Premium
Theme‐focused family therapy: the inner emotional world of the family
Author(s) -
McCluskey Una,
Miller Liza Bingley
Publication year - 1995
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 - 10.1111/j.1467-6427.1995.tb00029.x
Subject(s) - social work , theme (computing) , family therapy , psychodynamics , general partnership , work (physics) , psychology , psychotherapist , psychodynamic psychotherapy , public relations , political science , engineering , mechanical engineering , computer science , law , operating system
This paper is an account of a method of family work developed for social workers in social services departments which allows them to work with the emotional impact on children and adults of traumatic events in family life. Theme‐focused family therapy has been designed to meet the needs of the families and also to enable social workers and their supervisors to develop both psychodynamic and systemic perspectives m their work with families. It is a staged approach, moving from individual work to a structured family interview through to a series of theme‐focused family sessions. It is phased in this way both to facilitate the development of a therapeutic attachment between social worker and family and to take account of the crises that can interrupt planned work in social services departments. Theme‐focused family therapy is carried out in partnership with families, and gives children a voice and a leading role in the therapeutic process. The approach is illustrated with a case example.