Transcript Therapy directions

Relationship’s Dynamics in Families with Children
with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.
Therapeutic ideas, Observations, Interventions
Daniela Tahirova, Milena Nenkova, Natalia
Nikolova, Teodora Gerginova
The Bernhard Achterberg Institute of Psychodrama,
Individual and Group Psychotherapy (IPIGP)
Sofia, Bulgaria
Exploring the relationship dynamics
Therapist
Couple
Child with a problem
Our thoughts and challenges in the
beginning…
Family 1
Petar
69
Maria
60
Todor
62
Anna
2y
older
Ivan
Rosi
72
Vladi
42
Oleg
40
Marti
12
Intention: to improve their relationship and explore deeper the cycles of conflicts
that arise between them
Therapy directions: clarification of the roles in the family - the mother, the father, the
grandmother, the child. Models of behavior that work, and models that do not work.
Family 2
Eva
60
Kostadin
62
Natalia
57
Vasil
64
Dani
62
Svetla
39
Malina
45
Ilia
40
Ivelin
6
Adopted
2,5 y
Intention: to improve their parenting together and the communication between them
within the couple and with the child
Therapy directions: to find more adequate view points on punishments, to
rediscover support within the couple
Family 3
Claudia
Columbia
54
Serhio
56
Marko
5
40
Sofia
Serhio
34
Mia
Marga
Antonio
4
Ivan
Petia
56
53
Galia
30
Emilia
2
Intention: to decrease conflicts and communicate more and easily
Therapy directions: both partners to learn to name and express their emotions in an
adequate way (both positive and negative) between them and in front of the kids; to
identify differences and values in both cultures.
Questions
 How does the couple’s therapy affect the child with
symptoms and how the meetings between the child
and the therapeutic team affect the therapeutic
hypotheses?
 Is the inclusion of the extended family in the child
care an obstacle or a resource?
 Is it a positive or a negative for the couple to stay
together in the name of being able to bring up a
child with autistic spectrum disorder?
An idea applied to practice
А member of our team to take care of the child and if
possible, this to happen in the same place where we
do the therapy session (in case that this does not
disturb the process).
Observations
 The child as an active participant in the therapeutic
space
 Child’s behavior visibly changes when there is a
change in the communication between the parents.
 The awareness of the partners that the patterns in
their relationship affect on the behavior of the child
increases their involvement in the therapeutic
process.
Features and Similarities
 In the therapy process we did not have any families in
which the child is brought up by a single parent.
 Such people came to us, who have kept their family
couple, no matter what is the psychological climate in it.
 The relationships in partner couples are in crisis,
because:
 partners have different ways of accepting the
diagnosis of the child and they also have different coping
strategies;
the way they support (or not support ) each other;
the physical and emotional stress that the mother and
the father experience.
Features and Similarities
 No space, time and resources left for the needs of
the partners.
 Partners remain together as a couple, but actually
one of the members is absent - physically and
emotionally.
 In all the families we observed paradoxes in the
relationship between the partners.
Conclusions
 The therapy sessions provide space in which partners
can actively communicate.
 Working with an emphasize on the couple’s relationship
is leading to improvement of the climate in the family
system as a whole; it is giving the family new
perspectives.
 When there are no resources in the larger system or in
the child itself, we offer to find deeper resources in the
couple.
 In families with diffuse borders, the willingness from the
extended family to support and participate in child care
can be an obstacle as it negatively affects the
relationship within the couple and produces more
tension.
Our thoughts and reflections after…
To be continued…
Thank you for your time and
attention!
Daniela Tahirova, Milena Nenkova, Natalia Nikolova,
Teodora Gerginova
The Bernhard Achterberg Institute of Psychodrama,
Individual and Group Psychotherapy (IPIGP)
Istanbul, Turkey
25.10.2013