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ANZJFT Volume 28 Number 1

March 2007

Contents

Editorial: Travelling in Blinkers	Maureen Crago
Australian Family Therapy: Have We Lived Up To Our Mission Statement?	Robin Darracott
The ANZJFT: Snapshots from the History of an Evolving Journal	Hugh and Maureen Crago
The Forgotten Siblings	Sally Young
'Cleaning Your Glasses': A Prerequisite for 'Catching Your Child Being Good'	Stewart Redshaw
I am a Therapist and I Have Three Tennis Balls in My Office	Mark O'Donoghue
Primary Health Care and Systemic Practice: A Look at Collaborative Practice: An Interview with JoEllen Patterson	Julie Burgess-Manning
Working with Uncertainty: An Unfinished Case Study [Student Voice]	Judy Draper
Letter from Northern Ireland: Fog and Fire	Isobel Reilly
Award for Distinguished Contribution to Family Therapy 2006	Tom Paterson
A Conference Where the Dream Continues	Owen Kessels
Reviews

Abstracts & Sample Articles

Australian Family Therapy: Have We Lived Up To Our Mission Statement?

by Robin Darracott

In 1983, the Fourth Australian Family Therapy Conference had the theme 'Merging the Streams - Integrating Trends in Family Therapy'. In his keynote address, Brian Stagoll outlined concerns regarding the nature of family therapy as it was then developing in Australia. This article revisits some of these themes to see where we have come from, where we are heading, and which topics continue to be ignored. Evidence is drawn from articles that stood out for me in the Australian Journal of Family Therapy (later the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy) and selected relevant papers from the 1983 conference itself. Finally, I speculate upon possible reasons for the absence of discussion on certain issues, most strikingly: systemic influences upon indigenous Australians, farm families, working with children in families, certain aspects of gender, the systemic implications of addiction; and environmental impacts on families now and for the future. The danger for family therapy is becoming stuck in a closed system that ignores the wider system.

The ANZJFT: Snapshots from the History of an Evolving Journal

by Hugh and Maureen Crago

This article, based on a plenary address originally delivered at Canberra in 2000, presents a series of 'snapshots' of the history of the journal now known as the ANZJFT (Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy). While a full, detailed history of the Journal from its inception is beyond the scope of this paper, the authors offer glimpses of the Journal at key points in its twenty five year history, and from these, readers can reconstruct some of the changes that have occurred, and the continuities in values and attitudes that the ANZJFT has attempted to preserve, throughout its existence. The authors comment, from their own recent experience, on particular dilemmas which they have faced, and use their own data to update a bibliometric survey of the Journal originally carried out by Davis & Lipson (1996).

The Forgotten Siblings

by Sally Young

In this paper I wish to argue that the quality and dynamic of the sibling relationships may have been overlooked in family therapy. In overlooking it, we have also overlooked a significant feature in the emotional life of children. I would like to suggest that sibling relationships are the practice grounds of identity. In these relationships we can learn how to be one in a group. Family Therapy treatment may not make enough use of the dynamic of the sibling relationship.

'Cleaning Your Glasses': A Prerequisite for 'Catching Your Child Being Good'

by Stewart Redshaw

Used widely throughout the parenting literature, the phrase 'Catch them being good' encapsulates much of current practice that has been shown to be effective in reducing instances of non-compliance in children with complex and challenging behaviours. 'Catching your child being good' is obviously in line with the strategies of praise, encouragement and positive reinforcement. But for some parents, 'Catching their child being good' after long periods of defiance becomes almost an impossible task. Metaphorically speaking, 'Cleaning your glasses' is a necessary prerequisite for effectively 'catching your child being good'. This metaphor and an associated six-phase therapeutic intervention seek to enhance a parent's ability to 'Catch their child being good', by working through parental distortions, restraints and negativity. This paper introduces the metaphor's origin and use; describes keys concepts; and gives a detailed case example to highlight the advantages and limitations of the intervention.

I am a Therapist and I Have Three Tennis Balls in My Office

by Mark O'Donoghue

Three tennis balls have become, for me, a three dimensional metaphor about how to learn a new skill: one small step at a time. This article describes some of the ways I have learned to use tennis balls in therapy.

Primary Health Care and Systemic Practice: A Look at Collaborative Practice: An Interview with JoEllen Patterson

by Julie Burgess-Manning

JoEllen Patterson is Professor in the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego. She is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, directing a medical family therapy clinic embedded in a Family Medicine residency (equivalent to General Practice in New Zealand). She also works in Pediatrics and Reproductive Medicine at UCSD. At present her work involves training family therapy students and family medicine residents to do interdisciplinary work using a biopsychosocial model. Research suggests that our bodies are influenced by our mental health; our immune systems and cardiovascular systems seem especially susceptible to mind-body interplay. JoEllen is particularly interested in how family functioning influences the mind-body system.

Working with Uncertainty: An Unfinished Case Study [Student Voice]

by Judy Draper

A disclosure of sexual abuse, which is then retracted, places the family therapist in a difficult position both ethically and in terms of whom the therapist's primary alliance is to. This case study will examine some of these difficulties and will describe the process of working with a family when child protection issues are suspected but not substantiated.