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Parents’ Resistance of Anticipated Blame through Alignment Strategies: A Discursive Argument for Temporary Exclusion of Children from Family Therapy

  • Chapter
The Palgrave Handbook of Child Mental Health

Abstract

In this chapter, we utilise a discourse perspective to explore ways in which parents manage therapeutic alignment in family therapy. As therapy is an activity which relies heavily on the use of language (McLeod, 2001), we use a language-based analytic approach to explore child mental health, particularly as discourse analysis is most appropriate for looking at family therapy processes (Roy-Chowdhury, 2003). In this chapter, we present a case for the deliberate temporary exclusion of children in the initial stages of a series of therapeutic sessions. The purpose of this temporary exclusion is to provide opportunities for therapists to engage in active solution-focused alignment with parents in order to provide a foundation and set boundaries for later work with the whole family. We also argue that while this initial session with parents is taking place, the child could be otherwise engaged in a session of their own so that the child’s perspective and expectations are also managed effectively.

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Recommended reading

  • • Avdi, E., & Georgaca, E. (2007). Discourse analysis and psychotherapy: A critical review. European Journal of Psychotherapy and Counselling, 9(2), 157–176.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • • Dallos, R., & Draper, R. (2010). An introduction to family therapy: Systemic theory and practice (3rd edition). Berkshire: Open University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • • Edwards, D., & Potter, J. (1992). Discursive psychology. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • • Parker, N., & O’Reilly, M. (2012). ‘Gossiping’ as a social action in family therapy: The pseudo-absence and pseudo-presence of children. Discourse Studies, 14(4), 457–475.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • • Tseliou, E. (2013). A critical methodological review of discourse and conversation analysis studies of family therapy. Family Process, 52(4), 653–672.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

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Authors
  1. Nikki Kiyimba
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  2. Michelle O’Reilly
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Leicester, UK

    Michelle O’Reilly (Senior Lecturer) (Senior Lecturer)

  2. Indiana University, USA

    Jessica Nina Lester (Assistant Professor) (Assistant Professor)

Copyright information

© 2015 Nikki Kiyimba and Michelle O’Reilly

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Cite this chapter

Kiyimba, N., O’Reilly, M. (2015). Parents’ Resistance of Anticipated Blame through Alignment Strategies: A Discursive Argument for Temporary Exclusion of Children from Family Therapy. In: O’Reilly, M., Lester, J.N. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Child Mental Health. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137428318_30

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