Conversational evidence in therapeutic dialogue

Family therapists' participation in therapeutic dialogue with clients is typically informed by evidence of how such dialogue is developing. In this article, we propose that conversational evidence, the kind that can be empirically analyzed using discourse analyses, be considered a contribution to widening psychotherapy's evidence base. After some preliminaries about what we mean by conversational evidence, we provide a genealogy of evaluative practice in psychotherapy, and examine qualitative evaluation methods for their theoretical compatibilities with social constructionist approaches to family therapy. We then move on to examine the notion of accomplishment in therapeutic dialogue given how such accomplishments can be evaluated using conversation analysis. We conclude by considering a number of research and pedagogical implications we associate with conversational evidence.     

Exploring Cultural Issues for Constellation Work in South Africa

Constellation work is a therapeutic and counselling intervention recognised in Germany and other European countries since the 1970s. Various scientists and practitioners have contributed to its theoretical and practical development, and research on the subject has increased over the past few years. However culture in constellation work has received little research attention and has not been empirically studied in African contexts. The aim of this article is to reflect on culture and its influence on constellation work in multicultural, post‐apartheid South Africa. An empirical qualitative research approach within the phenomenological paradigm was adopted. Six constellation facilitators were interviewed with in‐depth and field notes taken during participative observations of constellation workshops. The findings provide insight into culture in constellation work in the South African context. Theoretical and practical recommendations for scientists and therapy practitioners working with systemic interventions like constellation work are provided.     

Relationship education research: current status and future directions

The overarching aim of this article is to review the research on relationship education programs and approaches that has been published or accepted for publication since the last review article in 2003. This article provides a critical overview of the relationship education field and sets an agenda for research and practice for the next decade. A theme weaved throughout the article is the ways in which relationship education is similar and different from couples therapy, and we conclude that there can be a synergistic, healthy marriage between the two. We then provide recommendations for future directions for research in the relationship education field. Finally, the coauthors comment on our experiences in both the relationship education field and the couples therapy field as both researchers and interventionists.     

Child welfare workers and social justice: Mending the disconnect

While professional social workers are clearly obligated to pursue social justice, controversies abound surrounding what that means in theory and practice. Perhaps nowhere are the paradoxes inherent in practice for social justice seen in sharper contrast than in the field of child welfare. Intended to protect the rights of children, child welfare systems themselves have been characterized as instruments of oppression. This article hopes to enrich that discourse through an examination of how these issues are conceptualized and acted upon by front-line child welfare social workers. Through in-depth interviews with 25 child welfare workers, and 3 focus groups, in two Canadian provinces, and employing grounded theory strategies for data collection and analysis, we have explored understandings of the social justice mandate and how it is expressed in practice. Participants in this study conceptualized social justice in terms of both wider societal goals of fairness and equality, and of the quality of interactions and relationships between social workers and those with whom they work; conceptual emphasis on one or the other of these we found to be associated with differences in practice. We reflect on the implications of each of these emphases for effectiveness in advancing social justice aims in the child welfare context, and make recommendations regarding a grounding for educators and practitioners in theoretical orientations that includes attention to the linkages between macro and micro opportunities to advance social justice.     

Grasping the Nettle: Integrating Learning and Practice Revisited and Re‐imagined

This paper reports on findings from a practice audit and literature review into Integration of Learning for Practice, conducted in Scotland between November 2003 and February 2004. Findings from the practice audit suggest that although the integration of learning is one of the key aspirations of social work education, and there are many different approaches currently in use which attempt to enhance learning integration, students, practitioners, service users and social work lecturers all agree that more needs to be done in this area. The review of literature indicates some ways in which this might be taken forward. The paper concludes that for integration of learning for practice to succeed, we need a re‐imagining of the traditional boundaries between field and classroom, and practice teacher and social work academic.     

Involving Services Users in Social Work Training on the Reality of Family Poverty: A Case Study of a Collaborative Project

In the last five years there has been an increased drive to include the perspectives and contributions of service users in social work education in the United Kingdom. In this paper we discuss the experience of one project that attempted to bring together service users, academics and practitioners to jointly develop and deliver a module that sought to examine the perspectives of families living in poverty who were in receipt of children and families social work services. Through doing this it was hoped that it would be possible to raise practitioners’ awareness of how poverty impacts on parenting and how they could develop an approach that was non‐punitive and genuinely supportive. The paper starts by exploring the context of service user involvement in social work education and then describes the development and process of this collaborative project. The paper concludes with recommendations for both projects seeking to engage service users in empowering and meaningful ways, as well as social work practice within an anti‐oppressive framework.     

Medical Family Therapists in Action: Embracing Multiple Roles

Medical family therapy (MedFT) is a growing area of interest within the field of marriage and family therapy. Its practice necessitates a shift from conventional family therapy practices to include diverse ways of providing care. Literature highlights approaches for patients with specific illnesses and for particular healthcare contexts. Less is understood about frameworks for treating patients with different illnesses across settings. Contributing to the growing discourse surrounding MedFT, we present a role‐based practice framework that identifies six consistent roles, Therapist, Brief Interventionist, Health Coach, Patient Advocate, Consultant to Health Professionals, and Trainer specific tasks associated with each. We describe the skills needed to perform each role and describe how we move fluidly between roles to provide comprehensive care.     

A Postmodern Turn for Social Media Research: Theory and Research Directions for Public Relations Scholarship

The public relations literature on social media has focused primarily on how social media platforms can be leveraged to the advantage of organizations for relationship building and so-called dialogue with publics. Yet most research has positioned relationships in social media merely as opportunities for information exchange, perpetuating models of public relations grounded in systems theory that ignore power imbalances. Consequently, this article offers insights from postmodernist theories to first deconstruct existing research and then offer suggestions for future social media scholarship. The article argues that social media scholars have privileged dominant rational models of social engagement. Dissensus and disorder, according to Lyotard, may be as legitimate and more liberatory states of discourse for marginalized publics. Postmodern theories of language games and differential consciousness are also positioned as ways in which social media theory and practice may be advanced. The article thus complicates how relationships are theorized in contemporary scholarship and challenges both scholars and practitioners to rethink approaches to social media practice through a postmodern lens.     

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     

Bridging the Gaps: An Interdependent Model for Educating Accountable Practitioners

Abstract

This article presents an Interdependent Model that integrates field instruction with the clinical and research curricula to educate students to become accountable practitioners. It describes the application of this model in teaching single-system evaluation to social work students with support from faculty, field advisers, and agency practitioners who provide field supervision. The merits of using this model as compared to other more common, less comprehensive approaches to social work education are examined. Issues relating to the implementation of the Interdependent Model are also discussed.     

Family Therapy in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Practice: Integrating Family Therapy in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Practice: An Ethic of Hospitality

This article integrates family therapy in contemporary child and adolescent mental health services as an evidence‐based practice. An integrative practice model is proposed where contextual approaches like systemic and narrative therapy complement and enrich individual problem‐focused models such as biological psychiatry and cognitive therapy. This is based on an ethic of hospitality towards all therapy discourses and the following best practice guideline: ‘To make optimum space for a systemic and narrative understanding contributes to evidence‐based practice in a contemporary mental health service.’ After discussing some dilemmas of integrative practice, I illustrate the therapeutic process by a detailed example of integrative family therapy with a depressed suicidal adolescent.     

Integrative Family Therapy With Childhood Chronic Illness: An Ethics of Practice

A challenge for contemporary family therapists is negotiating differences between modern and postmodern frameworks in the practice context. Modernists espouse a systemic metaphor; use evidence‐based and interventive approaches, including strategic, structural‐ or solution‐focused techniques, and believe in the therapist's knowledge, expertise and power to influence individuals or families to change. On the other hand, postmodernists follow a social constructionist, dialogical or narrative paradigm, which identifies the main ingredient of therapy as language, conversation, understanding and the therapist's ‘not knowing’ stance in eliciting a person's expertise and story Yet many practitioners adopt a middle way between these paradigm polarities, one that is less theory‐driven and more pragmatic, flexible, integrative and practice‐based. This is consistent with evidence‐based practice and research demonstrating common factors across all therapies. The value of preserving systemic thinking in family therapy is recognised while reaching forward to a postmodern social constructionist and dialogical approach. The article describes this integrative stance in family therapy as paramodern based on an ethics of practice. This is illustrated by a detailed case study of integrative family therapy, which addresses anxiety, anger and sleeping issues associated with a chronic childhood illness called Perthe's disease.     

The Divide Between “Evidenced‐Based” Approaches and Practitioners of Traditional Theories of Family Therapy

Evidenced‐based approaches continue to grow in the field of family therapy. However, practicing family therapists do not always embrace these approaches. In this article, we explore factors contributing to practitioners' concerns with evidence‐based treatments and suggest a broader, more clinically palatable view of evidenced‐based treatment. We also suggest how family therapy researchers, practitioners, and educators might begin to close the researcher–clinician divide in the best interest of all concerned.     

Video Game Use as a Tool for Assessing and Intervening with Identity Formation and Social Development in Family Therapy

Because video games are becoming such an integral part of our culture, modern family therapists are more likely than ever to encounter families with members who play them. It is easy to overlook video game use in terms of its potential as a therapeutic tool, particularly if a therapist possesses only limited knowledge of the medium. Using existing literature and my experience as a lifelong gamer, I provide family therapists with a background of the major video game genres and explain how video games can aid in the assessment of factors such as identity formation and social development. I also provide a systemic case example, recommendations for practice, and a table for quick reference to highlight potential videogame‐based family therapy interventions.     

Disciplining “Girl Talk”

ABSTRACT

Although empowerment is frequently invoked in social work discourse, it is nevertheless a complicated and contested practice method. A critical minority of social work theorists and practitioners point to the paradox of empowerment practice that reifies power differences and infringes upon client self-determination (Gruber & Trickett, 1987; Hartman, 1992; Pease, 2002; Simon, 1990). Despite the acuity of this critique, it has neither fully penetrated the discourse of social work practice nor been employed in close analyses of empowerment interventions. In order to address this gap, we conducted an ethnographic study of a feminist empowerment program for young adolescent girls. Our findings suggest that despite some evidence of success, there were also noteworthy instances in which program staff subverted the goal of empowering participants' voices and instead disciplined girls' talk along particular discursive lines. This study explores these practices and discourses and based on this illustration, calls for incorporation of critical reflection into empowerment-based social work practice.     

Anti-oppressive Practice in Mental Health

This article identifies the challenges to incorporating an anti-oppressive practice approach in the field of mental health, which has traditionally utilized a discourse and perspectives of a bio-medical model. Schools of Social Work often teach anti-oppressive and social justice approaches which make it difficult for students to link theory and practice in fields such as mental health. In this article, seven principles of practice are presented as a framework for working with people with disabling conditions of mental health. Specific strategies for implementing these principles are presented.     

Science as a Strategy for Social Work

For more than one hundred years, various forms of science have been promoted to boost social work’s status as a profession. Evidence-based practice and talk about the science of social work are only the most recent manifestations of this pattern. Counter to this trend, this article argues that the latest upsurge of interest in scientific social work is no more likely than any of its predecessors to address the problems of the profession. Beginning with a linguistic analysis of the words science and scientific as positive signifiers, the article traces social work’s long history of science talk as a means of reassuring funding agencies and bolstering the profession’s status. Drawing on a critique of this discourse as the latest example of abstracted empiricism, it then contends that while scientific social work can only rarely capture what occurs in the field, its attempt to do so actually undercuts practitioners’ professional judgment and discretion. Last, after rejecting science talk as counterproductive, the article concludes with recommendations for an alternative strategy that might better position social work to reconcile its advocacy of social justice with its concerns about its professional status.     

REVISITING THE AGENT OF SOCIAL CONTROL ROLE: IMPLICATIONS FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT

The agent of social control role and its responsibilities and goals provide an important function in social work practice. Workers in varied positions often combine this role with others that define the profession. Yet in the not too distant past, a debate arose as to whether this role, focusing on promoting and protecting the general welfare of society, could be congruent with also fostering the improved functioning and self‐determination of individual clients. Periodically, this topic emerges to challenge the appropriateness of these dual activities in satisfactorily and equitably serving both constituents.

Within the field of substance abuse, court‐mandated referrals have established a need for practitioners to perform social control tasks to monitor and report clients' compliance with and progress in treatment. This has created a conflict for many who consider their practice to be client‐centered. This article will explore the dilemmas experienced in attempting to simultaneously carry out both roles and the guidance provided from the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. In addition, proposed strategies to reduce the duality of difficulties will be summarized.     

History of Research on Process Relevant to Clinical Social Work

Case study research methods and holistic approaches have not appeared in the social work literature for at least two decades due to debate over what constitutes legitimate science. This debate has contributed to alienation of the work of the researcher and the day-to-day practice of the practitioner. Existing intellectual frameworks and measuring tools for understanding clients’ reactions and behaviors through case study research methods can help close the gap between researcher and practitioner. The purpose of this article is to provide a historical review highlighting certain tensions in the field of social work and to provide the foundation for a discussion of the contemporary state of process research—whereby new theory and methods from the natural sciences tender means for the field to pick up where previous process researchers have left off. The article concludes with recommendations for future work and anticipates novel and useful methods for process research.