An Interactional Approach to Dysfunctional Silencing in Family Therapy

This paper presents an interactional approach to the problem of dysfunctional silencing in family therapy. Silencing is classified as dysfunctional if it satisfies two conditions: (a) it occurs repeatedly and independently of content, and (b) it functions as negative feedback that limits change in the family system. Dysfunctional silencing is defined as those efforts of one or more family members to limit change by repeatedly blocking the communication of another family member, who in turn colludes by tacitly agreeing to remain silent. The interactional approach presented utilizes conflict-resolution techniques and videotape feedback; it is illustrated by a case example.     

Integrative problem-centered metaframeworks therapy I: core concepts and hypothesizing

Over the last 20 years psychotherapy and family therapy have been inundated with a plethora of empirically validated treatments for particular disorders. That trend will increase. Psychotherapists will increasingly be exhorted and ultimately required to integrate empirical data and multicultural competence into their practice. Additionally, individual psychotherapy's default dominance of psychotherapeutic discourse needs to integrate and come to theoretical and clinical terms with the implications of the growing body of research demonstrating the validity and value of a multisystemic perspective. This article (and its companion article) presents a comprehensive, integrative, multisystemic, and empirically informed psychotherapeutic perspective to help therapists and psychotherapy trainers successfully address these challenges-Integrative Problem Centered Metaframeworks (IPCM) Therapy. This first article presents and illustrates IPCM's theoretical foundation, core concepts, and "case formulating" components. It delineates a Blueprint for the practice and teaching of 21st century psychotherapists who can meld science and art into best practice.     

"Don't lock me out": life-story interviews of family business owners facing succession

This qualitative study used a grounded theory methodology to analyze life-story interviews obtained from 10 family business owners regarding their experiences in their businesses with the goal of understanding the complexities of family business succession. The grounded theory that emerged from this study is best understood as a potential web of constraints that can bear on the succession process. Coding of these interviews revealed four key influences, which seem to have the potential to facilitate or constrain the family business owner's approach to succession. Influence 1, "The business within," captures intrapsychic dynamics of differentiation and control. Influence 2, "The marriage," addresses how traditional gender roles shape succession. Influence 3, "The adult children," examines the role of having a natural (accidental, organic, passively groomed) successor. Influence 4, "The vision of retirement," captures the impact of owners' notions of life post-succession. Family therapists frequently encounter family systems in which the family business is facing succession. Even if succession is not the presenting problem, and even if the business owner is in the indirect (rather than direct) system, this research reminds clinicians of the importance of the family's story about the family business. Therefore, clinical implications and recommendations are included.     

Making the Smart Choice: a systemic response to school‐based violence

This paper reports on a school‐based intervention in which a family therapist, serving as a consultant to a high school, worked with that school to reduce the level of school‐based violence. The primary intervention reported in this paper is a conflict skills training programme called ‘Making the Smart Choice’. While designed for the families of students suspended for physical violence, this intervention also impacts upon the school's disciplinary system and the climate of the school itself. The context or responses to school‐based violence, the strategy to gain access to the school, the politics of developing such a programme, the programme itself and the infrastructure needed to maintain it are described. For four years, suspensions for school‐based violence were halved compared to the four years prior to the start of the programme.     

Integrative problem-centered metaframeworks therapy II: planning, conversing, and reading feedback

This is the second of 2 articles presenting Integrative Problem Centered Metaframeworks (IPCM) Therapy, a multisystemic, integrative, empirically informed, and common factor perspective for family, couple, and individual psychotherapy. The first article presented IPCM's foundation concepts and Blueprint for therapy, focusing on the first Blueprint component—Hypothesizing or assessment. This article, focusing on intervention, presents the other 3 Blueprint components—Planning, Conversing, and Feedback. Articulated through the Blueprint, intervention is a clinical experimental process in which therapists formulate hypotheses about the set of constraints (the Web) within a client system that prevents problem resolution, develop a therapeutic Plan based on those hypotheses, implement the Plan through a coconstructed dialogue with the clients, and then evaluate the results. If the intervention is not successful, the results become feedback to modify the Web, revise the Plan, and intervene again. Guided by the therapeutic alliance, this process repeats until the presenting problems resolve. IPCM Planning sequentially integrates the major empirically and yet‐to‐be empirically validated therapies and organizes their key strategies and techniques as common factors. Conversing and Feedback employ empirical STIC^® (Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change) data collaboratively with clients to formulate hypotheses and evaluate interventions. This article emphasizes the art and science of IPCM practice.     

Sequences: toward a common denominator of family therapy

This paper presents a conceptual framework that is designed to help clinicians and researchers organize their observations of the complex network of interconnected sequences of behavior and thinking that constitute family interactions. This framework distinguishes four classes of recursive sequences, each of which is defined by its period, i.e., the amount of time it takes for a sequence to complete one cycle. The shortest sequences (S1) are those face-to-face interaction patterns that range in length from seconds to an hour. S2 sequences are played out over one day to one week, often depending on the routines of the family. S3 sequences range from several weeks to a year, and S4 sequences are those patterns of interaction and thought that repeat from generation to generation. In addition to outlining this framework, the paper contends that in many families with a problem, pertinent sequences from each class may be related to the problem and to each other in a cybernetic manner. Suggestions are offered for identifying pertinent sequences from each class and for selecting interventions that best address the targeted sequence. We have found that this conceptual framework has enabled us to use techniques from many different schools of family therapy while avoiding the conceptual contradictions inherent in previous attempts to integrate approaches.     

蒙汉族大学生父母教养方式、成人依恋与心理困扰的关系研究

通过整群抽样方法抽取了576名大学生,对其施测父母养育方式量表、亲密关系体验量表和心理困扰量表,运用结构方程模型技术,分别考察了父母养育方式的蒙汉族差异以及成人依恋模式在父母养育方式和心理困扰间的中介作用。结果表明:(1) 蒙古族父母对孩子的关爱程度和给孩子的自主性要显著高于汉族;(2) 汉族的成人依恋模式在父母过度保护与抑郁-焦虑-压力之间起着部分中介作用,而蒙古族成人依恋的中介作用不明显,但母亲的冷漠拒绝和过度保护会导致个体依恋回避和依恋焦虑,父亲的冷漠拒绝和过度保护会影响个体的抑郁和焦虑,母亲的过度保护和父亲的冷漠拒绝会影响个体的压力。