Understanding family violence: An orientation for family therapists

This paper offers clinicians an introduction to the broad, foundational issues underlying an informed approach to treating intrafamily violence. Important assumptions, drawn mostly from the work of empirical researchers, are provided. One holds that the recognition and treatment of family violence is an appropriate concern for most family therapists and not merely for those who work with the spectacular, notorious tip of the iceberg cases. Assessment and some treatment issues including spouse abuse, child abuse, and abusive adolescents are discussed briefly. Some commonly held therapeutic assumptions are challenged. Systemic approaches, rather than individual treatment, are considered appropriate for most cases.This paper draws heavily from the work of the Family Violence Research Program at the University of New Hampshire, although the interpretations made of such materials are the responsibility of the author. Appreciation is expressed to Craig A. Everett, PhD, and Alice Mancill Nichols for helpful comments and assistance.     

Attributions related to wife abuse: A comparison of the perceptions of volunteer advocate-counselors and marriage and family therapists

Attributions related to wife abuse held by advocate-counselors working in women's shelter home settings and marriage and family therapists were compared. The major finding was that the two groups were surprisingly similar in their attributions even though their theoretical backgrounds and training were considerably different. Implications for practice and training are presented.     

Mother-blaming in family therapy: An empirical investigation

Abstract

This study tested two hypotheses derived from the feminist critique of family therapy in a sample of AAMFT members. The stimulus was a brief vignette of an initial therapy session with a family presenting a teen-aged child as the identified patient. It was hypothesized that family therapists would rate the mothers in the vignette as more dysfunctional than fathers. It was also hypothesized that mothers would be asked to bear more of the burden of change in treatment plans written by subjects. Neither hypothesis was supported. However, respondents did rate the concerned parent, regardless of sex, as more dysfunctional. Since this is a role often occupied by women, this finding may indicate some gender bias.     

Ethical decision making among family therapists and individual therapists

In this study, we investigated the ethical decision making of 30 individual and 30 family therapists in order to detect the types of decision making used by practicing therapists. Informants responded to three ethical dilemmas. Two of the situations were hypothetical. The third dilemma was a situation the informant had experienced in practice. Each interview was assessed for decision-making style, using content analysis. Kohlberg's justice reasoning and Gilligan's care reasoning provided the conceptual foundations for this analysis. The results suggest that both family and individual therapists prefer care reasoning on all dilemma types. There was significantly more care reasoning demonstrated on the personal dilemma than on the hypothetical dilemmas. Characteristics of informants did not provide clear explanations for the differences found in reasoning.     

The marriage and family counseling profession (An editorial)

Abstract

Marriage and family counseling must become an autonomous profession because it is socially necessary, open to those who are qualified to practice it and for those who need it, and consultative. Legally recognized in only five states, it is struggling through growing pains in the rat of the US. The special field of this profession is the procesr of interpersonal dynamics in the intimate setting of the family and its effects on the individual. The clinical work of the marriage and family counselor becomes “adaptive,” “therapeutic” or “maturational,” depending on different variables.     

Simulation in training family therapists: Process and outcome

This article reviews procedures for using simulated families in the training of novice-level family therapists. An evaluation of one training experience is described. The evaluation utilized a repeated measures analysis and found an increase in the student's observational and conceptual skill development.The authors would like to express appreciation to Douglas C. Breunlin, M.S.S.A. for helpful comments in the preparation of this article.     

Healthy family functioning: What family therapists,priests, and ministers say

This study compared the concepts of healthy family functioning as perceived by family therapists, Roman Catholic priests, and Southern Baptist ministers. The therapists emphasized the importance of individuation and flexibility. In contrast, the ministers placed greater emphasis on family togetherness rather than individuation, and both the ministers and the priests placed greater emphasis on structure and authority rather than flexibility. The implication of these and other findings are discussed.     

Confidentiality: an ethical and legal conundrum for family therapists

There are several important issues influencing the holding of confidences in family therapy, among them are privacy, family secrets, confidentiality, and privileged communication. Clinicians need to be aware that breach of confidentiality is considered a high-risk area in clinical practice, which could be brought within a "low profile" malpractice configuration by adopting certain risk management techniques. Family therapists have an obligation to maintain their practice under the guidance of professional ethics, agency policies/procedures, and within emerging judicial parameters. The questions of confidentiality that confront family therapists have no clear and easy answers and the legal dilemma is ever present.     

An empirical comparison of natural-father and stepfather family systems.

This study examined the family system differences between 40 volunteer natural-father and stepfather families. Family triads consisting of the husband, the wife, and a child whose age ranged from 12 to 15 years were studied. Four instruments were used: (a) the Family Concept Q-Sort; (b) a Semantic Differential; (c) a demographic questionnaire; and (d) an interaction-reaction questionnaire. Analyses of variance on the data obtained from the Q-sorts and the Semantic Differentials indicated that stepfather family systems are different from natural-father family systems along several salient dimensions including psychological adjustment, satisfaction with family, reciprocal understanding, and perceived goodness and potency. It was concluded that the differences between the family systems in terms of their interpersonal relations and perceptions affect the entire stepparent family system and its ability to function adequately.     

Critical incidents: Life events for experienced family therapists

Summary The results of this investigation suggest that therapists' professional style and clinical use of self patterns are impacted by critical life events occurring in their personal life. Many subjects reflected on how changes in their family constellations (both family of origin and family of procreation) were important to their professional development. They frequently mentioned that marriage, children, divorce, and illness or death of a loved one impacted their personal and, then, their professional lives. The important life events of becoming a parent or losing a significant loved one was specifically mentioned as strongly influencing changes in one's professional direction and therapeutic style.Becoming a parent caused the interviewees to reevaluate their expectations of their own parents, their client families and themselves. Changes in career aspirations, interactional patterns, and the capacity to be consistent and calm were explored and understood differently. Many subjects described how this transition in their own life shifted their primary focus and altered many of their existing relationships. In particular, female therapists with younger children related how their sense of being female changed. They sought out other women for intimate contact more frequently, they understood their own mothers better, and they frequently were less judgmental of mothers in their client families.Along with creating their own families, death of a parent was keynoted as having a strong impact on the subjects' personal and professional lives. They described questioning (and frequently changing) the amount of time they spent working and the type of work they did. Many began to push for more emotionally intense relationships personally and therapeutically. Detailing how their therapeutic goals for a family now included connection-making rather than just problem solving, they described being much more willing to share their vulnerabilities and personal needs with clients.     

Role incongruency in marriage and family counseling

Abstract

Incongruency in role expectations produces strain in the marriage. But this doer not mean that spouses seeking marriage counseling experience more role incongruency than others. By studying 104 couples divided into experimental and control groups, it was found that there was no more. role expectation incongruency in the couples seeking marriage counseling than in those not seeking counseling. It might be that the major difference lies in how couples of both groups handle whatever incongruency may exist. What occurs between spouses can be easily applied to role incongruency among all members of the family.     

Selecting marriage and family therapy program applicants: One approach

Abstract

Brigham Young University uses a unique approach to select applicants to the master's and doctoral programs in marriage and family therapy. Traditional methods are augmented by the use of a highly reliable interaction-analysis instrument, a microcomputer, and a large computer frame to analyze the verbal interaction of applicants who conduct therapy with coached couples. Interactions of an accepted and a rejected applicant are compared.     

马丁·路德的婚姻家庭观探略

本文主要从马丁·路德本人的婚姻与家庭生活、路德的婚姻观、路德对离婚的态度与观点、路德的家长制传统观点等四个方面对路德的婚姻家庭观进行了介绍与评析,并指出路德的婚姻家庭观不仅在当时、而且在今天都同样具有积极意义.     

Mankind and Kind Men: an agenda for male family therapists

This article examines some of the gender issues involved when male therapists interview women, children and other men. It looks at issues in the family life of male therapists which have parallels with therapy, and offers some practical suggestions for beginning to overcome obstacles of gender in therapy.     

Family therapists and family business: A view of the future

The family business is a unique entity that has recently come to the attention of business consultants and family therapists. The unique processes of family business are amendable to the applications of family systems theory, organizational development theory, and various theories that focus on individual growth and development. In this paper we review some of the basic concepts relative to understanding family businesses and briefly outline our approach to consultation with family businesses.     

Shame,attachment, and addictions: Implications for family therapists

Research based on attachment theory is reviewed for its relevance to the development of later addictions. The problem of internalized shame as an attachment related issue is discussed. Some original research into internalized shame using the Internalized Shame Scale is summarized. The relevance of this research and theory for family of origin based treatment of addictions is explored.     

Interrogative suggestibility and delinquent boys: An empirical validation study

This study has several aims. First, to validate the Gudjonsson Suggestibility Scale (GSS) among delinquent and adolescent boys placed in an assessment and short-term treatment centre. Second, to test the hypothesis that adolescent boys are particularly susceptible to suggestions when they are ‘pressured’ by negative feedback and instructions. Finally, to investigate the hypothesis that suggestibility is related to memory recall and self-esteem. The GSS was administered to 31 boys (ages 11 to 16 yr) who had been independently rated by two teachers on measures of suggestibility and self-esteem. Suggestibility as measured by the GSS was found to correlate significantly with the teachers' ratings of suggestibility, supporting empirically the criterion-related validity of the GSS. Compared with young ‘normal’ adults the boys were no more likely to give in to suggestive questions than the adults, unless their performance was subjected to criticism and negative feedback. The results suggest that deliquent adolescents may be particularly responsive to interpersonal pressure during interrogation. The findings have important implications for police interrogation procedures.     

Significant and other: systemic family therapists on lesbians and gay men

This paper discusses a questionnaire survey done with a sample of 130 systemic family therapists, which investigated their training in, and experience of, working with lesbian and gay male clients and attitudes towards lesbians and gay men using the Index of Attitudes to Homosexuals. The findings indicate that the majority of respondents had received relatively little training in working with this client group within their systemic training. It also indicated that their attitudes towards lesbians and gay men generally may have been influenced by the degree of social, professional or familial contact that they had with them.