This exploratory study evaluated the perceptions and beliefs of grandparents regarding their grandchild with a developmental disability and their involvement in his/her care and the impact of the child's disability on their lives and on their relationship between them. The sample included 16 grandparents of children with a severe developmental disability ranging in age from 5-10 who were studying in a special school. Data was collected by using semistructured interviews in the home of the grandparents. The findings indicated that grandparents' involvement and satisfaction with their role were a function of their attitudes towards disabilities in children in general and their relationship with their adult children, as well as their own life experiences. Their involvement with their grandchild with developmental disability served to strengthen the relationship between the grandparents. An important implication of the study is that professionals should plan interventions to support and encourage grandparents to be more involved in the care of the child with developmental disability.

This paper presents an approach to healing childhood wounds through the use of Imago relationship couple therapy in conjunction with relational body psychotherapy. Working with couples in crisis arouses powerful and confusing questions regarding the transference and counter-transference tensions within all aspects of the therapeutic triangle: intra-subjective in each member of the couple, their inter-subjective space, their interaction with the therapist and within the therapist herself. One of the ways of coping with these multifaceted dyads is the use of somatic cues in all three members of the triad. The paper provides three clinical vignettes, which illustrate some of the advantages of the combination of the two theories in relational couple therapy.

No abstract