian and Romanian institutions

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how 20 families have adapted after adopting children between the ages of 3 and 5 years from eastern European institutions. The researcher visited a Romanian orphanage and then interviewed 20 families about their experiences with the adoption process and with family adaptation postadoption. Several themes emerged from the parents' stories regarding their search for support and resources to aid in parenting their children. Family therapists who are interested in working with families who adopt internationally from institutional settings can learn from the stories of parents.     

Postmodern‐oriented practices and patient‐focused research: possibilities and hazards

In this article two streams of thought within family therapy, one representing a traditional research focus and the other postmodern oriented practices are brought together. A qualitative study is described that used standardised measures to monitor therapeutic practice and provide feedback on process and outcome to therapists. The opportunities and pitfalls concerning this approach are discussed and illustrated. The use of measures as conversational tools increases and expands opportunities for collaboration between children, parents and their therapists. However, in organisations these measures risk becoming tools of competition instead of conversation, which is helped when managers take responsibility for implementing and supporting a culture of feedback.     

Raising the Stakes in Child-at-Risk Cases Eliciting and Maintaining Parents' Motivation

This paper, the third in a series concerned with family therapy in cases involving children at risk of abuse, describes an approach to maximising parents' interest and commitment to therapy. After overviewing the difficulties faced by therapists in working with parents who are notorious for their ‘resistance’, we provide guidelines for minimising the negative consequences of notification and for constructing therapeutic leverage in order to elicit and maintain parents' motivation throughout the course of therapy.     

The utilisation of the bridging technique during therapy to overcome contact-making barriers in adolescents

This article focuses on the utilisation of a bridging technique to overcome contact-making barriers in adolescents. Interruptions or contact boundary disturbances block contact making, as it becomes fixed and prevents the natural and healthy process of organismic self-regulation. A combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches were followed and a single system experimental design, A–B–A–A, was applied in the original study. Qualitative data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews with parents and teachers, and therapeutic intervention with adolescents. Quantitative data were collected from pre- post- and follow-up-intervention assessments, during which the bridging technique was utilised. Fourteen adolescent participants were selected by school teachers and therapists from three different schools, with their parents and teachers: a mainstream school for high-functioning children, a school for children with learning disabilities and a school for children with intellectual disabilities. These adolescents presented behavioural symptoms: aggression, self-mutilation, personal emotional symptoms: depression, suicidal tendencies, as well as contact-making disturbances. The findings indicated that the bridging technique shows potential in working with adolescents to overcome contact-making barriers.     

When Worlds Collide: Young People,Drugs and ‘Responsible Adulthood’

Young people's behaviours which are problematic to parents and therapists are also found in the wider adult community. Here these behaviours are often accepted as normal and legitimate, and as such they may occur even in the lives of these same parents and therapists. This paper considers some of the issues this raises in working with young people and their families.     

Opioid Use Disorder,Attachment, and Parenting: Key Concerns for Practitioners

In the United States, the current epidemic of opioid use disorders impacts many parents and their children. Historically, interventions for parents with substance use disorders have focused on two separate areas, achieving and maintaining abstinence and learning parenting skills. These interventions do not address the parent/child relationship, and the impact of parental opioid use disorder on attachment. Insecure attachment, particularly disorganized attachment, negatively affects the child’s development and safety. Attachment should always be considered when doing a safety assessment or planning an intervention for parents with opioid use disorders. This conceptual paper describes the impact of parental opioid use on attachment across the developmental span of childhood, highlighting research about opioid use disorder, parenting, and attachment which is relevant for practitioners working with parents with opioid use disorders, as child protection workers, substance abuse counselors, or therapists. Identification, attachment assessment tools, and empirical research on attachment-based interventions are discussed.     

Intergenerational Patterns of Maltreatment in Families at Risk for Foster Care

Few qualitative studies have investigated the process of parental efforts to break intergenerational patterns of maltreatment. A grounded theory approach was used to understand how 24 parents who had been identified by CPS as being at‐risk of having their children removed from their homes due to allegations of abuse and/or neglect, perceived and connected their own experiences of childhood abuse in light of their experiences as alleged perpetrators of child maltreatment. Three major categories were identified: patterns, beliefs, and behaviors. A majority of the parents stated that they recognized intergenerational patterns, most expressed that they wanted to be different from their own parents, yet many described parenting actions that were “destructive.” We suggest that it is the interrelationship amongst patterns, beliefs, and behaviors that may offer opportunities for parents and therapists to enact change.