Discourses of development in the consulting room: Analysing family therapy with children

Abstract

This paper aims to highlight the potential contribution of the arguments developed in Burman's Deconstructing Developmental Psychology for exploring the implications of discourses around development for the practice of family therapy with children. Through the analysis of one brief systemic therapy with a stepfamily, formed following the mother's death, this paper examined how discourses from developmental psychology, including representations of children, father, mother, stepmother and family, are implicated in the construction of the problem and in the positioning of the participants. The diverse ways in which the family members made sense of their difficulties and the positions they assumed were shown to be intimately linked with culturally dominant representations of the biological nuclear family ideal and with representations of parents as responsible for their children's difficulties. The position of stepmother in particular was shown to be characterised by conflict and ambiguity, reflecting discourses that idealise motherhood and vilify stepmothers. Moreover, the children were found to be positioned as 'half-members' at several points in the conversation, whilst at other points they themselves resisted calls to a more equal positioning, particularly when disagreeing with the adults' talk. Family therapy, as an institutional practice, was shown to be intimately linked with developmental psychology accounts about childhood, family life and parenthood and Deconstructing Developmental Psychology was shown to provide valuable insights in researching family therapy with children. Based on the analysis, it is argued that paying attention to the social, ideological and cultural context in which family therapy takes place opens up novel ways of conceptualising and researching the process of therapy and allows the exploration of taken-for-granted assumptions about childhood, adulthood, parenthood and the family.

Limits of deconstruction, deconstructing limits

“…DDP outside psychology Avdi (2015) argues in this issue for DDP's applicability outside psychology, to the related domain of family therapy practice. This move takes critiques of developmental psychology into a crucial arena of related professional practice.…”

Deconstructing Developmental Psychology 20 years on: Reflections, implications and empirical work

“…The shifting contexts of family life are explored in papers in this issue by Angel J. Gordo Lo´pez, Pilar Parra Contreras, and Paul Cassidy (2015) and Evrinomy Avdi (2015). Both papers explore the intersections of family and sociopolitical formations.…”

“…A clear concern in DDP is the construct of family life, and the way that particular forms of family life are 'normalised' within the developmental narrative. The shifting contexts of family life are explored in papers in this issue by Angel J. Gordo Lo´pez, Pilar Parra Contreras, and Paul Cassidy (2015) and Evrinomy Avdi (2015). Both papers explore the intersections of family and sociopolitical formations.…”

“…Through reliance on the notion that modern families are technologically adept, this rhetoric suggests that families 'need' both technology and big business to bolster family life against degenerative social forces. Avdi (2015) explores the family as theorised in family therapy work, using an approach that intertwines discursive and deconstructive approaches to psychotherapy. Through an analysis of a family therapy case study, she highlights how gendered representations of 'children', 'father', 'mother', 'stepmother', and 'nuclear family' underpin how participants in the therapy are positioned and how they construct the problem that led them to therapy.…”

Why Am I the Only One You’re Talking to, Talk to Them, They Haven’t Said a Word?

“…Children see and hear more than we adults are aware of, and discussing problems jointly will not cause them further harm. However, research on children as participants in family therapy is scarce (Avdi, 2015), as also is research on children with conduct disorders (Miller & Prinz, 2003).…”