Commentary by a Pragmatic/Eclectic Family Therapist Team Using a Systemic Approach

We are offered a little gem: an illustration of a piece of work with a satisfying

emotional ‘outcome’. The approach used took into account family life cycles, transitional events, ‘rites of passage’ and task setting. The rifts between the parents have healed and they can move their separate ways; the daughter's development is not compromised and even the therapist needs a hanky to wipe away a tear. Rich stuff!

Any criticism therefore seems to be carping unduly at minutiae. The therapy seems to have worked, so praise it, look at the process, admire the skill, the alliances the therapist made with all the members, the sensitivity of handling painful issues, the freedom of using individual therapy skills within a family context, and not least the visualisation of change to enable the family the freedom to move on. So what is the nagging doubt?

We are told (and are not told) some of the context and initial problems. Who did refer this family? Was Jane's weight ever considered sufficiently low to warrant actually knowing it? The family have separated for seven years, i.e. since Jane was six years old, and one can only infer that she was living with her mother. Hints are also given about Jane's difficulty at identification with her mother and her own sexuality. How did the therapist obtain the background information? There certainly seems to have been a mother/daughter conflict and possible power struggle. We do not know if that was addressed or deliberately not addressed. One wonders what had to happen to destabilise the system; that is, Jane becoming symptomatic. Was it probably father returning to his own country - or was it mother entering yet another relationship at the expense of closenss to Jane?

We could not help wondering after reading Furman and Aloha's article (1989) whether the intervention had been intuitively arrived at and the process worked out backwards to meet the intervention.

At the most basic level we have no quarrel with the therapists. They did open u