Empowering nondeployed spouses and children through filial therapy.

Abstract

Military deployments are highly stressful for nondeployed spouses and their children. Military children often experience a range of internalizing and externalizing symptoms, as well as a decrease in attachment security. Nondeployed parents are challenged during their spouses' deployment cycles, as they assume the role of single parent in addition to all the financial and daily responsibilities. Evidence-based interventions, such as Filial Therapy, can assist the parent-child relationship by allowing for the attachment relationship to strengthen during a difficult time like deployment. Filial Therapy is derived from child-centered play therapy and teaches parents to play with their children to express and gain mastery over difficult and confusing thoughts and feelings. This article aims to educate therapists about the complex experiences of nondeployed spouses and their children and highlight the benefits of using Filial Therapy with this population.

Cabaran Aplikasi Modul Terapi Filial dalam kalangan Ibu bagi Menangani Isu Tingkahlaku Kanak-Kanak (Challenges in the Application of Filial Therapy Module among Mothers to Overcome Children’s Behaviour Problems)

“…Intervensi ini juga intervensi yang boleh diterima serta fleksible. Ini kerana Terapi Filial ini telah dikaji dalam pelbagai konteks budaya antaranya Hispanik (Ceballos & Bratton 2010;Garza et al 2009;sangganjanavanich et al 2010;Villarreal, 2008), ibu bapa Korea (Jang 2000;Lee & Landreth 2003), Ibu bapa Jerman (Grskovic & Goetze 2008), ibu bapa Israel (Kidron & Landreth 2010), ibu bapa Cina (Chau & Landreth 1997;Yuen et al 2002), ibu bapa orang asli Amerika atau Hispanic (Glover & Landreth 2000, ibu bapa Afrika-Amerika (socarras 2015; sheely-Moore & Bratton 2010; solis et al 2004), ibu bapa Jamaika (Edwards et al 2007), dan keluarga tentera ( Myrick et al 2018;Dematatis 1981), beragama Kristian (Bornsheuer- Boswell et al 2013), sudan (Lim & Ogawa 2014) dan Malaysia (Nadziroh et al 2018).…”

What experiences prompted adoptive parents of preadolescents to self-refer for child–parent relationship therapy?

“…Thus, parents’ experiences throughout the CPRT intervention are critically important to the delivery of this play therapy model. In recognition of the need to understand parents’ experiences to best deliver CPRT, researchers have published qualitative reports of parents’ perceptions of CPRT (e.g., Bavin-Hoffman et al, 1996; Bornsheuer-Boswell et al, 2013; Boswell, 2014; Dillman et al, 2011; Edwards et al, 2010; Hassey et al, 2016; Kinsworthy & Garza, 2010; Myrick et al, 2018; Socarras et al, 2015). Findings from qualitative CPRT reports establish CPRT as a group parenting intervention in which parents: (a) learn skills of reflective responding, empathic interaction, limit setting, and choice giving, (b) gain relational connection and emotional attunement with their children, and (c) feel validated by other parents and leaders.…”

Introduction to the 30th Anniversary Special Issue on play therapy with military families.

“…We end the 30th Anniversary Special Issue Series with a special issue on play therapy with military families. Until this issue and over the 30-year history of International Journal of Play Therapy (IJPT), only two articles had been published concerning play therapy with military families: “Utilizing Filial Therapy with Deployed Military Families” (Hicks et al, 2016) and “Empowering Nondeployed Spouses and Children Through Filial Therapy” (Myrick et al, 2018). One could conceptualize this small number of articles as lack of interest in the topic.…”