Therapy with siblings in reorganizing families

Abstract

The toss of parenting figures through death, divorce, or other kinds of separation often leaves children without consistent parental support and with increased fears of abandonment. In the natural cycle, siblings can maintain almost lifelong relationships and therefore are in a position to offer each other a significant support system over an extended period of time. We have found that work with sibling subgroups can help children to resolve their individual and shared conflicts as well as to remove interferences to mutually supportive relationships. Illustrative cases are presented and treatment guidelines offered.Clinicians are becoming increasingly aware of the sibling subgroup as a powerful system within families. An early clinical impression is that sibling relationships vary through developmental stages of the life cycle. These relationships adapt to the differing needs of early and middle childhood, adolescence, adulthood and later life often then without living parents.Over the past few years, some of us at the Youth Services Outpatient Clinic have worked intensively with sibling groups. In a number of cases, after a full diagnostic work-up of individual children and their families was completed, the decision was made to treat the sibling group separately. It was thought that these brothers and sisters had something special to offer each other which could be optimally developed if they were seen together without a parent present. The particular therapeutic goals in each case were different Elinor B~ Rosenberg A.C.S.W. is affiliated with the

Extending the uses of sibling therapy with children and adolescents.

“…"Joining" with parents during regularly scheduled adjunctive sessions, addressing confidentiality concerns, showing respect for parents' position of authority in the family, or even extending invitations to parents to quietly sit in on sibling sessions, as proposed by Lewis (1986), can diminish any potential for resistance. Rosenberg (1980) astutely pointed out that sibling therapy is ill advised when there is little congruence in the pivotal developmental tasks faced by different siblings. A family may contain subgroups of younger kids and older kids, with the former being bent on firming up dependent ties with family members and the latter being bent on loosening and reworking them.…”

“…Sibling therapy as a distinct treatment modality for child and adolescent problems has received scant attention in the psychotherapy literature beyond its perceived utility during times of family disintegration and reorganization when parents are either absent or reluctant to participate in therapy (Lewis, 1986(Lewis, , 1988(Lewis, , 1995Rosenberg, 1980;Schibuk, 1989). Although family therapists do endorse sibling work, the emphasis tends to be on brief interventions that are geared toward reintroducing the identified patient to the sibling subsystem so as to consolidate his or her disentanglement from the parental subsystem (Fishman, 1993).…”

Sibling Therapy With Multiproblem Families*

“…While there may be many crises in children's lives, there is often one central trauma that siblings reenact (Rosenberg, 1980). Siblings acknowledge each other's roles as they were at the time of that trauma.…”

Siblings Revisited: Old Conflicts and New Opportunities in Later Life

“…Optimally, in conjoint sessions, siblings are encouraged to share their views and experiences and listen to each other so that they can better understand their differences and alter their perspectives. If siblings cannot attend, well-prepared letters or phone conversations can also bring about similar growth-producing results (Rosenberg, 1980).…”