ANZJFT Volume 21 Number 2
June 2000Contents
| Editorial: Tribute to a President | |
| Your Journal is Coming Home | |
| Child-focused Parenting after Separation: Socio-legal Developments and Challenges | Lawrie Moloney |
| Counselling and Psychotherapy: Is There a Difference? Does It Matter | Hugh Crago |
| Towards an Integrated Approach to a Family Intervention for Co-occurring Substance Abuse and Schizophrenia | Rebecca Sheils and Timothy J. Rolfe |
| Towards an Integrated and Sensitive Family Intervention for Comorbid Substance Abuse and Schizophrenia: A Comment on Sheils and Rolfe | Did J. Kavanagh, Angela White, Ross McD. Young and Linda Jennerav |
| The Facts Never Speak for Themselves: Schizophrenia, Substance Abuse and Family Therapy | Ed Harari |
| Family Therapy with the Elderly | Miriam Tisher and Suzanne Dean |
| Reconnecting Past, Present and Future Lives: Therapy with a Young Person who Experienced Severe Childhood Privation | Carole Meech and Andrew Wood |
| Research into Practice | |
| Network News - State News, John Hills? Letter from Britain | |
| Letter | |
| Reviews |
Abstracts & Sample Articles
Child-focused Parenting after Separation: Socio-legal Developments and Challenges
by Lawrie MoloneyView article. [PDF format - 212KB]
In this article I utilise developing ideas in family law as a backdrop against which to discuss changing assumptions about parenting. In particular, I examine the gender-neutral assumptions within family law in Australia and elsewhere in the light of seemingly contradictory evidence about the value of post-separation fathering. That men were equally capable of providing effective parenting was by no means clear at the time that the principle of gender-neutrality became common in family law[m] the 1960s and 70s. Only recently, has burgeoning research on fathering begun to more clearly affirm its value and to clarify the conditions under which pre and post separation fathering makes a positive difference. Paradoxically, it is at this very time that legally based challenges to the gender-neutral, shared-parenting philosophy of the 1995 Australian Family Law Reform Act have begun to emerge. The often-perplexed interface between law, social science research and therapeutic intervention presents many challenges. I conclude the article by flagging a number of questions relevant to family therapists in this difficult field of work.
* Senior Lecturer, School of Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora Victoria 3083; l.moloney@latrobe.edu.au
Counselling and Psychotherapy: Is There a Difference? Does It Matter
by Hugh CragoView article. [PDF format - 163KB]
The terms 'counselling' and 'psychotherapy' are often employed in a loosely interchangeable way, especially in Australia. Where distinctions are made, there has been little agreement on what each term should cover. This article examines several axes on which 'counselling' might potentially be distinguished from 'psychotherapy'; the most promising basis for such a distinction seems to be whether or not the mode of work attempts to access the unconscious. On this basis, several modalities currently termed 'therapy' would in fact be classed as types of 'counselling', including those modalities of family therapy which aim to engage clients at the level of conscious behaviour change and restructuring. Consideration of how new professionals are trained lends support to a continuum, with short-term, problem-focused conscious-oriented approaches at one end, and longer-term, transference-focused, unconscious-oriented approaches at the other, the 'dividing line' coming at the point where trainees learn the skill of 'immediacy'.
Co-editor, ANZJFT since 1997. He directs a therapist training program in Sydney, and is author of A Circle Unbroken.
Towards an Integrated Approach to a Family Intervention for Co-occurring Substance Abuse and Schizophrenia
by Rebecca Sheils and Timothy J. RolfeView article. [PDF format - 152KB]
Comorbid substance abuse and schizophrenia is a major cause for concern from clinical, economic and health care systems perspectives. Existing treatment strategies are frequently inadequate, partly due to a lack of research into the unique problems facing this dually diagnosed population. These individuals commonly place a disproportionate burden on the mental health delivery system. In addition, their families are left with the onerous task of caring for them. This paper reviews the literature on family interventions for both substance abuse and schizophrenia and postulates that a composite model of family therapy might be appropriate.
The Facts Never Speak for Themselves: Schizophrenia, Substance Abuse and Family Therapy
by Ed HarariView article. [PDF format - 100KB]
Family Therapy with the Elderly
by Miriam Tisher and Suzanne DeanView article. [PDF format - 176KB]
This article outlines health and lifestyle challenges to elderly persons and associated changes in their family systems. Flexibility, related to attachment patterns, is considered central to healthy adaptation. Family therapy approaches and relevant systemic and cultural factors influencing psychotherapy with the elderly are discussed. Key family therapy concepts and strategies (genograms, transmission of family histories and circular patterns of interaction), are reviewed and exemplified.. Four types of family therapy presentations are elucidated by composite case examples. Firstly, the elderly person can be the identified patient. Secondly, another family member can seek help for him/herself in relation to the elderly person. Thirdly, another family member can be the identified patient without direct reference to the elderly person. Finally, the wider health care system involved with the elderly person and family can be the focus of therapy. Family therapy offers important conceptual and strategic advantages in working with the elderly and their systems.
Reconnecting Past, Present and Future Lives: Therapy with a Young Person who Experienced Severe Childhood Privation
by Carole Meech and Andrew WoodView article. [PDF format - 139KB]
This case study describes therapy over a three year period with a young adopted person who presented as highly suicidal, with a childhood background characterised by severe privation and abuse. The paper describes the use of a visual Life line, designed to assist the young person in reconnecting and honouring different parts of her life. A flexible and client centred therapeutic approach is also described.
