Method :

1. More families, more possibilities, more solutionsA day care treatment for familiesBruno Hillewaere & Ann Vancoppenolle ‘Change is happening all the time….Our role is to identify useful change and amplify it.’ Gregory Bateson ‘By nature we have no weakness that cannot become a strength’ J.W. Goethe Figure 1: part of a solution-focused genogram Introduction: This presentation describes the methodology of a day care treatment for (3 to 4) families with adolescents in The Viersprong Insitute, Halsteren, Netherlands. It offers a specialised treatment program of nine days (spread over ten weeks) for families with a variety of problems, such as blocked interaction processes between parents and teenagers. Method: The applied method is a combination of different models, with a strong emphasis on Multi Family Therapy (Asen, 2002), Solution-Focused Therapy (de Schazer, 1991, 1994; Berg & De Jong, 1998) and a reflecting team. A) Multi Family Therapy: For the treatment of a group of different families we found inspiration in the ideas about multiple family therapy (Laquer, in: Asen, 2002) and made some applications for the method and the setting. Families and adolescents are experimenting with distance and proximity. Adolescents have often a ambivalent desire: leaving home and being able to come home for support. Therefore, a healthy balance in sessions with the whole group, within one family and in the peer group is recommended Figure 1: Families are invited to draw their own genogram. Leisure activities, resources and ‘qualities’ are added to the genogram. Figure 2: examples of goalsetting in the initial phase: • To talk more open in the family • To develop a better atmosphere • Taking our time to have dinner together • To react more directly and open in case of conflicts Segment of solution-focused MFT: This fragment is about a (single) mother (‘J’) with an (only) seventeen years old son. The mother is in search of how she can set reasonable and realistic goals. More specific, she is looking for a way that can be ‘good enough’. Other families, especially the other mothers are trying to help. Mother J: “I don’t really know what to do … especially when he doesn’t do anything at all… that is so completely again my own feelings… Mother K: “But you can do it… I have learnt how to do it.. Mother J: “But nothing at all… you see, I mean, between everything and nothing is a way in between, that is what I would like.” Th1: “You would like to involve him, You would like to be able to still ask him some things…” Mother K: “Yes, this must be possible (= has to be), I must (should) be able to ask him…” Mother S: “You say ‘must’ quite a lot…” Mother J: “really?” Mother S: “Yes, that little sentence. For me that is like…” Th2: “Well, that could be a very nice goal. For instance… only in two sentences one ‘must’, instead of every sentence…” Mother S: “You know, you say ‘must’ really very often, do you realise that?” Mother J: “No, I don’t hear it myself when I say it…” Mother S: “Try to listen to yourself, how often you use this word ‘must’… ” Mother S: “You should count yourself, how often you say ‘must’…” Mother K: “I can see myself…” Th2: “How are you going to write it down?” Mother J: “I must… (laughs), I thought to say, I ‘must’… (corrects herself): I want to think twice before I say or do something…” Th1: “Can the others help you with that?” Mother J: “Yes,all help is welcome” Goals are at the initial stage formulated by the family in their own words. Afterwards they are formulated in a more concrete way (SMART: specific, measurable, attractive, concrete and time-related) C) Reflecting Team and Reflecting processes Lastly, an application of a Reflecting Team and ideas about Reflecting Processes (Andersen, 1987) were added to the program, taking in consideration de Schazer’s reflections on team work and his ideas about ‘polyocular viewpoints’ (de Schazer, 1991).Adolescents and families are progressively invited to share their reflections in a respectful way. e.g. a 17 year old girl chooses the metaphor of a turtle to express to her parents that she sometimes walks more slowly then her parents, but that she is confident to arrive where she wants to arrive. Conclusion and further recommendations This presentation describes the methodology of a day care treatment for families with adolescents. Three different models are combined into one programme. Case examples offer a more concrete idea about the programme and its content. The presented approach is not a miracle, but a useful way to empower families and realise very concrete progress.Further research is recommended, and will start in 2008. References Andersen, T. (1987). The Reflecting Team: Dialogue and metadialogue in clinical work. Family Process, 26, 415-428. Asen, E. (2002). Multiple Family Therapy: an overview. Journal of Family Therapy, 24:3-16. Berg, I.K., & De Jong, P. (1998). Interviewing for solutions. New York: Brooks/ Cole. De Shazer, S. (1991). Putting difference to work. New York: Norton. De Shazer, S. (1994). Word were originally magic. New York: Norton. Hillewaere, B. (2006). Werken met de mogelijkheden van cliënten en families door middel van kernkwadranten en genogrammen.Tijdschrift voor Psychotherapie, 32, 3, pp. 161 –177. (English: Hillewaere, B., Bertolino, B., & Loots, G., Strengthening families using genograms and core qualities, subm.) Hillewaere, B., & Lefevere de Ten Hove, M. (2006). Narratieve en oplossingsgerichte toepassingen bij genogrammes: samen hoopvolle perspectieven creëren. Tijdschrift voor systeemtherapie, 18, 2, pp. 69-87. (English: Hillewaere, B., & Jordan, K., Narrative and solution-focused genograms to therapeutic ends: creating hopeful perspectives, subm.) Hillewaere, B., Van Gerwen, J., Deuss, I., Sluyter, L., & Bakker, H. (2007). Meer gezinnen, meer mogelijkheden, meer oplossingen. Tijdschrift voor systeemtherapie in press, dec. 2007 ). B) Solution focused Therapy: Inspired by the solution-focused therapy (Berg & De Jong, 1998; de Sahzer, 1991, 1994), we invite families to mobilise their strengths and resources to realise very concrete changes towards their own chosen goals. We developed several different solution-focused techniques, e.g. solution-focused genograms (Hillewaere & Lefevere de Ten Hove, 2006), goalsetting, family drawings, a family dictionary and the corequality model for families (Hillewaere, 2006), that were added to the programme. More information: Bruno.Hillewaere@deviersprong.nl of www.deviersprong.nl