Context magazine
In this edition
Editorial
Editorial – Mark Chidgey and Jo George
Feature articles
Kinship and community: Harnessing the power of family group conferencing for children in care – Alexandra Benyon
Heart and hope: The meaning of home for children and young people in foster care – Andrea Warman
Holding onto hope, talking and being with heart. Towards building home: Centring narratives of gain and moving away from narratives of loss – Shakila Emmanuel and Anees Fatima Hakim
From herd to community: How horses inspire hopeful journeys in residential childcare – Deborah Judge
Exploring art-making in therapeutic group work with unaccompanied, asylum-seeking, young men – Lucy Gorell Barnes
Complex caring systems: Systemic work within residential childcare – Abi Jordan and Samantha Hogan
Having to be systemic to survive: Personal and professional stories of being in care – a conversation – Susan Crawford and Mark Chidgey
Be-longing – Emma Palmer
The sleeping giant: Working systemically with sleep issues – Christy Reynolds
Reports and reviews
EFTA-NFTO Norway: Family therapy and systemic practice in Norway – Lennart Lorås
Looking back and forwards – Gillian Petrie
Association news
Context overview
Context is the Association for Family and Systemic Psychotherapy (AFSP)’s well-respected bi-monthly magazine. It’s a valued, accessible, user-friendly resource and forum for qualified family and systemic psychotherapists, students and other health professionals interested in systemic practice.
The magazine is packed with news and views on the issues that matter to professionals working with families, adults and children in a therapeutic environment. A space to share and stimulate therapeutic ideas, it features the latest events, publications, training, conferences and workshops.
Accessing Context
Context is included with AFSP membership. Full, retired and student members can access digital versions of previous issues back to 2010 below, and have the option to receive new issues in the post. Those with free student memberships can only access digital copies.
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Writing for Context
Interesting in writing an article for the magazine? We welcome views on family and systemic psychotherapy from everyone, regardless of where you are in your career or what your background is.
Back issues
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Brian Cade
Remembering Robin Skynner and what I learned from what he taught me – Liz Burns
The Unconference – a process-driven alternative to the AFT conference – Piers Newman
Interconnections: The use of coordinated management of meaning from clinical practice to teaching systemic hypothesising – Joana Ribeiro and Chandra O’Connor
Change and COVID-19: An example of a response to the challenges on wellbeing and connections within the workplace – Olivia Harris, Natalie Slay, Charlotte Jones, Andy Busfield, Daisy Twigger and Vuokko Wallace
The power of words unspoken – Peter Jones, Aileen McMullin and Jade Rawlins
Supporting frontline safeguarding social workers during COVID-19 using a virtual platform: Food for thought – Anna Diers
Family intervention in forensic mental health services – Andy Cook and Julie Payne
The tree of life continues to bear fruit in the terrain of south Oxon CAMHS: A narrative of a narrative process – Shona Reed Purvis and Sarah Coles
This sounds a lot like therapy: Inviting dialogues, connection and change in research – James Randall, David Wellsted and Lizette Nolte
Harry Procter and David Winter (2020) Personal and Relational Construct Psychotherapy. London: Palgrave/Macmillan. Reviewed by Andy Treacher
IFT virtual workshop: 1.5-order therapy: On knowing, certainty and the conundrum of power in the therapy room, presented by Ged Smith, 25 September 2020 – Report by Eleanor Osman
Life appreciation of John Byng-Hall – John Hills
Tributes to John Byng-Hall
Alan Cooklin and Gill Gorell Barnes (eds.) (2021) Building Children’s Resilience in the Face of Parental Mental Illness. London: Routledge. Reviewed by Gwyn Daniel.
AFT news
Contents snapshot
Brian Cade: 19 August 1942 – 23 February 2021 – Bebe Speed and Kate Daniels
Editorial 2.0 – Susan Mary Benbow and Carole Payne
Riding the merry-go-round in mental health services: Stepping on and stepping off – Madelaine’s story – Angela Shanly and ‘Madelaine’
Towards a systemic model of risk in independent practice – Percy Aggett and Philip Messent
A framework for collaborative working in independent practice – Katrina Waller
Establishing an ethical private practice – Randall Horton and Sarah McConnell
Is mother-daughter therapy a thing? – Rosjke Hasseldine
My therapy chair – Chiara Santin
My favourite pen – Susan Mary Benbow
My path to independent practice – Elaine Holliday
Multiple streams of service: Collaborative-independence as systemic marketplace ministry – Maureen Greaves
Zen mind systemic mind – exploring connections that enhance practice… – Chris Hannah
Developing an ‘internalised representation of significant influencers’ (irosi) as a method and technique, within practice of systemic self-supervision – Kinga Sylwestrzak-Grochulska
The loneliness of the expert witness: Private law where parental alienation is alleged – Myrna Gower and Chip Chimera
Cinderella versus lady knights on horseback – Kate Lewis
Challenges and opportunities in private practice – Hazel Ann Hyslop
Hitch-hikers’ guide to private practice – a practitioner’s tale – Victoria Sharman
Branching out: West Yorkshire AFT – a story of development from birth and early childhood to adolescent yearnings – Carole Hunt
AFT webinar series
Notions of home within a CAMHS inpatient unit – a webinar presented by Hannah Sherbersky, 17 December 2020 – Reviewed by Dianne Russell
AFT AGM and ‘A solution-focused approach to trauma’ – a workshop presented by Ben Furman, 19 October 2020 – Reviewed by Fawzia Kauser
Couples work in the context of the NVR approach – a webinar presented by Erica Pavord and Sarah Rogers, 1 December 2020 – Reviewed by Colin O’Doherty
ASPENS 2021: Relationships in the time of pandemic
Ethical independent practice in a coronavirus world, webinar presented by Chiara Santin and Susan Mary Benbow, 19 January 2021 – Reviewed by Gill Wallis and Julie Shankly
Working differently in a coronavirus world: Affordances and constraints, webinar presented by Gill Goodwillie and Nicola McCarry, 27 January 2021 – Reviewed by Kate Creedy
Maintaining closeness at a time of distancing, webinar presented by Victoria Sharman and Elaine Holliday, 4 February 2021 – Reviewed by Rubi Salam-Ahmed
AFT webinar series
Living in a Zoom world: Assessment and risk assessment in the online environment, moderated by Richard McKenny, 10 February 2021 – Reviewed by Jennifer McKinney
‘ISLAMOPHOBIA and beyond?’, presented by John Hills and Nasima Khanom, 18 February 2021 – Reviewed by Jenny Tozer
Information for employers and commissioners – AFT professional affairs committee
AFT news
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Rav Khela and Joanne Buchmüller
Thinking theory and talking ordinary – An interview with John Burnham
One perspective on NVR – Karl Tomm
An interview with Haim Omer
Interview with Dan Dulberger
Non-violent resistance-based interventions in residential care with teenage refugees: Finding new ways – Kerstin Thys and Annelies Huybrechts
Regulating the emotion of shame: A key factor in helping family members reconnect – Uri Weinblatt
Highly dependent adult children (‘failure to launch’) – Eli R Lebowitz
NVR and resource-oriented practice: An empowering pair – Sven Bussens
Beyond parenting: Therapeutic integration of non-violent resistance and narrative therapy – Peter Jakob and Sarah
The chicken or the egg: Anger, aggression and anorexia – Joanne Buchmüller and Jill Lubienski
Connections which pattern: NVR feeds an eating disorder programme – John Burnham, Beki Brain (co-leaders) and ‘Juanella’ (graduate parent)
Why we (also) need non-violent resistance: When the ‘gold standard’ service offered by early intervention in psychosis services is not always enough – Mark Batterham, Michelle Mogg, Luke Cousins and Nat Burgess
NVR: A whole system approach – Nicky Maund and Lydia Stafford
A thousand battles – Sarah Cole and Carole Payne
Making positive changes for supporters in NVR practice – Stephanie Hicks
NVR UK; Past, present and future: Reflections – Aimi Willmer, Dawn Oliver, Elisabeth Heismann, Liz Day, Julia Jude, Sue Dromey, Michelle McCarthy, Margaret Smith and Denise Wilson
‘Dysgu’ – teaching, learning and embodying NVR – Kiran Flynn and Ann Jones
The differences between traditional parenting and NVR parenting from the viewpoint of different family members – Dawn Oliver, Rachel Braverman and Sophie Doswell
Creative use of personalised interventive interviewing reflexive questions – TK Vincent
Tributes to Pat Gray
Narratives of forgiveness: A tribute to Pat Gray (from the webinar ‘Trauma – the emotional demands it makes on us as clinicians and the resources we draw on in our systemic practice to support families’ presented by Pat Gray and Gillian Hughes at the Manchester AFT symposium, ‘Working with trauma: Building stories of hope and resilience’), 17 March 2021 – Kate Campbell
Both/and: Relational resilience, traumatic disruption – webinar presented by Gerrilyn Smith at the Manchester AFT symposium, ‘Working with trauma: Building stories of hope and resilience’, 15 March 2021 – Kate Campbell
AFT webinar series: A couple in transition: The ultimate challenge? – a webinar by Ruth Yudkin and experienced experts, 26 February 2021 – Emma Balogun
The AFT ethics committee
Statement
The AFT Diversity, Equality and Inclusivity Fund
AFT news
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Chip Chimera and John Burnham
Working with people with chronic pain, chronic illness and their significant relationships. A version of a presentation made by Barry Mason for The Robin Skynner Memorial Lecture at the Institute of Family Therapy in 2016 (edited for this publication by John Burnham and Alison Roper-Hall) – Barry Mason
Just good: Reflections on friendship – Charlotte Burck and Gwyn Daniel
Risk, relationship and authenticity: On Barry Mason’s very good ideas – Carmel Flaskas
The marathon runner: A tribute to friendship – Jim Wilson
Acts of liberation and organisational freedom: Barry as leader and businessman – Barbara McKay
Collaborating with Barry – the inadvertent specialist – Viv Gross
Barry: Singaporean at heart – based on a contribution to Barry Mason’s festschrift, 30 October 2020 – Ruth Chua
For Barry. Teacher, colleague but above all, friend: Based on a presentation at Barry Mason’s Festschrift – Petter Næsje and Morten Hammer
Faith values and relationships – relational risk-taking – Rabia Malik
An invitation to enter into a primary relationship with one another in the face of adversity – Lizette Nolte
Knitting with air: Some reflections on supervision with Barry – John Flynn
Gemstones in the sand – Carolyn Bush
Handing over: Reflections on “Bateson night” – Steve Bagnall
The gentle art of supervision – Pete Brown
My critical moments with relational risk-taking and safe uncertainty – Hendrix Hammond
Barry and exploring the unsaid – Gill Gorell Barnes
Families living with RARE genetic conditions: Stories of strengths – Mariangels Ferrer and Nichola Garde
AFT and the Psychological Professions Network – Amy Urry
AFT news
Contents snapshot
Editorial – Ged Smith
Leaving academic dissociation behind: Writing in our own voices – Gail Simon
Be wary of ‘evidence-based practices’ taking hold in the field of psychotherapy – Blake Griffin Edwards
Towards a systemic social work quadrant – Jamie Evans
Watch your language – Andrea Francois-Taylor
Working systemically with separating parents: Ideas from the Parenting Apart Programme – Paul Walton
Re-storying routine outcome measures with children in care: A narrative approach to mental health assessments – Rick Murphy
On becoming a grandmother and revisiting the genogram as a powerful social-contextual tool – Julie Brough
Critical moments in ‘voice entitlement’ narratives: Reflecting on personal and professional development in systemic supervision exchanges – Dario Pellegrini
A blended family? Family therapists in conversation about the trainingof peer-supported open dialogue, social network and relationship skills – Val Jackson and Cathy Thorley
Strengthening the heritage: Re-telling the stories of our British Bangladeshi elders – Romena Toki and Tahmid Rahman
AFT webinar series:
Working with nightmares: From narrative to embodied re-processing – a webinar by Dzmitry Karpuk and Tom Stoneham, 14 May 2021 – Reviewed by Hanna Isaacson
Narrative influences in NVR – a webinar by Pete Brown, Friday 18 June 2021 – Reviewed by Penny Ruth Willis
Getting involved in the Journal of Family Therapy – a webinar by Philip Messent, editor of the Journal of Family Therapy, and Reenee Singh (former editor), Monday 19 April 2021 – Reviewed by Jenny Tozer
Golden moment with parrot – Hilary Graham
Branching out: AFT Scotland – Sarah Eldrid, Tracy McDonald and Lynne Spiteri
AFT news
Contents snapshot
‘Business as usual?’ Collaborative-dialogical leadership and organisation: Lessons from the COVID years – Percy Aggett
Online in a climate of uncertainty – reflections on systemic teaching and practice during COVID-19: From gloom to Zoom – Marilyn Brennan, Cathy Taylor, Sofi Robinson and Heleni Andreadi
Taking it online – Lesley Novelle, Kath Williamson, Rachel Edinborough, Danielle Halliday, Alex Lloyd and Tracie Ward
Stories on COVID: Narrative therapy groups for adults with psychosis – Naureen Whittinger
Time capsule 2020: Taking collective narrative practice online – Rachel Marfleet
COVID conversations: Horror and hope – Joe Powell, Victoria Jones, Katarina Luce, Jennifer McElwee and Mark Haydon-Laurelut
Learning remote lessons in the year of lockdown – Danny Goddard
Crisis as a juncture and a possible opportunity – Yoko Totsuka
Reflecting on clinical work and supervision during the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of Barry Mason’s concepts of safe uncertainty, relational risk-taking and transparency – Jenny Altschuler
Remembering Barry Mason – Steven Soh, Sharon Sng, Rebecca Lo, Elijah Sim, Terence Tan and Foo Soo Jen
Autism and intersectionality: Implications for systemic and relational psychotherapeutic practice and research. 3rd autism and systemic practice conference, July 2021 – Hosted by the autism and systemic practice conference steering group: Mairi Evans, Deni Gordon-Jackson, Freda McEwen, Gail Simon, David Steare, Dawn Thibert, Fran Urbistondo Cano
Report on the current status of the David Campbell fund, and a call for initiatives in the areas of anti-discrimination and anti-racist practice – Peter Stratton
The AFT registration committee
AFT news
Also of interest
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