Small Children Seen and Heard in Family Therapy

One of the reasons contributing to our interest in this topic is the pattern that seems to have evolved in family therapy which tends to avoid or too readily dismiss young children at some point during the course of family psychotherapy, almost as if they were not full members ofsuch a group. As we looked at the literature, titles such as “The Participation of Children in Family Therapy” (Ackerman 1970) or “Including the Children in Family Therapy” (Satir 1967) made us wonder who and what determined the components of the natural system, the family.

In this paper, the main aims of family therapy will be briefly examined. Next the attitudes of different clinicians to the involvement ofyoung children in the treatment will be stated. he shall then present some ideas in favour of this, and some comments as to how to make use of what, in our judgement, is the very relevant contribution of the younger members to the treatment.

Running through the paper is an implicit aim. The reader may wish to focus on the question of what sort of bridge exists between child psychotherapy and family therapy. Reference is made to information drawn from family events including child play about which the child psychotherapist has so much expertise to offer, and from which the family therapist could learn much. Perhaps reciprocally there is something to be learned about individual work with the child from there being a cross-bearing provided by data from work with the family group. Is this hoped-for interchange consonant with the challenge for inter-professional sharing made in the “Court Report”? (Committee on Child Health Services, 1976)

The focus of family therapy is the family group. Symptoms presented in the individual are construed as a statement of dysfunctional relationships between members of the group of which the family is comprised. The emphasis therefore is upon a treatment approach to interpersonal relationships and not directly towards producing structural ch