Toward a Biblical Framework for Family Therapy

1979 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. 241-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert J. Salinger

The development of family therapy has brought a major change in the way many people in the helping professions view behavioral problems. This paper presents some of the central concepts of family dynamics and therapy, followed by a consideration of biblical concepts of the family and its functioning. The two models have large areas of congruency, particularly in considering the structure of the family, the proper conduct of interpersonal relationships, individual responsibility, and the importance of the concept of family to individual well-being. Proper application of biblical guidelines will bring about change in family members in psychologically and spiritually healthy ways.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janet E. Rennick ◽  
Alyssa M. Knox ◽  
Stephanie C. Treherne ◽  
Karen Dryden-Palmer ◽  
Robyn Stremler ◽  
...  

Introduction: PICU hospitalization can have a profound impact on child survivors and their families. There is limited research on children's long-term recovery within the context of the family following critical illness. This study aimed to explore children's and parents' perceptions of long-term psychological and behavioral responses within the context of the family one year following PICU hospitalization.Materials and Methods: Caring Intensively is a mixed methods multi-site prospective cohort study that aims to examine children's psychological and behavioral responses over a 3-year period following PICU hospitalization. In this study, part of the qualitative arm of Caring Intensively, an interpretive descriptive design was used to explore children's recovery one year post-discharge. Purposive sampling was used to select 17 families, including 16 mothers, 6 fathers, and 9 children. Semi-structured, audio-recorded interviews were conducted. Data were analyzed iteratively using the constant comparison method.Results: Families described efforts to readapt to routine life and find a new normal following PICU hospitalization. Finding a New Normal consisted of four major themes: (1) Processing PICU Reminders and Memories, (2) Changing Perceptions of Health and Illness, (3) We Are Not the Same, and (4) Altered Relationships. Participants described significant emotional and behavioral changes during the year following discharge. The psychological impact of individual family members' experiences led to changes in their sense of self, which affected family dynamics. PICU memories and reminders impacted participants' perceptions of childhood health and illness and resulted in increased vigilance. Parents and siblings demonstrated increased concern for the child survivor's health, and the experience of long absences and new or altered caregiving roles resulted in changes in relationships and family dynamics.Conclusion: PICU hospitalization impacted the psychological well-being of all family members as they sought to re-establish a sense of normalcy one year following discharge. Parent and child experiences and responses were closely interconnected. Findings highlight the importance of increased follow-up care aimed at supporting the family's psychological recovery.


2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (5) ◽  
pp. 365-372
Author(s):  
Abir K. Bekhet ◽  
Mauricio Garnier-Villarreal

Most dementia care is provided at home by family members. This caregiving places an additional burden on the family members, which can negatively impact their physical and psychological well-being. The caregivers’ burden can also contribute to behavioral problems in the care-recipients. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating/moderating effects of positive thinking (PT) on the relationship between caregivers’ burden (embarrassment/anger, patient’s dependency, and self-criticism) and their care-recipients’ behavioral problems (memory, depression, and disruption) in a sample of 100 dementia caregivers. Results indicated that caregivers’ embarrassment, self-criticism, and perception of patient dependency predicts depression in care-recipients, and these relationships are moderated by PT. Results also indicated that as PT increases, the relationship between embarrassment and disruption goes down as well as does the relationship between self-criticism and depression. The study provided direction for the development of a PT training intervention to help caregivers to combat their burden.


2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Aditi Rana

Mental illness is a growing reality of our times. Usually in a typical Indian family, the parents act as the primary caregivers for the child suffering from mental disorder. For adult sufferers, it can also be siblings or offspring, and  at times even spouse or partner. Research on the experiences of families of mentally ill people has been minimal in the Indian context. This study aims to shift the focus from the mentally ill patients to the suffering of the caregivers and families of the patient keeping in mind the interconnected well being of the family in a collectivist culture. Following a qualitative approach, narratives have been taken from the family members of mentally ill (narratives of 8 families with mentally ill person) and also the mental health professionals (two) through semi structured interviews. The findings suggest that the family members suffer from a significant amount of stress accompanied by burden. Also, they feel secluded from the society and experience a lack of assistance to deal with the mentally ill member of the family.


2019 ◽  
pp. 157-180
Author(s):  
Chinyere K. Osuji

This chapter compares the discursive strategies that black-white couples and their families drew on to navigate the integration of black spouses into white extended families. White Carioca families engaged in more openly racist opposition, racist humor, and/or indirect insults to express discomfort with blacks marrying into the family. In an “irony of opposition,” past race-mixing in Carioca white families did not shield black spouses from these sentiments. This countered the myth of racial democracy in which color is not an impediment to interpersonal relationships. Nevertheless, Carioca respondents were less likely to report resistance in white families than Angelino couples. U.S. couples' higher rates of domestic migration resulted in less integration of black spouses into white family life than among Brazilian couples, whose tight-knit family relationships led to black spouses' greater incorporation. Los Angeles couples understood white family members as using the discourse of “expressing concerns” about the relationship, then moving to more overt discouragement of marrying black partners. Couples understood this “expressing concern” discourse as an attempt at social desirability on the part of white family members, emblematic of U.S. “color-blind” racism.This chapter shows how intermarriage can leave white supremacy, anti-blackness, and racial boundaries intact within the family.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Calvo Botella

Es un hecho ampliamente aceptado el hecho de que el abuso de drogas y las conductas adictivas tienen consecuencias negativas en diferentes áreas de la vida familiar. Muchos miembros de la familia pueden mostrar perturbaciones psicológicas, psicosomáticas, afectivas, económicas,… pero paralelamente, es igualmente cierto que las dinámicas familiares pueden infl uir sobre las conductas adictivas y su tratamiento. En este artículo se comentan dicha infl uencia recíproca y el papel de la familia en la integración social del paciente adicto. AbstractIt is widely accepted that drug misuse and addictive behaviours havenegative consequences in different areas of family life. Many family members can show psychological, psychosomatic, affective, economic disturbances…, but it is true as well that family dynamics can infl uence addictive behaviours and their treatment. In this paper this reciprocal infl uence and the role of family in social integration of addicted patients are discussed.


Author(s):  
Darby Morhardt ◽  
Marcia Spira

When a member of a family is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, the impact of the disease reverberates throughout the relationships within the family. This paper explores the challenges and strengths within one family as members manage and cope with Alzheimer's disease. The person with dementia and his family members are individually interviewed and each person explores the consequences of the disease on personal well-being as well as the relationships within the family. The family demonstrates how dementia in one family member demands flexibility in family roles as they navigate life through the challenges of living with dementia.


Author(s):  
Veronica Dussel ◽  
Barbara Jones

In this chapter, we will focus on the importance of caring for the family of a child with a life-limiting condition (LLC) or life-threatening condition as a unit, each of the family members being integral to the well-being and care of the others. We recognize that the family unit itself is embedded within a wider context including the health and social care system, and more broadly within its society and culture. We discuss the concept of family, exploring the impact of having a child with an LLC, and how families adjust to this. We then expand on considerations about how to offer effective and timely support and help. We have included parents’ narratives with the aim of adding depth to the discussion, and in recognition of the truth of families’ own experiences.


1998 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 383-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
JS Leske ◽  
MK Jiricka

BACKGROUND: Increases in demands on patients' family members that are not reduced by family strengths may contribute to decreases in family adaptation and complicate patients' recovery after trauma. The purpose of this study was to examine family demands (prior stressors and severity of patients' injuries) and family strengths and capabilities (hardiness, resources, coping, and problem-solving communication) associated with outcomes of family well-being and adaptation. METHODS: A multivariate, descriptive design based on the Resiliency Model of Family Stress was used. A convenience sample of family members (N = 51) of adult patients participated within the first 2 days of critical injury. Family demands were measured with the Family Inventory of Life Events and Changes and the Acute Physiology, Age, and Chronic Health Evaluation III. Family strengths were measured with the Family Hardiness Index, Family Inventory of Resources for Management, Family Crisis Oriented Personal Evaluation Scale, and Family Problem Solving Communication Index. Family adaptation outcomes were measured with the Family Well Being Index and Family Adaptation Scale. RESULTS: Increases in family demands were significantly related to decreases in family strengths and family adaptation. Family demands scores accounted for 40% of the variance in family well-being scores. The only significant family strength variable influencing family adaptation was problem-solving communication. CONCLUSIONS: Increases in family demands seem to be an important indicator of the amount of assistance a family may need. Interventions that help mobilize family strengths, such as problem-solving communication, may be effective in promoting the adaptation of families of critically injured patients.


2005 ◽  
Vol 60 (4) ◽  
pp. 317-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol M. Musil ◽  
Theresa Standing

Little information exists about the daily lives of women who are grandmothers, and the differences in daily stresses based on caregiving status to grandchildren. This content analysis examines the stresses of 64 grandmothers as grouped by caregiver status (grandmothers raising grandchildren, grandmothers living in multigeneration homes, non-caregivers to grandchildren) as recorded in three-week diaries. The nature of salient issues and stressful interactions differed by caregiver groups. Grandmothers raising grandchildren reported more stresses related to grandchildren's routines, activities, and school progress, more time pressure, and difficult interactions with grandchildren. The diary entries of grandmothers in multigenerational homes reflected their supplemental role in childcare, and sometimes stressful interactions with other family members. Grandmothers with no routine caregiving to grandchildren reported more involvement with those outside the immediate family. Many general concerns about the well-being of the family represent commonalities in grandmothers despite differences in current caregiving roles to grandchildren.


Paragrana ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 214-234
Author(s):  
Christoph Wulf

Abstract This German-Japanese ethnographic study shows how important happiness and a satisfying life are for people, as well as how important the family is in this context. In an ethnographic study we examined the Christmas rituals of three families in Germany and the New Year rituals of three families in Japan. The goal of our study was to find out how family members create their well-being and happiness in rituals. In their mise-en-scène and staging of the happiness language and imagination, corporeality and performativity, mimetic processes, rituals, and gestures play an important role. We discovered and also analyzed transcultural elements of family happiness: the sacred foundation of the family, the importance of the communal meal, the role of the exchange of gifts, the function of narratives and memories, and the importance of time for each other to create togetherness.


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