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Concurrent individual and family therapy in a case of elective mutism
Author(s) -
Carr Alan,
Afnanf Shahin
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.52
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-6427
pISSN - 0163-4445
DOI - 10.1046/j..1989.00331.x
Subject(s) - psychological intervention , family therapy , psychology , psychotherapist , underpinning , systemic therapy , developmental psychology , clinical psychology , medicine , psychiatry , civil engineering , cancer , breast cancer , engineering
In this paper, following a literature review a family containing a child who had been electively mute for four years is described. A concurrent programme of individual and family therapy and the systemic hypothesis which guided these interventions is then presented in detail. Behavioural and psychometric data are presented to illustrate the dramatic improvement which the identified patient showed over the course of treatment. Finally, the probable mechanisms underpinning the child's improvement, and how these differed from our initial expectations, are discussed.