No question has a single answer: Integrating discrepant models in family therapy training

Todd and Greenberg use a co-supervisory model with predoctoral psychology family therapy interns, but with Todd using a structural/strategic model and Greenberg a symbolic-experiential model. They focus on the isomorph of cotherapist trainees replaying family problems and the traineers replaying trainee problems. Their model involves using the trainee's creative confusion/tension to help each of them to integrate individually appropriate configurations as their training continues over a year.The authors wish to acknowledge the editorial comments and helpful advice of Carl A. Whitaker, MD, and Milton L. Greenberg, MFT, in the development of this paper from earlier drafts. They would also like to acknowledge significant contributions from Drs. Glenn Bronley, Paul Coleman, Chad Glang, Beverly Keith, Tracy Lewis, Charles Lock-wood, Wesley Matsui, Rita McKenzie, Timothy Weber, Ms. Holly DeVore, Lee Ann Lockwood, and Misty Weber. Christopher Weber made a special contribution as the program's first child therapist.     

Countertransference as a guideline in the treatment of a psychotic patient

Presenting vignettes from a long analysis, the author describes many varieties of rage provoked in her by Meagan, a 29-year-old schizophrenic woman, and shows how the countertransference was the primary tool in helping to distinguish among the states, understand their origin, and work them through in the transference.     

Psychoeducation: A promising intervention strategy for families of children and adolescents with mood disorders

Mood disorders and suicide in youth represent major health concerns requiring effective intervention strategies. This paper briefly summarizes the literature on childhood mood disorders and discusses expressed emotion (EE) and the link between lowering EE and improved outcome for mood disordered individuals. Family psychoeducation is discussed as a means of reducing EE and similarities and differences between psychoeducation and other therapeutic interventions explored. The authors' adaptations that made psychoeducation developmentally appropriate for families of children and adolescents are reviewed. Psychoeducation for families of mood disordered youth is suggested as worthy of further clinical and empirical effort.     

A structured approach to disengagement in family therapy with child-focused problems

The aim of this paper is to describe a structured approach to managing the disengagement process. Six distinct disengagement scenarios are first outlined. Thereafter, phasing out therapy, dealing with family belief systems concerning the permanence of improvements and relapse management are discussed. Ways in which disengagement from specific episodes of therapy may be construed as part of an ongoing therapeutic relationship and the practicalities of recontracting for further episodes of therapy, handing over cases, and referring cases on to other professionals are considered. An approach to therapeutic failure analysis is presented. Finally, ways in which disengagement may lead to significant loss experiences are discussed.     

participating in a couples therapy outcome study: Participants' views

Discovering that participants who received therapy in a research project and were being debriefed in a therapy outcome study considered those assessment sessions therapeutic, the authors conclude that participants: (a) are aware of the research context, (b) have some idea about how it affected the treatment they got, and (c) see positive outcomes for taking part in the study. Assessment and treatment were not separated in the minds of some participants, as they had been in the mind of the researchers.This study was supported in part by National Institute on Drug Abuse grant #1R 18DA 1069232001.     

Family history and gender roles: Critical factors in practitioners' views of family interactions

This study examined practitioners' perceptions of family and individual family member functioning in relationship to family roles, gender of family leadership, beliefs about the consequences of maternal employment, and paternal division of responsibility in practitioner family of origin. Practicing counselors and mental health therapists rated two videotaped family interviews, one demonstrating a matriarchal style of family interaction and the second a patriarchal style. Findings indicated that practitioners were vulnerable to view a patriarchal style of family interaction as more healthy in comparison to a matriarchal style and that their perceptions of family members were related to personal beliefs about the consequences of maternal employment and to personal family history. These and other findings suggest that practitioners may be prone to errant perceptions and misguided intervention related to personal history and attitudes.     

Reducing work/home conflicts in employed couples: A proposed program to balance job and family demands

Work/home conflict is a dominant stress for workers in industrialized countries, particularly in dual-employment families. Interindividual (husband/wife) and interrole (work/home) conflicts in such families are a unique source of stress and adversely affect family and marital relationships as well as performance at work. Neither family therapy nor the stress literature have reported any interventions directed specifically at reducing work/home conflicts in employed couples or parents, although many workplaces today offer stress prevention programs aimed at individual workers. This paper discusses the underlying theoretical rationale for a marital enhancement intervention currently being developed for prevention of distress associated with work/home conflicts. The program combines marital enrichment and training principles with stress management techniques and aims at reinforcing shared coping resources. It focuses on four main variables associated with interpersonal processes: unrealistic expectations based on irrational beliefs, social undermining, shared decision control, and social support.     

Increasing husbands' involvement in domestic labor: Issues for therapists

As a result of the dramatic increase in women's participation in the work force, more relationship therapists are seeing couples who are dissatisfied with how domestic labor is divided in their homes. Although, this issue may seem therapeutically straightforward, there are many aspects which make its renegotiation surprisingly problematic and complex. This article is an effort to delineate some of these issues such as engaging men in therapy, exploring emotional issues connected with housework, and the mechanism of gatekeeping. Also included is a therapeutic framework for addressing client concerns about domestic responsibilities.