Multiple Family Group Therapy: A Review of the Literature

Abstract

This review focuses upon multiple family group therapy, its origin in the intersection of family and group therapies, its use in a variety of settings, its specific techniques and group development in individual and ongoing meetings, its goals and dominant themes, its parallels in family and group work. Also discussed are evaluation of outcome of this therapy modality and those dynamics thought to contribute to family change. Areas for further investigation are outlined.

Multiple family therapy: an overview

“…In this way multiple family therapy generates multiple new perspectives and experiences, thereby opening up a multi-verse for new curious enquiry. Since its infancy many decades ago, the multiple family therapy model has evolved (Strelnick, 1977) and now come of age. In the early days it was not provided as a sole therapy in its own right, but in addition to other concurrent treatments (Reiss and Costell, 1977), notably for psychotic patients and their families (Anderson, 1983;Lansky, 1981;McFarlane, 1982).…”

Multi-Familientherapie in unterschiedlichen Kontexten

“…Dieser Ansatz gilt inzwischen als flankierende herapie bei der Betreuung psychotischer Erwachsener als evidenzbasiert (McFarlane, 1983(McFarlane, , 2002. Andere Teams adaptierten die sich entwickelnden Methoden und Techniken der Multi-Familientherapie bei der Arbeit mit verschiedenen Krankheitsbildern und Störungen (Leichter u. Schulman, 1974;Strelnick, 1977;O'Shea u. Phelps, 1985) wie z. B. bei der Arbeit mit Patienten mit schweren depressiven Erkrankungen (Anderson, 1986;Keitner et al, 2002;Lemmens et al, 2007) oder mit bipolaren Krankheitsbildern (Moltz u. Newmark, 2002), bei Drogen-und Alkoholabhängigkeit (Kaufman u. Kaufman, 1979), bei Borderline-Persönlichkeitsstörungen (Berkowitz u. Gunderson, 2002) und Bulimie (Wooley u. Lewis, 1987), bei Chorea Huntington (Murburg, Price, Jalali, 1988) und anderen Formen von chronischen organischen Erkrankungen (Gonzalez, Steinglass, Reiss, 1989) wie auch bei chronischen Schmerzzuständen (Lemmens et al 2005).…”

Family Interviewing and Family Therapy

“…They have a history in adult psychiatry, particularly in the treatment of schizophrenia (Lacquer, La Burt, & Morong, 1964;McFarlane, 2005;Strelnick, 1977), but in more recent years have increasingly been utilized with child and adolescent mental health problems (Asen, 2002;Asen & Schuff, 2006;Eisler, 2005;Saayman, Saayman, & Weins, 2006). They have a history in adult psychiatry, particularly in the treatment of schizophrenia (Lacquer, La Burt, & Morong, 1964;McFarlane, 2005;Strelnick, 1977), but in more recent years have increasingly been utilized with child and adolescent mental health problems (Asen, 2002;Asen & Schuff, 2006;Eisler, 2005;Saayman, Saayman, & Weins, 2006).…”