Dialogues of Diversity in Therapy: A Virtual Symposium

Therapists from Australia, New Zealand, the US, Germany and the UK discuss the relationship between systemic and narrative therapy.     

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.     

Self-determination within Australian school transition programmes for students with a disability

The concept of self-determination has gained prominence over recent years in parallel with the recognition of the rights of people with a disability. Services are being pressured to make radical changes to the restrictive philosophies and practices of the past. This paper reviews seven Australian transition programmes for young people with disabilities as they moved from school to adult options. It examines the extent to which self-determination principles are evident and whether they led to a wider range of opportunities and a reshaping of the service system. The studies showed that participation in decision-making by young people and their families resulted in increased service responsiveness and greater achievement of preferred outcomes. However, the restructuring of service systems to become more flexible and responsive has been slower than expected. One contributing factor appears to be that an increasing demand for resources creates pressures for more bureaucratic and less person-oriented approaches.     

Frameworks for Practice in the Systemic Field: Part 2 — Contemporary Frameworks in Family Therapy

This is the second of two articles to map the landscape of practice theory in systemic family therapy. The first article gave a particular chronology of the development of family therapy practice theory, beginning with the frameworks that emerged in the 1960s‐1970s and then tracing the transitional decade of the 1980s. The convergences of three sets of influences — ecosystemic epistemology, the feminist challenge and postmodernist ideas — led to the changed landscape of post‐1990 practice theory. This second article picks up at this point, mapping four contemporary influential approaches in Australian family therapy — the Milan‐systemic, narrative and solution‐focused frameworks, and the dialogical perspective. Social constructionist and narrative ideas together constitute the dominant common theory influence in the post‐1990 practice frameworks, although intersected and used in different ways in the different frameworks. Throughout the history of the development of practice theory, context and relationship remain the enduring parameters of the systemic family therapy field.     

On the Project of Using Psychoanalytic Ideas in Systemic Therapy: A Discussion Paper*

Recently in Australian and New Zealand systemic therapy forums, there has been a tentative renewal of interest in psychoanalytic thinking. These local discussions have tended to reference psychoanalytic ideas as part of the struggle to understand emotional experience, and the therapy relationship. This paper reviews the patterns in these discussions, and then considers the wider context of the appearance of this interest in terms of the history and development of systemic theory. Some tentative comments are made about the project of using psychoanalytic ideas in systemic theory and practice.     

Supporting familial and community care for children: legislative reform and implementation challenges in South Africa

This article critically evaluates important legislative reforms in South Africa, which, at the height of the AIDS pandemic, are intended to reduce the need for removing children from their families or communities. In a textual analysis of the 2005 Children's Act and the 2006 Children's Act Amendment Bill, the shift in focus from individual interventions to a developmental approach incorporating prevention and early intervention is explained. New family service and alternative care orders such as partial care, shared care, cluster care and support for child-headed households are described. Although these creative solutions have considerable potential, there are gaps in the legislation that require supplementary wording. Drawing on the work of researchers and commentators, it is also shown that an inappropriate approach towards implementation has commenced, which harms rather than assists children. Recommendations are made for improving implementation that may be of relevance to other countries faced with similar challenges.