Context magazine

Contents snapshot

Editorial: Working with complexities – Yoko Totsuka

The application of family therapy principles in a professional and family network meeting – Jenny Summer

Hope for children and families: An evidence-based resource pack for frontline practitioners targeting abusive and neglectful parenting and impairment of children’s health and development – Arnon Bentovim

Cambridge Safer Families: The experience so far – Sally Wood and Rachel Watson

A troubled family therapist undercover: Some reflections on working with ‘troubled families’ in a statutory agency – Chiara Santin

Newbridge revisited: Working in partnership with Wigan CAMHS and Newbridge Learning Community – Danny McGowan

“Oh I do like to be beside the seaside”: Working systemically with families in the youth-justice system – Linda Staines

Bridging CAMHS and social-care teams: Experience in a ‘troubled families’ project – Yoko Totsuka, Jessica Muir, Sylvia Metzer and Bella Obi

AFT Annual Conference 2013. Hope and resilience in hard times: Couples, families, therapists, in association with London AFT

AFT news

Psychological therapies in the NHS: Re-thinking psychological therapies in the new NHS – Gill Goodwillie

Rules of Conduct for Members – Policy document

Contents snapshot

Editorial – Alex Millham

Presence, resistance and attachment – “I am your parent; I will stay your parent” – An interview with Haim Omer by Alex Millham

The ‘sit-in’ – a demonstration of parental presence – An interview with Uri Weinblatt by Alex Millham

Love bombs as acts of resistance: Reflections on non-violent practice – An interview with Rachael Aylmer by Alex Millham

“We couldn’t give up on our son”: One non-violent resistance case study – many voices – Michelle Shapiro and the family members

‘Strike when the iron is cold’: Non-violent resistance in a child and adolescent psychiatric ward setting – Nick Goddard

Becoming a quiet leader: Non-violent resistance therapy with the parents of learning disabled young people who have become violent – Alex Millham

Using announcements within a multi-cultural/faith context – Shila Desai

Application of the non-violent resistance approach to gangs – Elisabeth Heismann, Dorota Rospierska and Helen Weatherley

The unmet needs of the child in non-violent resistance: Integrating developmental-dyadic-psychotherapy approaches – lessons from working with adoptive families – Denise Wilson and Margaret Smith

Fathers and non-violent resistance – Julia Jude and Veronica Rivera

Restoring competence and confidence – non-violent resistance as a response to child-to-parent violence in Ireland – Declan Coogan and Eileen Lauster

Non-violent resistance: A community-group programme for Latin American families – Liz Day and Gilda Flores Aqueveque

From Gandhi to therapy: Some reflections on the meaning of non-violence in systemic practice – Peter Jakob

Non-violence and a focus on the child: A UK perspective – Peter Jakob, Jim Wilson and Mary Newman

Examining the evidence for the non-violent resistance approach as an effective treatment for adolescents with conduct disorder – Barbara Gieniusz

Lebowitz, E.R. & Omer, H. (2013) Treating Childhood and Adolescent Anxiety: A Guide for Caregivers. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Reviewed by Graham Campbell

Holt, A. (2012) Adolescent-to-parent Abuse: Current Understandings in Research, Policy and Practice. Bristol: The Policy Press. Reviewed by Sue White

Adolescent to parent violence conference – a review. Monday 23rd September 2013, St Hilda’s College, University of Oxford. Midori Lumsden

A community of support: How a local primary school managed the effects of the Woolwich attack – Pete Brown, Julieann Sewell, Julie McGeechan, Hilary Phelps and Jasmin Choudhury

An ethics problem

Insider or outsider? Ramblings of a self-employed systemic practitioner in therapeutic child care – Michelle Newman Brown

Contents snapshot

Editorial – Ramón Karamat Ali

Making the journey west: Systemic pondering on the myths and realities of Cornwall’s personal and professional landscapes – Christine Stupples and Jenny Cove

Family therapy in adult mental health in Plymouth: A journey from the personal to the professional – Nigel Smith

A letter from Cornwall – Liz Burns

Making theory-practice links early on: A description of the ‘practice application day’ – Ramón Karamat Ali and Nigel Smith

Systemic therapy within an integrated children’s-service – Stephen Ettling

Neuro-developmental systemic work in North Devon: Managing different expectations – Lucy Jay and Helen Verrall

An interview with Janet Reibstein: Honouring one’s influences – John Woolner

Attachment narrative therapy in practice: Notes from Torbay – Rudi Dallos and Ramón Karamat Ali

“Do I talk too much?” Directness in the supervisory relationship – Sonja Upton and John Burnham

Research: Never mind the b*ll*cks – Anna Dias

“Any sexual problems?” The importance of exploring the sexual relationship when working with couples – Heidi P. Karamat Ali

Research project into the effects of disclosure of childhood sexual abuse – Maria Joy

Some other practices and developments – Ramón Karamat Ali

AFT news

Aspens noticeboard: The business of therapy – Susan Mary Benbow and Victoria Sharman

Re-launch of the David Campbell Fund for Creative Initiatives

Contents snapshot

Editorial – Brian Cade

Keeping one eye on family abuse is not enough – Nick Child

Playing with words as creative systemic-practice – Michelle Newman Brown

“Time to reflect”: Using solution-focused reflecting teams with family and children’s services staff – Nicola Jacyna and Jayne Harris-Waller

Whose reality is it anyway? Using improvisational-theatre games to engage with conversational approaches in systemic theory – Matt Selman and John Wheeler

Dialogue cards: Families, follow-up and feedback – Richard Lahey-James and Irene Samuel

The need for a multi-agency approach to gang-related behaviours – Marva Harris and Rita McGrath

Creating and noticing possibility – a tool for practice – Chrissie Blackburn and Paul Blackburn

Young men from refugee communities score goals for their future, using the team-of-life – Gillian Hughes and Pinder Kaur

Ethical dilemmas and challenges of a supervision group in a statutory service – Chiara Santin

Philippa Seligman. 24 June 1928 – 27 December 2013. Goodbye to a dear friend – Brian Cade

Margaret ‘Tiggie’ Robinson – founder member of AFT (1975), 1927 – 2013 – Andrew Curry

Notice of AFT Annual General Meeting

Report of the directors and unaudited financial statements for the year ended 31st December 2013 for The Association for Family Therapy

AFT news and annual reports

Contents snapshot

Editorial – Ged Smith

“This is not therapy”: Changing the context of engagement – Graham Lee

A systemic family therapy service within a social-care setting – Stefania Whitten Rialti and Chris Vincent

Steps towards fourfold vision: From the myth of power to a cybernetic unity of healing – Hugh Palmer

Titles: The stories that go unheard – Hendrix Hammond

Mum’s the word – reflections on how our own experiences can influence our therapeutic encounters and how we can continue to explore difference when our stories appear to be the same – Mairi Evans

No holds barred: The irony and dignity of couples therapy – Blake Griffin Edwards

Experiential therapy versus intellectual nagging – Blake Griffin Edwards

Contemporary systemic-practice: What does it look like in an acute psychiatric adolescent-inpatient setting? – Philippa Whittick

A sense of agency: The perspectives of CAMHS clinicians on participating in multi-agency meetings – Steve Littlewood

Reflections on supervision, and parallels with practice – Alison Burgess

The experience of undertaking a group reflective-diary during the MSc systemic-family-therapy training – Samantha Abbott, Aurora Bracelli, Lesley Novelle and Katie Wilkinson

Stories of re-connecting in challenging times: Workshop at the Centre for Systemic Therapy and Consultation, Athens, Greece – Miriam Richardson and Joanna Michopoulou

“What does she mean, mum?” Questioning and questioning about the questioning: A spiral of reflection in a family therapy team – Nuala Cullen and Christina Yates

Systemic practice with people with autistic spectrum conditions: Systemic research day; facilitated by Gail Simon, July 2014, University of Bedfordshire – Report by Sarah Helps

Reflections on teaching systemic skills to social workers in China – Reenee Singh and Yang Yang Teh

AFT news

A snapshot of the AFT annual conference 2014 in association with Merseyside AFT: Irreverence – (dis)respect, freedoms, loyalty, ethics & survival

Contents snapshot

Editorial – Jan Parker and Ian Lea

‘Like a thief in the night’: Insights and inspiration from young people and families affected by anorexia nervosa – Jan Parker

The danger of a single story: Reflections on the importance of holding a neutral curious position when externalising anorexia and some thoughts on how to create space to do this – Julie Barber, in collaboration with Abi Washington, Kinga Sylwestrzak-Grochulska & Hayley Smith

Towards a culturally-sensitive understanding of eating difficulties: Implications for CAMHS assessment and treatment – Kamala Persaud

Eating disorders: One young man’s thoughts – Connor Finch interviewed by Ian Lea

A tower of guilt – Steven Balmbra, Mildrid Valvik and Siri Lyngmo

It began with a cake: An MSc cohort’s experience of working creatively with a manualised model of treatment in the context of anorexia nervosa – Kay Gittins-Yarnall, Lindsay Murcott, Parveen Ghajminger Kaur, Carmel McLoughlin, Alec Pembleton, in collaboration with Richard, Lisa, Oliver and Jonathan Howard

Some reflections on engaging with anorexia: Its impact on practitioners and teams – Graham Lee

Ivan Eisler talks to Liz Dodge about the evolution of family therapy in eating disorders

A practitioner’s view – Carly Mendy

A reflexive journey for a family and a family therapy team – Tanya Smart

Groups for parents: Experiences from Essex, Salisbury and Berkshire

Turning up the volume – amplifying the silenced voices in families where there is an eating disorder – Sue Hickman, Jenny Reeves and Lorraine Jewell

Lizzie’s story – Lizzie

Shennan, G. (2014) Solution-Focused Practice: Effective Communication to Facilitate Change. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Reviewed by Paul Hackett

AFT news

Introducing AFT’s new project workers