Dialogical Meetings in Social Networks

236 Pages·2006·0.819 MB·English

by  Jaakko Seikkula, Tom Erik Arnkil

DIALOGICAL MEETINGS
IN SOCIAL NETWORKS
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DIALOGICAL MEETINGS
IN SOCIAL NETWORKS
Jaakko Seikkula & Tom Erik Arnkil
Foreword by
Lynn Hoffman
Systemic Thinking and Practice Series
Series Editors
David Campbell & Ros Draper
KARNAC
KARNAC
LONDON NEW YORK

CONTENTS
SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD vii
ABOUT THE AUTHORS ix
FOREWORD
Lynn Hoffman xi
PREFACE xvii
Introduction:
on networks and dialogues 1
PART I
CHAPTER ONE
Dialogues at the boundaries between and within
professional and personal networks 13
CHAPTER TWO
Frustrating network meetings 33
v
vi CONTENTS
PART II
CHAPTER THREE
Open Dialogues as crisis intervention 51
CHAPTER FOUR
Anticipation Dialogues for lessening worries 65
CHAPTER FIVE
Alike but different 89
CHAPTER SIX
Healing elements in dialogues 104
PART III
CHAPTER SEVEN
Dialogue and the art of responding 131
CHAPTER EIGHT
Effectiveness of dialogical network meetings 149
CHAPTER NINE
Research and generalizing practices 167
Epilogue:
on power and empowerment 187
REFERENCES 195
INDEX 205
SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD
We are proud to publish the English translation of this
groundbreaking book. The two Finnish authors, Jaakko
Seikkula and Tom Erik Arnkil, have been among a
group who have pioneered a new community-based approach to
adult mental illness and, particularly, the onset of psychosis. What
makes the approach unique is its grounding in a method called
“open dialogues”—dialogues that take place between the profes-
sionals and the patients and their families.
The book carefully explains the theoretical basis for dia-
logical communication, drawing heavily on the work of Mikhail
Bakhtin, but its great strength is the way these principles have
been transformed into a practice of community meetings. Because
the authors are drawing on years of experience as well as outcome
research studies, they present a framework for a model that is
proven, and they describe the techniques that make it work. For
example, there are helpful sections that spell out what questions
to ask a psychotic patient, how to respond to delusions, and how
to approach other professionals when the network is becoming
stuck in its task.
vii
viii SERIES EDITORS’ FOREWORD
Although the book describes their model in detail, many
practitioners find that the authors’ ideas about dialogical com-
munication can be applied across a wide range of clinical settings,
such as family therapy, but are particularly useful when multi-
disciplinary or multi-agency teams meet to devise treatment for
patients. The book is a guide for facilitating conversations among
people from different points of view.
This Finnish team is widely recognized for the work they are
doing, as shown by their writings and presentations at confer-
ences, and this book gives them the space to explain their thinking
and practice in greater detail than ever before. It is a major step
in bringing their work to the attention of the English-speaking
community.
David Campbell
Ros Draper
London, May 2006
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
JAAKKO SEIKKULA is a clinical psychologist and family therapy
trainer. He is acting professor in the Department of Psychology
at the University of Jyväskylä and is an adjunct professor at the
University of Tromsso. He has been involved for more than twenty
years in developing, studying, and implementing the Open Dia-
logues approach for the most severe psychiatric and other crises.
Presently he is involved in several projects for developing social-
networks-based practices in many countries. In his works, psy-
chotic problems are primarily seen as answers to a crisis instead
of a stable condition. He is the author of more than a hundred
scientific articles and the author or co-author of twelve books.
TOM ERIK ARNKIL is a research professor at STAKES (National
Research and Development Centre for Welfare and Health, Hel-
sinki, Finland) and an associate professor of social policy at the
University of Helsinki. For two decades he and his team have stud-
ied “multi-problem”—or “multi-agency”—situations where multi-
ple helpers may get stuck, and they have sought to develop means
for enhancing cooperation between professionals and with the
clients and their personal networks. His studies have mainly been
ix