An Introduction to Family Therapy

390 Pages·2010·5.558 MB·English

by  Rudi Dallos

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An Introduction to Family Therapy
SYSTEMIC THEORY AND PRACTICE
Third edition

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An Introduction to
Family Therapy
SYSTEMIC THEORY AND PRACTICE
Third edition
Rudi Dallos and Ros Draper

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Open University Press
McGraw-Hill Education
McGraw-Hill House
Shoppenhangers Road
Maidenhead
Berkshire
England
SL6 2QL
email: [email protected]
world wide web: www.openup.co.uk
and Two Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121-2289, USA
First published 2000
Second edition 2005
Reprinted 2007, 2008
First published in this third edition 2010
Copyright © Rudi Dallos and Ros Draper 2010
All rights reserved. Except for the quotation of short passages for the
purposes of criticism and review, no part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence from the
Copyright Licensing Agency Limited. Details of such licences (for
reprographic reproduction) may be obtained from the Copyright Licensing
Agency Ltd of Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London, EC1N 8TS.
A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library
ISBN-13: 978-0-33-523801-9
ISBN-10: 0-33-523801-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
CIP data applied for
Typeset by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk
Printed in the UK by Bell and Bain Ltd., Glasgow
Fictitious names of companies, products, people, characters and/or data that
may be used herein (in case studies or in examples) are not intended to
represent any real individual, company, product or event.
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Contents
List of figures xi
List of tables xii
Notes on the authors xiii
Preface xiv
Foreword xvii
Acknowledgements xviii
Introduction 1
Experiences of systemic and family therapy 1
A family’s view 1
Two therapists’ views 3
What is the ‘family’? 5
The family life cycle 7
Allowing the family a voice 9
The organizing framework of this book 10
Key texts offering a historical overview of systemic and family
therapy 13
Setting the scene – 1950s 15
1 The first phase – 1950s to mid-1970s 26
Cultural landscape 26
Influential people and ideas 27
Seeds of systemic and family therapy 27
Systemic thinking – from intrapsychic to interpersonal 31
Systems theory – biological analogy 32
Emergent properties of a system 32
Circularities 33
Triads, triangulation and conflict detouring 36
Rules, pattern and process 38
Feedback 38
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vi CONTENTS
Family coordination through communication 39
Double-bind concept 39
Meta-communication 40
Open and closed systems 41
Family homeostasis 41
Family life cycle 42
Practice 44
Structural family therapy 44
Beliefs and structures 45
Therapeutic orientations 46
Directive stance 46
Strategic family therapy 49
Beliefs and premises 51
Strategic tasks 53
Commentary 55
Gender and shifting inequalities of power 56
Normative assumptions of life-cycle models 57
Key texts 58
Skill guides 58
Family sculpting 59
Family tree and time line 60
Reframing 63
2 The second phase – mid-1970s to mid-1980s 64
Cultural landscape 64
Influential people and ideas 66
Second-order cybernetics 66
Meta-communication 67
Communication 68
The person as private ‘biosphere’ 70
Intention 71
Beliefs and actions in triads 71

Ecological perspective – multiple systems 72
Observing systems 73
Practice 73
Hypothesizing 73
Reframing 74
Co-construction of shared histories 75
Commentary 76
Moral and political implications 77
Power 78
Milan approaches 78
Positive connotation 79
Key texts 80
Skill guides 81
Teamwork 81
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CONTENTS vii
Hypothesizing 82
Positive connotation 83
Circular questioning 84
Transformational change 85
3 The third phase – mid-1980s to 2000 87
Cultural landscape 87
Theoretical perspectives 88
Connections and links to the second and first phases of systemic
family therapy 90
Influential people and ideas 91
View of the person – construction of experience 94
Practice 97
Brief solution-focused therapy 97
Reflecting teams 100
Narrative therapies 100
Externalizing problems 101
Writing 102
Feminist therapies 103
Power and the construction of reality 104
Culturally available stories 104
Commentary – feminist orientations 106
Key texts 107
Skill guides 109
Consultation 109
Externalizing the problem 110
Collaborative inquiry 112
Reflecting processes 113
4 Ideas that keep knocking on the door: emotions,
attachments and systems 116
The role of emotions in systemic theory and practice 116

Emotions and early family therapy concepts 119
Triangulation 119
The double-bind 120
Emotions, escalation and couples’ interactions 121
Emotions, narratives and the language of emotions 123
Attachment theory 126
Family life cycle and attachments 128
Attachment styles and couples’ dynamics 129
Attachments: from dyads to triads 130
Trauma and loss 131
Attachment and meaning-making processes: beliefs and narratives 132
Integrations with psychoanalytic thinking 134
The therapeutic relationship 134
Defence processes and unconscious communication 135
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viii CONTENTS
Transference 136
Key texts 137
5 Systemic formulation 141
Cultural landscape 141
Systemic theory: assessment and formulation 142
The first phase 143
The second phase – progressive hypothesizing 145
The third phase 145
Example of systemic formulation 147
Genograms 148
The referral 149
Deconstructing the problems 150
Contextual factors 150
Beliefs and explanations 151
Problem-maintaining patterns and feedback loops 152
Emotions and attachments 152
Synthesis 153
Formulations: Mary and Janet 153
Commentary 154
Key texts 155
Skill guide 156
Systemic formulation 156
6 Twenty-first century practice development: conversations
across the boundaries of models 159
Cultural landscape 159
Practice 161
Working with addictions 162
Working with post-divorce processes and contact disputes 167
Work in forensic contexts 173
Working systemically with attachment narratives – ANT:
eating disorders 177

Psychosis and multiple family group therapy (MFGT) –
Eia Asen and Heiner Schuff 183
Commentary 187
Formulation 187
Contexts 187
Patterns and processes 188
Multiple models 189
Key texts 190
7 Couple therapy 193
Cultural landscape 194
Marital or couple therapy 194
Recent legislation relevant to the cultural context 195
Other forms of partnership and legislation 196
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CONTENTS ix
Divorce and mediation 197
Influential people and ideas 197
Couple therapy approaches using a relational paradigm 203
Integrative therapy – the politics of passion 203
Emotionally focused couple therapy 203
The Gottman method 204
Imago Relationship Therapy 205
Relationship education for couples 206
Commentary 207
Key texts 210
8 Research and evaluation 212
Introduction 212
Why conduct research? 213
Evidence-based practice and practice-based evidence 214
Cost-effectiveness 215
Practice-based evidence 216
Science, research and systemic therapy 219
Varieties of research 220
Evaluation research: does family therapy work? 223
Meta-analysis 224
Group comparison evaluative studies 226
Evaluative case studies 228
Observational studies 229
Questionnaire and self-report studies 229
Therapy process research 230
A therapeutic process study 231
In-depth single case process study 231
Exploring the experience of family therapy 232
Family theory research 234
A participant observational study 235
Interview studies 235

A conjoint interview study 236
Case study series 237
Discussion and reflections 237
Key texts 238
Varieties of research 238
Family therapy outcome studies 239
9 Reflections 2009 243
Current state of the art 245
Crystal-ball gazing 247
Developmental perspectives 247
Review and summary 248
Integrations 249
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x CONTENTS
Postscripts 251
Topic reading lists 264
Formats for exploration 317
Glossary of terms 333
British texts 337
References 342
Index 357

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