Family therapists’ experiences of working with adolescents who self-harm and their families: A grounded theory study
Year: 2014
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This study is a qualitative enquiry into family therapists’ experiences of working with young people who self-harm and their families. To date, in spite of self-harm being a serious public health concern, there is relatively little exploration of the subject in family therapy literature. The study attempts to describe, understand and illuminate family therapists’ experiences: the therapeutic issues encountered, the stances adopted in response to the issues encountered, and the emotional impact on the therapist of working with this client group. \n \nA total of nine experienced family therapists participated in semi-structured interviews. The study employed a grounded theory method for data analysis. The analysis yielded a theory of therapists’ experiences that included a Core Category and three Main Categories. \n \nThe Core Category that emerged was: \n \n•Cultivating the Practice of Hope – Withstanding the Pull to Hopelessness. \n \n \n \nThe three Main Categories were: \n \n•Making the Situation Safe \n \n•Conversing Therapeutically – The Practice of Hope \n \n•Team and Organisational Processes: Supporting Therapists. \n \n \n \nThe Core Category is the central feature of this theory. It proposes that the central concern for the therapist is how to stay engaged with the family and the young person in the context of serious risk of self-harm and in situations where change is difficult to achieve and hopelessness can pervade. The therapist has to try to understand and make sense of family members’ distress, and be touched by and open to their feelings of despair and hopelessness without becoming overwhelmed and despairing themselves. The therapist response to this dilemma is the stance of hopefulness. It is both a therapeutic stance and orientation, and is enacted in practice through finding ways to cultivate hope in the therapeutic encounter. \n \nWhile the Core Category is the central ‘story’ the three Main Categories are linked to the Core Category. \n \nThe Main Category, Making the Situation Safe describes the initial stage of the work, with its focus on ensuring the safety of the young person. \n \nThe Main Category, Conversing Therapeutically – the Practice of Hope describes how the therapists enacted the ‘practice of hope’. \n \nThe Main Category, Team and Organisational Processes: Supporting Therapists describes how the context in which the therapists work, the nature of relationships, the team and organisational structures, play a critical role in supporting therapist hope, so that they can withstand the pull to hopelessness. \n \n \n \nThis study aims to make a contribution towards articulating a framework for family therapy with adolescents who self-harm and introduces a new vocabulary – the language of hope and hopelessness.
Author: Colette Richardson
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2610064727