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This paper reviews controversies about domestic violence occurring in heterosexual relationships discussed in the Australian context by practitioners and academics and published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy over the past three decades. Controversies arose in relation to the provision of therapeutic interventions for domestic violence, primarily in individual and couple counselling and group programs. After a literature review, the following controversial issues are identified: (1) the role of patriarchy: Is a patriarchal culture the main cause of domestic violence? (2) Systemic family therapy and gendered violence: Does systemic family therapy hide men's responsibility for domestic violence? (3) Therapeutic and educational interventions for domestic violence: Does therapy turn a 'crime' into a 'psychological problem'? (4) Men as victims: Do both men and women perpetrate domestic violence in equal measure? (5) It takes two to tango: What part do women play in eliciting men's violence? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is underpinned by the premise that for recovery, healing and post-traumatic growth to occur after traumatic events such as technological and natural disasters, massacres and terrorist attacks, effective therapeutic services need to be offered at both the individual and community level. Frequently, responses to such traumatic instances have been conceptualised as discrete, polarised interventions offered by various groups of health and welfare professionals at various points post the traumatic event. Traditionally when therapeutic interventions are considered, many practitioners assume that the response would, and should, focus primarily and narrowly, on individuals or their families and the symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Conversely, the perceived role of community wide interventions has been unnecessarily limited to disaster relief or organised emergency responses most usually offered at the time of the crisis. The consequence of these limited understandings is an apparent failure to explore fully the therapeutic or mediating role of social or community support in surviving trauma. Interventions encompassing the level of community might be therapeutic in two fundamental ways. First, if practitioners embraced ideas from systemic family therapy literature, ideas that acknowledge the importance of social networks, this would encourage a more holistic vision of resilience and recovery. Second, if practitioners recognised that whole communities and social networks might also be traumatised, they could provide support and interventions oriented toward healing at this broader level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to show how a trauma lens can be incorporated into existing family therapy practices, changing how therapists perceive presenting problems and therefore the issues and sites of intervention. After reviewing the family therapy literature concerning trauma and defining different types of trauma, the paper discusses how traumatic memories differ from ordinary memories. Ten principles for practice are described to guide therapists in integrating the trauma lens into their family therapy practice. Three case studies are used to illustrate these principles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the stages of the refugee journey and the intersections of domestic violence with culture, trauma, resettlement and masculinity Arguing that therapists must challenge aspects of culture that promote violations of women's human rights while understanding the unique situation of refugee families, the article concludes by identifying principles for therapeutic and community based interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes that some perpetrators of domestic violence respond to their partners' apparent rejection of them with abusive behaviour, and that there exists a cycle of rejection and abuse. The model posits that some men, having experienced rejection within their families of origin or in relation to past partners, become sensitive to potential rejection in their current relationships. The cycle for rejection-sensitive men consists of an event that constitutes a threat to self, leading to a defence against this threat which in turn results in psychological or physical abuse. This model was tested on sixty-six male participants of perpetrator group programmes who completed a survey designed to measure each point in the proposed model through path analysis. There was support for the following model: rejection, threat to self-defence against threat, abuse. Other paths were tested, but were not significant. These results are discussed in terms of the implications for treating perpetrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Internationally and locally, human service workers face unprecedented challenges in effectively responding to clients' trauma-related experiences. The use of combined or 'multifaceted' responses which emphasize the importance of community in responding to trauma is progressively finding support within the trauma literature. Accordingly educators must necessarily prepare students to provide informed, multifaceted interventions to trauma in their future practice. This article discusses the development of a course entitled 'From Individual to Community Intervention: Therapeutic Responses to Trauma', which aims to educate social work students in multifaceted responses to a range of traumatic experiences and effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The couple and family therapy literature has lacked clarity concerning different types of non-physical abuse, the relative severity of non-physical abuse and its impact on the target person. Non-physical abuse may be confused with relationship conflict or remain unrecognized by therapists when it occurs in the absence of physical violence. Building on research about the pernicious effects of non-physical abuse, this paper presents a framework to assist family therapists to identify non-physical abuse taking into account the length of time the abuse has been occurring, the intentions of the abuser and the impact on the victim. This framework conceptualizes first degree non-physical abuse as “verbal” abuse; second degree as “emotional” abuse and third degree as “psychological” abuse, the most debilitating form of all. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Five experienced Australian and New Zealand family therapists and trainers seek to answer the question: 'What key concepts and core learnings should be part of any family therapy training course? They debate the usefulness of making ‘shopping lists’ of core concepts, the importance of considering trainers' and trainees' contexts in the formation of their values and perspectives, and the distinctive role of Family of Origin work in training, clarifying central themes. Three experienced trainers respond to the issues raised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is our aim to present gestalt therapy, formulated by Frederick S. Perls, to social workers in the hope that they might give some consideration to the issues gestalt therapy raises and utilize some of the techniques in their practice of casework and group work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper presents an outline of how "feminists of difference" have used psychoanalytic theory to shed light on the construction of gender. i.e., masculine and feminine identifies. The paper considers the role of the unconscious, relationships of domination and submission, and the critique of the sex/gender distinction. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

No abstract available for this article. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The authors argue that the phrase "feminist family therapy" suggests a compatibility between two bodies of knowledge and practice-feminism and family therapy -which they believe has not been adequately articulated. Accordingly, the field lacks a clear theoretical framework which could yield a consistent practice methodology reflective of both feminist and systemic/cybernetic understandings. While it is not yet clear that such a theoretical integration is possible-or even necessarily desirable-the authors explore the possibility that Bateson's concept of "double description" may provide the basis of such a model. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

From a feminist perspective, the family therapy literature concerning incest fails to perceive the patriarchal context of abusive behavior and consequently blames the victim. This paper critiques the family therapy literature by drawing on the feminist discourse concerning incest. Several pervasive myths are identified: (a) that fathers and mothers are pathologically disturbed or inadequate; (b) incest is caused by separation and loss; (c) family isolation or a rigid external boundary explains incest; and (d) incest serves a function in maintaining family organization. By analyzing the contradictions arising from these polemical positions, we propose criteria for developing an adequate clinical account of incest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the literature on family therapy and trauma, an interview with neuroscientist and clinician Bruce Perry, and the Bowen family systems theory.