Children’s contributions to family functioning through family-centered therapy : a collaborative case study approach

"Many family therapists have not received basic training in clinical work with children (i.e. child development, child psychopathology, child assessment or child therapy) and do not know how to relate to children as individuals." (Gil, 1994, p. v) Similarly, it has been argued, that chil...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Aronchick-Zachernuk, Barbara
Language:English
Published: 2009
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10188
id ndltd-LACETR-oai-collectionscanada.gc.ca-BVAU.2429-10188
record_format oai_dc
spelling ndltd-LACETR-oai-collectionscanada.gc.ca-BVAU.2429-101882014-03-14T15:44:02Z Children’s contributions to family functioning through family-centered therapy : a collaborative case study approach Aronchick-Zachernuk, Barbara "Many family therapists have not received basic training in clinical work with children (i.e. child development, child psychopathology, child assessment or child therapy) and do not know how to relate to children as individuals." (Gil, 1994, p. v) Similarly, it has been argued, that childcentered clinicians tend to focus their energies upon providing direct and specific help to the individual child thereby operating in a relatively narrow band. This service may then occur at the expense of applying a wider-angled lens, one in which the family becomes the powerful force for problem reduction and change. This descriptive case study illuminates how an individual child, and the members of his family, view and interpret the child's behaviour, within the context of a child-in-family therapy approach. It examines a treatment model that posits the following supposition: that individual issues and concerns influence and are influenced by the family system, yet each one has a separate and distinct existence. Through this qualitative single case research study, the child and his family were viewed as the basic phenomenological unit and a model of inclusion was applied, where the "voice" of the child within the family dynamic was highlighted. Using, as a foundation for this exploration, historical to current theoretical and practice trends, an in-depth description of a multidimensional perspective for working with a young "identified" child and his family of origin, was provided. To frame the child's lived experience in therapy, a combined individual and family playtherapy intervention process was employed. This served to inform, guide, and interpret the child's contributions to his own personal development, and to the growth of his family system as a whole. Within this context, assessment and ongoing treatment strategies were analyzed in order to create a case study portraiture of a troubled child and the members of his family. 2009-07-06T17:10:56Z 2009-07-06T17:10:56Z 2000 2009-07-06T17:10:56Z 2000-05 Electronic Thesis or Dissertation http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10188 eng UBC Retrospective Theses Digitization Project [http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/retro_theses/]
collection NDLTD
language English
sources NDLTD
description "Many family therapists have not received basic training in clinical work with children (i.e. child development, child psychopathology, child assessment or child therapy) and do not know how to relate to children as individuals." (Gil, 1994, p. v) Similarly, it has been argued, that childcentered clinicians tend to focus their energies upon providing direct and specific help to the individual child thereby operating in a relatively narrow band. This service may then occur at the expense of applying a wider-angled lens, one in which the family becomes the powerful force for problem reduction and change. This descriptive case study illuminates how an individual child, and the members of his family, view and interpret the child's behaviour, within the context of a child-in-family therapy approach. It examines a treatment model that posits the following supposition: that individual issues and concerns influence and are influenced by the family system, yet each one has a separate and distinct existence. Through this qualitative single case research study, the child and his family were viewed as the basic phenomenological unit and a model of inclusion was applied, where the "voice" of the child within the family dynamic was highlighted. Using, as a foundation for this exploration, historical to current theoretical and practice trends, an in-depth description of a multidimensional perspective for working with a young "identified" child and his family of origin, was provided. To frame the child's lived experience in therapy, a combined individual and family playtherapy intervention process was employed. This served to inform, guide, and interpret the child's contributions to his own personal development, and to the growth of his family system as a whole. Within this context, assessment and ongoing treatment strategies were analyzed in order to create a case study portraiture of a troubled child and the members of his family.
author Aronchick-Zachernuk, Barbara
spellingShingle Aronchick-Zachernuk, Barbara
Children’s contributions to family functioning through family-centered therapy : a collaborative case study approach
author_facet Aronchick-Zachernuk, Barbara
author_sort Aronchick-Zachernuk, Barbara
title Children’s contributions to family functioning through family-centered therapy : a collaborative case study approach
title_short Children’s contributions to family functioning through family-centered therapy : a collaborative case study approach
title_full Children’s contributions to family functioning through family-centered therapy : a collaborative case study approach
title_fullStr Children’s contributions to family functioning through family-centered therapy : a collaborative case study approach
title_full_unstemmed Children’s contributions to family functioning through family-centered therapy : a collaborative case study approach
title_sort children’s contributions to family functioning through family-centered therapy : a collaborative case study approach
publishDate 2009
url http://hdl.handle.net/2429/10188
work_keys_str_mv AT aronchickzachernukbarbara childrenscontributionstofamilyfunctioningthroughfamilycenteredtherapyacollaborativecasestudyapproach
_version_ 1716651905096089600