Professional parental status disclosure in intensive family intervention work

Abstract

Purpose This paper is concerned with what intensive family intervention professionals reveal to the parents with whom they work about whether they themselves are parents or not, as a form of professional self-disclosure in child welfare work. This paper also addresses the act of lying in professional self-disclosure. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on material from a series of narrative interviews completed with practitioners from one family intervention programme in an English local authority as part of a study looking at how children’s services professionals experience the suffering of parents. The study was based on a psychoanalytically informed methodological approach, which is represented in the analysis provided in the paper. Findings The overall team ethos regarding parental status disclosure is considered briefly first then two participants’ accounts are explored in depth. These involved, what can be considered as, questionable or unorthodox stances regarding parental status disclosure (and self-disclosure more generally). The exploration illustrates the role that practitioners’ personal lives and histories can play in influencing how the act of professional parental status disclosure is experienced and how particular positions are invested in regarding the role of self-disclosure in working relationships with parents. Originality/value Child welfare and family intervention professionals are often asked personal questions by the parents and carers they work with, including questions about whether they are a parent or not. These questions can be difficult to answer and there is a need for dedicated empirical analysis into the ways in which professionals experience, think about and respond to them and what they disclose about themselves when working with families.

Reflecting on professional self-disclosure and supportive relationships with foster carers during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…However, the way in which nurses and other mental health professionals approach selfdisclosure with patients is not just influenced by their relationship with colleagues or service users. Other factors in the practice environment are also relevant, such as the specific role they are engaged in, which might involve direct therapy, care coordination or monitoring the administration of medicines, as well as the wider organisational culture and the clinician's training and personal background (Knight 2012, Archard 2021.…”

“…• Am I more inclined to disclose personal information as a clinician in certain scenarios rather than others? Such supports and guidance need to be based on the understanding that more 'closed' and 'open' stances towards answering personal questions by parents and carers can be viewed as being linked with anxieties about the maintenance of a particular professional identity (Archard 2021). It may be said that for some clinicians being 'professional' is regarded as synonymous with emotional distance from service users and a natural reluctance to disclose anything personal about oneself.…”

“…There was an absence of opportunities for discussions with colleagues in which clinicians could share their views or talk through clinical challenges, as they might when sharing an office. Like other examples of unethical practice, the inappropriate use of self-disclosure is more likely to take place in organisations where ethical practice is not discussed (Warrender 2020, Archard 2021. With much more time spent in office and clinic locations following the pandemic, time should be set aside for such conversations.…”

Containment and beneficence in psychoanalytically informed social work research

“…2. For further detail on the methodological enquiry and empirical study and linked work, see Archard (2019Archard ( , 2020aArchard ( , 2020bArchard ( , 2021aArchard ( , 2021bArchard ( , 2021c and Archard and O'Reilly (2022). 3.…”