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.     

The Relationship Of Family Theory To Family Therapy*

This paper deals with the knowledge and thinking of the therapist, who is the link between theory and therapy. Based on the self-analysis of a single family consultation interview, the various theories employed and the decision points are described. It is suggested that therapists can espouse many theories or single ones, but are always confronted with difficult decisions. Some features of the field of family therapy which foster an overevaluation of science and certitude are discussed.     

Goals of Family Therapy*

A review of family therapy goals is presented and discussed. Therapy goals are divided into two major categories: 1) Specific Goals for Specific Families; and 2) General Goals. The latter category is further divided into goals having to do with family interaction and those related to symptoms and character traits of individual family members. Familial and individual goals are discussed in relation to the concept of interrelated, hierarchically arranged systems.     

Training Issues in Family Therapy*

Group versus individual supervision, the family therapy training model, videotape as a training method, and training paraprofessionals in a traditional academic setting are discussed from the authors' experience in conducting a family therapy training program. Editor.     

Contemporary Concerns in Family Therapy*

The literature indicates that recent clinical concerns concentrate on certain problem areas, while neglecting others. Theory building is slow; agreement on definition, indications, selection, evaluation, training programs, and a unifying conceptual schema is still lacking. Intervention and outcome evaluation remain insufficient. A need for broadness, flexibility, and avoidance of dogmatization is underlined. Resistance to a family and community intervention model continues. It is argued that strength rather than pathology needs emphasis. Some strategies to develop family therapy further are suggested and recommendations made to overcome outlined obstacles.     

Family Therapy Training in Israel*

In Israel the difficulties met with in training social workers in family therapy arise from inherent resistance to change in social and other professional agencies and from insufficient experience in the methodology of training. The family in Israel—a developing country—is undergoing wide-reaching social and cultural changes, which make for additional difficulty in using training models developed in other countries. Nevertheless, graduates of the family therapy program of the Institute for Training and Continued Education of Social Workers in Tel-Aviv, Israel, have shown substantial improvement in several areas of working with problem families.     

Family Therapy in France: An Australian Perspective

This article is an exploration of family therapy in France by an Australian social worker and family therapist. It also reports on the 2010 European Family Therapy Conference and includes an interview with Dr Mony Elkaïm that provides an overview of his work. All this is discussed in terms of its relevance for family therapists in Australia. It is followed by a brief response from Dr Elkaïm.     

Alcoholics Anonymous and Family Therapy*

Alcoholism affects the family of the alcoholic as well as the individual problem drinker. Change in drinking behavior is often brought about by change in the alcoholic's family members. There has been a natural evolution in the alcoholism field of self-help groups for mates and children of alcoholics. This development has paralleled the recent growth and development of family therapy as a major mode of psychotherapeutic intervention. Yet, crossfertilization of ideas and intervention strategies between the two fields has been slow in occurring. Arguments over whether one uses family therapy or A.A. and Al-Anon persist. This paper focuses on ways in which family therapy and the A.A. self-help groups add to, rather than detract from, one another. A note of caution about the misuse of family therapy when alcoholism is present is also provided.¹     

Family Therapy and Lithium Deficiency*

Lithium carbonate's usefulness in relieving the more dramatic symptoms of bipolar-affective disorder can obscure the family systems components of this illness. A compromised form of family therapy results which may stabilize the marriage but cause troubles for the larger family system. This paper offers a partial modus operandi for keeping family therapy systems oriented and avoiding the infantilization of the identified patient which occurs when the importance of purely medical treatment is overplayed.     

A Family Therapy Approach to Alcoholism*

Data accumulated from recent studies strongly suggest that family therapy is a promising method of treatment for alcoholism. In this paper a comprehensive treatment approach is proposed, based on known characteristics of alcoholic family systems and the author's clinical experiences in working with families of alcoholics. Specific strategies are described that can enhance treatment success by reducing resistances and maximizing changes in dysfunctional family interaction patterns. The relationship between the spouses is such as to perpetuate the need for alcohol. The major focus in therapy therefore is on understanding and changing the marital relationship.     

Family Therapy by a Husband-Wife Team*

Marital and family therapy has traditionally been carried out by a solo therapist or colleaguel co-therapists. Theoretical and clinical advantages and potential difficulties of a husband-wife team will be discussed and comparisons made to the colleaguel co-therapy model. Phases in the development of a husband-wife therapy team and illustrative clinical vignettes will be presented.     

Family Therapy and the Alienation Syndrome*

This paper reviews the increasing separation of the contemporary family from the community in terms of the sociological concept of alienation. It proposes that there is compelling evidence that the isolation of the nuclear family exerts a pathological influence on the mental health of families and of individual family members; that family therapists have paid minimal attention to the isolation in their zeal to develop effective techniques for altering intra-familial processes; and that the family therapy movement has the potential for exerting a significant corrective impact on the social forces which further the isolation of contemporary families.     

A Miracle Metaphor for Family Therapy*

This paper is a chronicle of miracle narratives in family therapy. It suggests that change is a manifold and often comes unexpectedly from life, which places it outside the control of the theory and technology of family therapy. A miracle is defined not in supernatural language, so much as a co-incidence of events that fall together' to form a narrative for change. As poetic metaphor, miracles evoke in the family therapist an aesthetics of wonder and a ‘holy curiosity’. The miracle metaphor is illustrated by several examples from family therapy practice, and is discussed in relation to recent deconstructive theory.     

On the Reification of Systems in Family Therapy*

All theories of Psychotherapy may be viewed as metaphors, each of which draws attention to particular aspects of human personality, behaviour and the behaviour change process. As such they are partly reflections of their own philosophic assumptions rather than absolute representations of reality. Yet the disciples of each school tend to internalize its model and act as if its assumptions were reality. Symptomatic of such reification, systems oriented and individually oriented therapists often appear to inhabit different and mutually incompatible worlds. This paper a) discusses the limiting effects of reification; b) describes the logical and practical shortcomings of being shackled to either frame of reference; c) argues for the therapeutic benefit of bringing both perspectives to bear simultaneously; d) outlines five principles of psychotherapeutic change which are independent of any one therapeutic metaphor.     

Family Context Therapy: A Model for Family Change*

Starting where family group therapy fails, this article breaks new territory in family context therapy. Consolidating the past 14 years of his work, Dr. Bell sets forth a conceptual program and methods to meet problems that earlier forms of family therapy could not reach. Here he provides a model drawn from studies, theories, and personal experience of organizational patterns, interrelations, and change among community institutions that provide settings for family functioning. His new methods are designed to modify the family environment so as to solve family problems and promote beneficial family growth—a framework that may bring together a broad variety of existing family development approaches.     

The Age of Accountability:* The Next Phase for Family Therapy

Family therapy is in a transition phase from its initial period of growth and expansion on theory and techniques to a stage of evaluation and empirical research. In this phase termed here the age of accountability, the field is being called to account for itself by various groups of interested persons. This paper examines the specific groups who are seeking information and discusses the kind of questions they are directly asking. Failure to acknowledge this next step in the development of family therapy could have serious implications.