The Good,the Bad and the Unhappy: The Cultural Meanings of Newspaper Reporting on Jackpot Winners

Accounts of jackpot winners and big gambling wins are common in Swedish newspapers. Analysis of over 2000 such newspaper articles reveals that their content is structured according to specific themes and cultural topics. Four such topics are identified: wealth as a test of morals and character, the social impact of wealth, the just and good world, and luck and the occult. Culturally structured narratives like these—which elaborate on mythological and moralistic schemes of good and evil, rewards and punishments, and which concern questions of human nature and social values—have a long history in folk tradition and in Christian moral teachings. Jackpot wins provide a discursive realm for moral and existential questions that, to some extent, fills a void left by the decline of traditional folklore and formal religion. Apparently, this discourse stimulates interest in games and constitutes one of the cultural roots of contemporary gambling.     

Integrating a Trauma Lens into a Family Therapy Framework: Ten Principles for Family Therapists

This paper aims to show how a trauma lens can be incorporated into existing family therapy practices, changing how therapists perceive presenting problems and therefore the issues and sites of intervention. After reviewing the family therapy literature concerning trauma and defining different types of trauma, the paper discusses how traumatic memories differ from ordinary memories. Ten principles for practice are described to guide therapists in integrating the trauma lens into their family therapy practice. Three case studies are used to illustrate these principles.     

Therapeutic Assessment with Children in Family Therapy

Therapeutic Assessment with Children (TA‐C) is a brief semi‐structured intervention in which psychological assessment is used to help families with children and adolescents to change. In this paper we introduce the TA‐C model, describe its semi‐structured format and exemplify how it can be applied by family therapists.     

Family Therapy for Child and Youth Mental Health: A Scoping Literature Review

Early intervention in childhood years is an important part of successful therapies for children and adolescents living with or at risk of mental illness. Family therapy acknowledges the role of family relationships, interactions, and family systems in child and youth mental health. To explore the effectiveness and delivery of family therapy in order to inform current family therapy practice in Australian public mental health services, a scoping literature review mapped key concepts of the past 11 years of family therapy research. Current gaps were noted within the following key concepts: family therapy settings and definitions, the influence of family factors on outcomes, transparency of intervention methods, and the training of family therapists. Further research could be undertaken to address current gaps in the literature, specifically: assessment and intervention processes; typical length of time for a series of family sessions; frequency of sessions; and theoretical foundations linked with most effective outcomes, as identified by clinicians, children, and their families. This research would provide a better understanding of best practice and evidence‐based family therapy practices that work for children and their families to inform family therapy practice in Australia and beyond. This scoping literature review identified that there is a noteworthy variation in the way brief family therapy is provided, both in terms of the duration and frequency of sessions, as well as the theoretical underpinnings employed. Further research is warranted to explore different service contexts and brief versions of family therapy delivery and the outcomes for the children and their families.     

When Baby Brings the Blues: Family Therapy and Postnatal Depression

Postnatal depression impacts on a significant number of women and their families. As a topic it is attracting much interest from researchers as we become clearer about its impact on the long‐term mental health of both women and their partners, as well as on the couple's relationship and their children's mental health. This article will provide a brief overview of postnatal depression and the current research associated with it, and consider the usefulness of systemic family therapy interventions. Examples of these are included along with a clinical vignette.     

A Family Perspective for Substance Abuse: Implications from the Literature

SUMMARY

This paper calls for researchers and treatment providers to increase their recognition of the role that family and family functioning has for understanding the incidence and impact of substance abuse. Substance abuse is identified as a family problem by exploring its occurrence within families as well as its impact on marital relationship, family violence, and child abuse and neglect. The impact of substance abuse on the roles of spouses and parents are examined, as is the impact of substance abuse on children at various developmental stages. The role of the family as participant in active substance abuse as well as a valuable treatment resource is also explored. Finally, the authors present recommendations for increasing the focus on family in substance abuse research.     

Biosocial Influences on the Family: A Decade Review

The past decade brought a remarkable increase in the number and quality of biosocial studies of family processes. The current review summarizes recent advances in biosocial family research by providing key exemplars of emerging research paradigms. Research in the past decade has substantiated the claim in the previous Decade Review ( Booth, Carver, & Granger, 2000 ) that bidirectional influences between all levels of analysis are paramount. There is an emerging consensus that integrating factors at multiple biological and social levels is highly informative. Because ignoring biological factors often will underestimate mediating or moderating mechanisms, the review provides recommendations for biosocial family research. We also highlight the need for researchers who understand complex family environments to lend their expertise to biosocial studies.     

Cognitive-Behavioral Family Therapy with a Family in High-Conflict Divorce: A Case Study

Children who live in families with high-conflict divorce situations are increasingly coming to the attention of clinicians. This paper explains the nature of the impasse of high-conflict divorce. It presents a brief theoretical overview of cognitive-behavioral family therapy as an effective approach to treatment for high-conflict divorce families. A case study that successfully utilized a cognitive-behavioral approach to family therapy is presented. Specific techniques such as parent training, communication and empathy skills, problem-solving skills, assertiveness training, role-modeling on the part of the therapist and application of the concept of reciprocal inhibition were included in the cognitive-behavioral family treatment. An N=1 research design is graphically illustrated for evaluation purposes.     

Differentiation of Self and the Process of Forgiveness: A Clinical Perspective for Couple and Family Therapy

In this article we explore the role of differentiation of self in facilitating forgiveness in the context of couple and family relationships. Differentiation is defined from the Bowen perspective as the ability to connect with others without being excessively emotionally reactive to the ebb and flow inherent in all significant relationships (being able to connect to others yet also being able to self‐regulate). Forgiveness is described as the releasing of an emotional injury via a complex psychological and relational process that is less an act of will than a discovery or possibility through understanding and empathy. Differentiation of self is related to emotional intelligence and empathy. The developmental and relational benefits of such are illustrated and discussed. A rationale for viewing differentiation and forgiveness in a contextual, historical, and relational attachment paradigm is suggested. Relevant clinical cases illustrate the dynamics of differentiation and forgiveness as discovery in the context of an understanding and empathic relational environment.     

Explaining Family Change and Variation: Challenges for Family Demographers

Twenty years ago, the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) issued a request for proposals that resulted in the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), a unique survey valuable to a wide range of family scholars. This paper describes the efforts of an interdisciplinary group of family demographers to build on the progress enabled by the NSFH and many other theoretical and methodological innovations. Our work, also supported by NICHD, will develop plans for research and data collection to address the central question of what causes family change and variation. We outline the group's initial assessments of orienting frameworks, key aspects of family life to study, and theoretical and methodological challenges for research on family change. Finally, we invite family scholars to follow our progress and to help develop this shared public good.     

Teaching and Learning Theory For Family Therapy Practice: On The Art and Craft of Balancing

As with all practice knowledges, family therapy theory sits in a complicated relationship to practice. This paper offers a set of reflections exploring challenges of teaching and learning theory for, and about, practice in family therapy. The importance of teaching particular frameworks of practice sits in tension and balance with the importance of the common factors of therapeutic change, and the inseparability of the use of self and the use of particular practice knowledge. Passion and commitment to particular ways of working is held in balance with the need for flexibility and the freedom to think independently. Discipline and focus is balanced with creativity and the room for integration. A number of balancing practices are identified in the art and craft of teaching, and the contextual issue of power and vulnerability in the teaching and learning relationship is acknowledged. Finally, the three ‘Rs’ in teaching and learning family therapy practice theory are drawn out – reflection, the recursiveness of theory and practice, and the reflexivity of self in relation to context and knowledge.     

Marriage matters for Black middle-class women: A review of Black American marriages,work, and family life

It is well documented that Black women tend to experience lower marriage participation than non-Black women because of the marriage squeeze, including an unequal sex-ratio within age cohorts, and the increase in economic precarity among Black men. The experience of the marriage squeeze impacts poor, and college educated Black women, but this is only one viewpoint. Drawing on work and family research at the intersection of racial identity, gender, and class, I argue that marriage provides Black middle-class women access to privileges and resources like safety and kin networks within a U.S. nation-state constrained by racism and sexism. By relying on marriage, Black middle-class women can realize personal and familial desires, as well as encounter patriarchal oppression. I end this review with a discussion on future directions for research in this area, and a discussion on imagined futures for Black women that incorporates self-love and self-actualization.     

The Discursive Performance of the Alliance in Family Therapy: A Conversation Analytic Perspective

Following the ‘discursive’ turn in family therapy, the attention of practitioners shifted towards understanding how culture and language shape meaning‐making in therapy. In this article, we demonstrate how conversation analysis (CA) can be used to examine the processes and outcomes of systemic/constructionist practice. We used CA to study collaborative interactions of a renowned constructionist therapist Karl Tomm and one client‐family. Viewing collaboration as a pivotal aspect of the therapeutic alliance, we demonstrate how the ‘split’ within‐system alliances were developed and sustained in the course of therapy and how they were discursively transformed into ‘intact’ alliances. The therapist's efforts to align with perspectives of family members (and subsystems) seemed pivotal in this process.     

The Relationship Between Family Mealtime Interactions and Eating Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence: A Systematic Review

During childhood and adolescence, family meal frequency has been found to have an inverse relationship with disordered eating behaviour. Also, family interactional patterns differ in families where there is a child with and without an eating disorder. This paper examines the relationship between family mealtime interactions during childhood and adolescence and eating disorder behaviour through a systematic review of the literature. The method was an asystematic electronic search of PsycInfo, Medline and Web of Knowledge undertaken in April 2012. Ten studies demonstrated a significant relationship between family mealtime interactions and disordered eating behaviour. Families where there is a child with an eating disorder display less positive interactions during mealtimes. While the findings can be linked to family based treatment for anorexia nervosa there is a need for prospective research in this area.     

Confronting Anxiety in Couple and Family Therapy Supervision: A Developmental Supervisory Model Based on Attachment Theory

Referencing relevant supervisory literature and attachment theory, this article presents a developmental couple and family therapy supervisory model that emphasises the efficacy of the supervisory relationship. Issues concerning anxiety, cognition and learning theory are addressed and phases in the supervisory process are identified and described. Cognitive, emotional and social development are linked to attachment theory and discussed in the supervisory context.