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Building a case for good parenting in a family therapy systemic environment: resisting blame and accounting for children's behaviour

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Journal of Family Therapy

Published online on

Abstract

Systemic family therapy promotes a systemic reframing of individual problems to an understanding of the familial processes influencing family functioning. Parents often attend therapy identifying their child as the key problem, which raises issues of accountability and blame. In this article, we explored the discursive practices used by parents for constructing themselves as ‘good parents’. Using the basic principles of conversation analysis and discursive psychology, we analysed actual therapeutic sessions and found that parents used a range of strategies to display their good parenting. This included directly claiming to be a good parent, illustrating how they act in their child's best interests, showing that they parent in appropriate ways and by making appeals to scientific rhetoric. It was concluded that family therapists have a challenging task in managing competing versions of events and we discussed implications for practice. Practitioner points Parents tend to blame their children for the problems experienced and this blaming tends to be done in front of the children during the therapy. By being explicitly aware of the discursive strategies parents employ in therapy, therapists can reflect on how to manage these challenging conversational practices. Conversation analysis may serve as a tool to support reflection, as therapists examine their own interactions during the therapy. 在家庭治疗系统环境里支持良好父母教养:抑制责备与解释儿童行为 系统家庭治疗鼓励对个人问题用系统视角重新构建, 用于理解家庭过程对家庭功能的影响。参加治疗的父母通常认为孩子是问题的关键, 由此产生归咎和责备。在本文中, 我们探索父母在展现自身“良好教养方式”时所采用的话语行为 。 我们用对话分析的基本原则和话语心理学分析了实际的治疗过程, 并发现父母用了一系列的策略显示他们的良好教养行为。这包括直接宣称自己是好父母、解释他们是怎样为孩子考虑、展示他们是怎样采用合适而科学的教养方式等。研究结论是, 家庭治疗师所面临的一个挑战是处理对事件的互相矛盾的解释。本文也对研究结果对实践的启示做了讨论。 对实务工作者的启示 父母经历问题时倾向于责备他们的孩子, 而且这种责备通常发生在咨询室里、在孩子面前。 治疗师通过明确地意识到父母在治疗过程中采取的话语策略, 可以反思怎样处理这些具有挑战性的对话行为。 治疗师在检视自己在治疗中的互动时, 对话分析可以成为支持反思的一种工具。 关键词: 家庭治疗;儿童;责备;归咎;对话分析。