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In this article I would like to investigate the place of the couple in family therapy intervention. Within this I will look at the usefulness of the concepts of triangulation and triangles in families and as to whether it is a theory that translates to be useful in practice and in technique. Attention will be paid to both the experience of this phenomena and emerging theories of the mind which casts new light on the concept of the emotional triangle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study is an account of a post-traumatic family attempting to come to terms with life after violence, and the effectiveness of family therapy in supporting this transition. The fighting between two young girls had maintained the violence in the family dynamic and their highly anxious adolescent brother remained unable to let go of his protective position and move forward with his own life. The backdrop of the case was a novice family therapist and a mother with borderline traits who found it difficult to keep the therapeutic work within the bounds of the therapy sessions. Despite these difficulties meaningful change could be seen after only seven sessions of family therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A personal narrative of author's experience with original dialogical exercise is presented.

An introduction for the periodical "Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy" is presented in which editor mentions several articles discussed within this issue including reflective practice, family therapy, and learning therapy.

The author discusses aspects related to importance of intersession break during family therapy and time to think (TTT) space. Topics discussed include psychological strategy required to treat psychological condition of different family members, restoration of reflective space, and ability for autonomous functioning.

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editor discusses various reports published within the issue including "How and Why Do Family and Systemic Therapies Work?" by Alan Carr, "On Family Therapy Training in Psychiatric Education: A Recent Trainee's Perspective," by Timothy Rice, and "Collaboration: Suggested Understandings," by Sundet and colleagues.

There is a long history of literature concerning integrative practice and how a systemic practice can fit with other models of therapy. Much of this literature has focused on establishing a space for systemic therapy within the dominant medical paradigm, and exploring how the medical model can be enhanced by systemic ideas. The outcome has been better practice, especially in child and adolescent mental health. Interestingly, however, there has been less discussion of the converse: the family therapy literature has rarely considered whether or not systemic practice itself can be enhanced by ideas from the dominant medical model. This article proposes that a biopsychosocial formulation can enhance systemic practice by: (I) holding clinicians accountable for their thinking; (2) facilitating a rigour and attention to detail that may prove useful when therapy falters; (3) opening up other possibilities for intervention; and (4) providing a way to engage with the dominant medical paradigm and support clients in negotiating their way through this system. Potential problems nevertheless arise when integrating a biopsychosocial formulation into a systemic framework. This article identifies these problems and presents ideas for how they can be managed in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following interview was conducted during the 29th Australian Family Therapy Conference, September 29 to October 3, 2008, at The University of Queensland, Australia Paolo Bertrando, psychiatrist and systemic psychotherapist, was trained in Milan by Gianfranco Ceechin and Lugi Boscolo, with whom he collaborated in the 1990s. His present interests concern the dynamics of systemic therapy, the use of systemic therapy with individuals and the relevance of emotions for systemic practice. Michael Locke works as a consultant in practice development and service delivery systems at Centacare Catholic Family and Community Services, Brisbane. He has worked in both public and community based agencies utilising both systemic and brief therapy orientations with individuals, couples and families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article was to explore the potential application of the science of complexity to aspects of team, family and group systems. A child and adolescent mental health Day Program as a tightly knit multidisciplinary team closely interacting with family systems, provides an opportunity to illustrate concepts of this general scientific framework and offer potentially unique insights. In particular the relevance of diversity and interconnectivity between parts of a system are highlighted, Ideas explored include team functioning, how change occurs in families and new ways of looking at groups. Furthermore, complexity provides support for intensive multisystemic interventions such as the Day Program to assist families with severe and chronic child mental health issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The initial section of this article describes the frequency with which people are exposed to various forms of traumatic stressors and the limitations of linear thinking in both assessing and treating the consequences of traumatic exposure as reported by the Institute of Medicine. The middle section of the article identifies the research and theory that supports the utility of systemic thinking and action in working with traumatised systems, especially families. The final section includes an outline of a protocol for family therapists and other systems-informed practices to help traumatised families and other systems. A critical part of the protocol is that it meets the standards of trauma-informed practice reflected by the Green Cross Academy of Traumatology and the International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) guidelines, and the six criteria for evaluating treatment approaches. These criteria include do no harm, exposure titration control, reciprocal inhibition tuning, quantity and quantity of training, fit and fidelity, and evidence of effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The therapist's capacity to imagine is one specific part of the endeavour of empathy, which lies at the heart of the processes of the therapeutic relationship. This article offers beginning ideas about the significance of therapist's imagination of self in relation to her/his clients in the task of trying to understand their experience. In seeking to understand' the experience of others, the therapist is able to move between an imagination of sameness/identification with the client/s, and an imagination of difference/foreignness'. The family therapy orientation of curiosity and 'not-knowing' relies on the imagination of self as different to our clients; more traditional understandings of empathic connection rely more heavily on the imagination of sameness/identification with clients. This article argues that flexibility in the therapist's use of self in moving between these positions allows an expanded capacity for therapeutic connectedness. These ideas have special valence in the practice territories of impasse and intercultural therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A reflection written on the 20th anniversary of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy and around the first anniversary of the death of its first editor and respected Narrative therapist, author and theorist Michael White. This article reviews the influence of Michael White on the work and life of the author. In this reflection, it reviews some of the significant features of Michael White's teaching, which allows a consideration of claims of 'guru-ism' occasionally related to Michael White's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sneaky Poo (1984) announced Michael White, the second order cyberneticist, to the world. But there were several versions of both Sneaky Poo and White. This paper pays homage to Sneaky and critiques White's contribution to family therapy. A recent case is reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article, which appears in a special 30-year anniversary edition of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, reflects on the legacies of the work of Michael White. It begins by looking back on Michael's time as editor of the Australian Journal of Family Therapy. Of the many themes that were discussed in the Editorials and Letters to the Editor section of this journal in the early 1980s, this article focuses on three in particular to explore the legacies of the work of Michael White. The author describes how Michael has bequeathed not only a profound body of work. but also a distinctive spirit of originating, and ways of working that consider the effects of social issues and that examine the politics of experience. It is the author's hope that this approach to considering Michael White's legacies honours his work and also honours the contributions of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy in its 30th year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a personal reflection that describes and seeks to understand the significance of Michael White's contribution to my life and work. It offers a personal history of the ways in which these ideas were incorporated over time, and the way in which Michael's teaching made this possible. It looks at how this influence is taken forward and continues to be lived out. It reflects the knowledge and skills, the intentions and the hopes, the purposes and plans held that have been shaped through learning experiences with Michael White and the people and ideas that this introduced me to. The legacy of this learning is a hopefulness for future skill development and teaching, nurtured through these communities of people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The following personal reflections are in honour of Michael and all that he contributed to our lives. And, we honour Brigitte a key member of the group who died in 2006. Mem, Sue and Veronica, December 2008. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This contribution was a speech that David Epston delivered at 'Remembering Michael' at The Family Therapy Centre in Auckland, New Zealand on May 23, 2008; it was also read aloud by Suzanne Pregerson/Rick Maisel in a 'Remembering Michael White' ceremony in San Rafael, California. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A challenge for contemporary family therapists is negotiating differences between modern and postmodern frameworks in the practice context. Modernists espouse a systemic metaphor, use evidence-based and interventive approaches, including strategic, structural- or solution-focused techniques, and believe in the therapist's knowledge, expertise and power to influence individuals or families to change. On the other hand, postmodenists follow a social constructionist, dialogical or narrative paradigm, which identifies the main ingredient of therapy as language, conversation, understanding and the therapist's 'not knowing' stance in eliciting a person's expertise and story. Yet many practitioners adopt a middle way between these paradigm polarities, one that is less theory driven and more pragmatic, flexible, integrative and practice-based. This is consistent with evidence-based practice and research demonstrating common factors across all therapies. The value of preserving systemic thinking in family therapy is recognised while reaching forward to a postmodern social constructionist and dialogical approach. The article describes this integrative stance in family therapy as paramodern based on an ethics of practice. This is illustrated by a detailed case study of integrative family therapy, which addresses anxiety, anger and sleeping issues associated with a chronic childhood illness called Perthe's disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extraordinary case is presented. The father had been admitted to an emergency ward following stabbing by his first son. The son had become uncontrollable and used many substances, constantly, and reduced family life to a battle-ground with his mother The two older boys were adopted, the third was miraculously conceived. In about ten sessions, the family's story was told in dramatic ways. Over twelve years later, the boys have become fathers and the grandparents are doting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Referencing relevant supervisory literature and attachment theory, this article presents a developmental couple and family therapy supervisory model that emphasises the efficacy of the supervisory relationship. Issues concerning anxiety, cognition and learning theory are addressed and phases in the supervisory process are identified and described. Cognitive, emotional and social development are linked to attachment theory and discussed in the supervisory context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From a philosophic perspective on clinical practice, anorexic women and their therapists are at risk of being caught in the dichotomy between mind and body that has characterised Western thought, at least since Descartes. If doctors and patients collude in an obsession over weight and refeeding, arising from this flawed dichotomy, it may lead to flawed treatment. Patients describe eating restriction/going on hunger strike as a desperate attempt to achieve a sense of self that can develop into an addiction to the starving state. The extent to which contemporary treatments address these issues is examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Helen Pavlin is an accredited mental health social worker and family therapist and accredited family dispute resolution practitioner in private practice in Darwin. She has been involved in social work and family therapy since the early 1970s in Australia and internationally. In 1996 she received the 50th Anniversary Commemorative Medal from the Australian Association of Social Workers. She is one of the assessors and associate editors for the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. In 2007 Helen received the Journal Award for her outstanding contribution to the family therapy field in Australia. She is an accomplished writer and a member of the Australian Society of Authors. Her poems and book reviews have been published frequently in ANZJFT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exploring is the optimum mindset for the psychotherapist. From the outset, the project of Family Therapy offered both personal and theoretical support for this position. But have we lost the excitement of exploration in the conservative, correct and individually oriented world in which we practise? And does our style of communication hinder more than refresh us? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some of the uses of absurdity and the unexpected in psychotherapy. Case examples are used to ground the discussion of some key ideas that inform an understanding of how absurdity and the unexpected might serve as catalysts or primers for change in the psychotherapeutic context. Erickson's confusion technique and some ideas derived from Bateson's understanding of cybernetics also serve an explanatory purpose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alistair Campbell is Research Editor for the ANZJFT He is a Senior Lecturer in Clinical Psychology and Director of the Psychology Clinic at James Cook University in Townsville. He speaks provocatively with Ben Hansen about research and training in family therapy, about accountability to our clients, and about practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an historical analysis of the development of research and research methodologies in an Australian context. The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy was chosen as the site of the analysis. The first section of data consists of the articles that represent themselves as research' in the period from 1979 (the journal's inception) to 2000. These texts have been analysed using bibliometric analysis. The second section of data consists of commentary articles about research in family therapy. This data has been analysed using discourse analysis. Overall, I have been interested in how family therapists have defined 'research'; how family therapists have chosen to inquire; representations of the researcher in Australian family therapy; associations between theoretical or clinical developments and the methodologies that have been chosen for inquiries. Findings from the study reveal very limited representations of research in the journal for the period under review, and an apparent struggle for family therapists to undertake a discussion about what research actually is. Questions are raised around how this has occurred, and some ideas are presented as to how research knowledges can be included in debates around theory diversity in family therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a case study on the use of arts-based resources in family therapy to help children and their post-separation families describe their experience, communicate and collaborate with each other, witness and learn about each other, and develop their individual and family well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history of clinical significance. It is noted that the idea of clinical significance came about because there was an increasing criticism of the types of research methodologies applied to real world clinical interventions. The identification of criteria which can be agreed to be statistically and heuristically meaningful is the basic idea of establishing clinical significance. In addition, the approach to clinical significance is probably exclusively related to the individual client.

A Bowen Family Systems therapist employs concepts of triangles and the family projection process to view a child's symptoms as embedded in the broader family patterns. This article will examine the dynamics of two family therapy cases where parents anxiously asked for their children's symptoms to be fixed. These cases will be used to explore the common presentation in child and adolescent mental health, where the parents are concerned for their children but are also keen not to open their own 'can of worms'. The presenting problem in the first case was violent hostility between adolescent sisters and in the second case was an adolescent's anorexia. Drawing on client feedback, I reflect on the therapy process behind the divergent outcomes. In case one, the parents were willing to address their own troubled relationship and family of origin, while in case two, the parents discontinued therapy when family of origin dynamics began to be explored. The article suggests how the therapist can evoke parents' curiosity about their role in anxious family patterns, without them feeling blamed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article looks at a process-oriented play therapy for children adversely affected by parental separation. Process-oriented play therapy is a therapeutic method that involves the therapist directly entering the world of play' with the child, by amplifying various modes of expression and helping underlying meaning to emerge, in order to help children access aspects of their life they feel they have no say in. One particular case has been used as an example, involving aim' (pseudonym) and his mother, who attended the play therapy session. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Originating as a plenary address, this article reviews the enduring contribution of family therapy, and asks how it might best be preserved into the future, given that family therapy itself is no longer seen as 'newsworthy'. The author makes three recommendations: that all future social workers be trained to conduct a three-session structured family assessment; that all future family therapists be required to participate in a Yalom-type group therapy experience; and that one member of every child mental health and child protection team be trained to convene and chair interagency case conferences capable of building trust and working towards open communication. A rationale for the three recommendations is provided, in terms of key principles common to family and group work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study documents how residents experience Multiple Family Group (MFG) treatment in an 18-week residential therapeutic program for people with a severe substance disorder. Individual in-depth interviews with nine residents and three ex-residents of European descent were undertaken, and analysed using a descriptive thematic analysis. Results indicate that, prior to taking part in the program, their relationships with their families were seriously damaged and their situations often appeared complex and hopeless. After attending the MEGs all of the participants of this study experienced a number of positive changes in their relationships with their family members and partners. All interviewees said that they had gained more awareness about their interactions, better communications skills and were able to integrate these skills into their relationships with their families and partners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Family histories of abuse and neglect are common among persons with substance addictions. Clearly such family backgrounds impact on future lifestyle choices. How this early life experience then impacts on the substance user as a parent and on their children has not been considered in the literature in any detail. Clients of local community drug services were invited to participate in a study evaluating the family life of parents who were dependent on illicit substances. Fifteen parents participated in a qualitative, longitudinal study about their family life, treatment and drug of choice. Four aspects of parental perception of family life were examined: the perceived impact of the family of origin on the parent drug user, self-perception, the impact of parental illicit drug use on the family environment, the impact of parental illicit drug use on children. For parents struggling with a substance addiction, it would seem that recovery has much to do with differentiation and gaining a sense of agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amplifying deviations in family interactions is a critical skill in family therapy, and one that can be implemented following the first reflecting team intervention. This paper will provide trainees with a series of practical guidelines for amplifying deviations, derived from an integration of several models of family therapy. Solution-focused and narrative questions are employed systemically, with the aim of magnifying virtuous, rather than vicious cycles of interaction. A theoretical rationale for deviation amplifying and a brief case vignette will also be presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Max Cornwell is a psychologist and social worker in Sydney. He edited ANZJFT from 1985 until 1996 and is a former editor of Australian Social Work. He has taught in hundreds of venues in Australia and abroad. In 1980 he co-founded the Family Therapy Institute, a major influence on the training of family therapists in New South Wales until the mid-90s. He is an Honorary Life Member of VAFT and has received the Journal Award for services to family therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decade there has been increasing interest in working systemically with groups of families. Multiple family groups (MFGs) have been used in mental health settings with schizophrenia, eating disorders and drug and substance abuse. This article describes the MFG program used in Higher Ground Alcohol and Drug Rehabilitation Trust, a rehabilitation centre in Auckland, (New Zealand). Higher Ground provides an 18-week residential therapeutic program for people with a severe substance abuse disorder. The MFG in Higher Ground focuses on developing better communication patterns and better boundaries between family members, fostering mutual support, and promoting self-responsibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a qualitative study of the subjective experiences of 24 Chinese adolescents and young women who have been suffering from anorexia nervosa and who have received family treatment from a university-based family treatment centre in Hong Kong. In-depth post-treatment interviews were conducted and have been transcribed and thematised using content analysis. The narratives that have emerged have facilitated hearing the clients' and their family members' voices, especially in the areas of (a) perceived concepts of family therapy, (b) the perceived therapeutic relationship and its linkage to positive change, (c) perceived intervention strategies as employed in family treatment and (d) the participants' own role in problem-solving. The study has enabled the author to refine the family treatment model, which has been adapted from the Micucci's (1998) model, with additional components introduced by the author to enhance family treatment in a Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following the discursive' turn in family therapy, the attention of practitioners shifted towards understanding how culture and language shape meaning-making in therapy. In this article, we demonstrate how conversation analysis (CA) can be used to examine the processes and outcomes of systemic/constructionist practice. We used CA to study collaborative interactions of a renowned constructionist therapist Karl Tomm and one client-family. Viewing collaboration as a pivotal aspect of the therapeutic alliance, we demonstrate how the 'split' within-system alliances were developed and sustained in the course of therapy and how they were discursively transformed into 'intact' alliances. The therapist's efforts to align with perspectives of family members (and subsystems) seemed pivotal in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The contention of this article is that systemic family therapy has much to gain from a realistic appraisal of its research base, which is as positive as possible. And that through such an appraisal we can find ways of developing the scope of family therapy to the benefit of the profession and thereby, of our clients. Family therapy will benefit if practitioners can present an informed view of research. As a preliminary approach to this objective, I review reasons why perceptions of family therapy. underestimate its research base, and why therapists might resist involvement with research. The article then explores the reasons for regarding randomised controlled trials as a gold standard', and why they are not well fitted for the purpose of evaluating or developing a relational therapy. Next is a consideration of alternative approaches to research, including a consideration of what clients actually want from their therapy, then a brief review of the positive findings of outcome research. Greater emphasis on researching processes in therapy is proposed, and consideration of the 'common factors' debate is shown to support priorities that are specific to systemic therapies. The article concludes with suggestions for increasing the involvement of family therapists with research, both as consumers and as research practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates ways in which systemic psychotherapists address sexual issues. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured group and individual interviews and analysed using discourse analysis. Particular attention was paid to participants' accounts of the resources' they draw on and of perceived constraints when approaching the subject of sex. Main findings indicate that systemic training and practice would benefit from greater inclusion of sexual issues to overcome current deficiencies in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with Catherine Sanders, Director of Bower Place Psychology, Family Therapy, Psychotherapy & Management in Adelaide, South Australia is presented. Sanders recalls how her interest in family therapy started. She shares her views about the place of family therapy and systematic ideas in the public mental health sectors. She also points out the nature and practicing of family therapy.

In this article we explore and discuss the relevance of the concept of powerlessness in systemic practice. The views and concerns of systemic trainees' groups are compared with those of experienced therapists'. We interviewed 12 experienced systemic therapists and investigated what made them feel powerless and how they dealt with it. Extracts from interviews are quoted and summarised in the text. We argue that therapists' powerlessness is a marginalised subject in the systemic approach and that open discussion about the topic would enhance therapists' self-reflexivity and contribute to a fuller understanding of the part that power and powerlessness play in the therapeutic relationship. We consider the place of gender, culture and wider sociopolitical contexts in the experience of therapists' powerlessness. Finally we discuss the implications of our findings for systemic therapy, training and supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article I review the changes in thinking about childhood depression since the 1950s, with an emphasis on the struggles to find language for child- hood depression. My interface with these changes is described, with a particular focus on the development of the Children's Depression Scale (CDS). Clinical applications of family therapy using the CDS in treatment of childhood depression are then illustrated with a composite case example. The idea is developed that depression in children can be seen as a blocked communication, and that increasing emotional expressiveness in families is an appropriate therapeutic aim and intervention. The relevance of the historical context to current practice is considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is concerned with the experience of infants who endure long hospitalisations. It explores the concept of the baby as subject: that is, infants as active, psychic participants in their earliest relationships. It explores therapeutic possibilities with hospitalised infants from an infant mental health perspective. It advocates for family therapists to equip themselves for infant-parent therapeutic work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Serious and life-threatening illnesses in the infant population present complex theoretical and practical challenges for both the family unit and hospital staff. These challenges operate at a minimum of three levels, namely the infant's internal system, the parent-infant relationship and the acute medical context. This article describes infant-directed singing as an intervention in restoring an attachment bond disrupted by serious illness. In particular, the following will be considered: the need for family focused interventions within the acute medical setting, the usefulness of attachment theory in the acute care context; a technical description of infant-directed singing and a cybernetic conceptualisation of the relevant staff-mother-infant interactions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses the clinical issue of selecting assessments of attachment that are relevant to decision making for families. The validity of three commonly used methods of assessing attachment in preschool-aged children was compared using a sample of 51 low-income mother-child dyads. Thirty-eight of the children had been abused or neglected. The dyads were seen in a Strange Situation that was classified using each of the three methods: (a) the Ainsworth-extended method, (b) the Cassidy-Marvin (C-M) method, and (c) the Preschool Assessment of Attachment (PAA). Validity was evaluated in terms of maltreatment status, maternal sensitivity, child DQ, and maternal attachment strategy. The PAA and C-M classifications matched in only 37% of cases. The Ainsworth-extended method differentiated secure versus insecure children on two variables. The C- M method differentiated secure versus insecure children on one variable. The PAA differentiated secure versus insecure children on all four variables and sub-groups on one. Moreover, it was tied to other family relationship variables in meaningful ways. If applied in clinical settings, these three methods would result in very different groups of children being seen as safe and at risk. We argue that clinicians cannot afford to be uninformed about the validity of alternative means of assessing attachment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study explores Parent and Child Therapy (PACT), an attachment-based intervention for mothers and children experiencing intractable relationship distress originally developed by Heather Chambers (a Child Psychotherapist and Family Therapist working in New Zealand). We describe the use of PACT with a mother-child dyad presenting a history of severe abuse and neglect. The child had been diagnosed with Conduct Disorder and co-morbid Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. We consider the themes arising in the therapy, the emotional process experienced by the mother and child, the initial outcome and 10-month follow up. The case study indicates that PACT can be learned and used by practitioners outside of the team that conceptualised and developed it. The case highlights the links between externalising difficulties and attachment disorganisation and points to PACT as a promising treatment for the chronic sequelae of early interpersonal childhood trauma. The need for research and possible directions of this research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children organise self-protectively in response to anxiety-provoking or dangerous parental behaviours. When children's self-protective responses are extreme and persist over time, they may come to the attention of health professionals in the guise of emotional, behavioural or somatic symptoms. A parallel phenomenon is that harmful parental behaviours may be embedded in the emotional processes of the inter- generational family unit, reflecting the parents' own experiences of comfort and danger, as well as the particular manner in which these experiences have been integrated into the parents' current functioning. Using a case study of a three-year-old girl with medically unexplained urinary retention, the article explores how information about attachment relationships and unresolved parental loss or trauma can inform our understanding of implicit, anxiety-driven processes within the family, and to facilitate family interventions and symptom alleviation. The case shows that the Dynamic-Maturational Model of attachment has significant applications in the areas of family therapy theory and practice, psychosomatic medicine and consult-liaison psychiatry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liz Mackenzie's involvement with family therapy began in 1978 at the Psychiatry Department of the Adelaide Children's Hospital. She contrasts the field then and now, naming some of the dysfunctional facets of family therapy. She became manager of a specialist foster/residential program in the non-government sector, definitely the most difficult, extending and satisfying period in her working life. In 2007, she is back where it began for her, in the (renamed) Women's and Children's Hospital, working in a Child and Adolescent Community Health team [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

JoEllen Patterson is Professor in the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego. She is also an Associate Clinical Professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, directing a medical family therapy clinic embedded in a Family Medicine residency (equivalent to General Practice in New Zealand). She also works in Pediatrics and Reproductive Medicine at UCSD. At present her work involves training family therapy students and family medicine residents to do interdisciplinary work using a biopsychosocial model. Research suggests that our bodies are influenced by our mental health; our immune systems and cardiovascular systems seem especially susceptible to mind-body interplay JoEllen is particularly interested in how family functioning influences the mind-body system. In 2003, JoEllen Patterson received a Fulbright Senior Scholars award to visit the Wellington School of Medicine and Health Sciences, and the Child. Adolescent and Family Service in Lower Hull, New Zealand. She spent two weeks between the clinical service and the academic department, teaching, consulting and advising. I was lucky enough to arrange this posting and to spend time with her during it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]