Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:39:27Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Monica.pdf: 734345 bytes, checksum: 69505b76eab1c59655ab1b95bf79df49 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-05-14 / This report has its fundamental goal by understanding relationship dynamics on kidnapped victims and their families reconstruction. Get deeper on either practical or theoretical view giving a whole understanding of families process who had suffered a traumatic event, the kidnap. Discuss theoretically view of family relationship, their frontiers, the ambiguous loss, and trauma in all its dimensions, social, psychological and political. Base on literature and clinical background, developing a therapeutic action. Person and their families, who had suffered violence situations of any kind, especially kidnapping victims, might lead to isolation by feeling insecure and fearful created by the situation and the troubled unknown. Normality and tranquility disappears, breaking the family balance. All the problems that families had before the kidnap get worse after the event, rising conflicts. The after kidnapping experience from families (brief kidnapping or captivity) has shown that traumatic situation never ends. Some families return to their previous life, but the majority gets into a reconstruction process that normally takes time and creates pain (PSTD). Inside their living group, being silent about the theme in majority of time can be imposed by inability to find a solution, or to avoid suffer reviving. The consequence is more silence avoiding talking about the subject or anything that might remind them. The moment they accept that all of them are suffering from kidnap effects and the family system must be reconstructed to focusing and developing new schemes for family function, then it was possible to find the key that helped to untangle the fear feeling mess, sadness, guilty and anger. The followed road was the ¨grief¨ process for everything they had lost and were express by the end of silence, resulting to a new restructured family system. The spot of this investigation were selected by the study of Systemic Familiar Sociodrama that encloses Systematic Psychodrama Therapy. Psychodrama allows a correlated function to the internal world (intra-psychic) and external world (reality), seeking to regain spontaneity, lowering tensions, textual zing contents and talking about feelings. The systemic approach takes human systems out of individual focus, in another word from the intra-psychic to the inter-relatio / Este trabalho tem como objetivo fundamental compreender as dinâmicas relacionais e a reconstrução das famílias com vítimas de seqüestro. Aprofundar através da descrição teórica e prática a compreensão do processo de vivência das famílias que sofreram um evento traumático, o seqüestro. Discutir teoricamente as relações familiares, suas fronteiras, a perda ambígua, o trauma nas dimensões social, psíquico e político. Com base na literatura e na experiência clínica desenvolver uma ação terapêutica. As pessoas e seus familiares que vivem situações de violência, de qualquer espécie, em especial o seqüestro, tendem ao isolamento, pelo sentimento de medo e insegurança que a situação gera e pelo desconhecimento da problemática. A normalidade e a tranqüilidade rompem e o equilíbrio da família desaparece. Os problemas familiares que existiam antes do seqüestro, a partir deste evento, tornam-se piores e, por conseguinte, os atritos aumentam. A experiência que se tem com famílias após o seqüestro (com cativeiro ou relâmpago) vem demonstrando que esta vivência traumática não termina. Algumas famílias retornam à vida que levavam, mas a grande maioria entra em um processo de reconstrução, que normalmente leva tempo e gera dor (TEPT). No grupo em que vivem, o silêncio sobre o tema na maioria das vezes, se impõe, pela impossibilidade de acharem uma solução ou para evitarem reviver o sofrimento. A conseqüência é mais silêncio, pois não se pode tocar no assunto, nem em outros que possam lembrá-lo e assim, sucessivamente. No momento que se aceita que todos estão sofrendo os efeitos do seqüestro e que o sistema familiar deve reestruturar-se para canalizar e desenvolver novos esquemas de funcionamento foi possível achar a chave que ajudou a desemaranhar a confusão dos sentimentos de medo, tristeza, culpa e de raiva. O caminho percorrido foi o processo da elaboração deste luto por tudo o que foi perdido e que pôde ser expresso com o fim do silêncio, resultando em uma reestruturação dos sistemas familiares. O enfoque de investigação selecionado para este estudo foi o Sociodrama Familiar Sistêmico que engloba a terapia psicodramática e sistêmica. O psicodrama possibilita uma correlação do mundo interno (intrapsiquico) e o mundo externo (realidade), procurando recuperar a espontaneidade, diminuir as tensões, contextualizar o conteúdo e falar de sentimentos. A abordagem sistêmica tira o foco do indivíduo para os sistemas humanos, portanto do intrapsiquico para o inter-relacional

This is a constructivistic, qualitative single case study of the reflections of a social work post-graduate student in a practical family therapy training situation, to illustrate the integration of person centered and systemic family therapy theory. The element of uncertainty of the therapist, is the focus of this study. The element of uncertainty, being a part of both the therapist and the therapeutic process, especially if challenged to make paradigm shifts and master new theory and skills, is identified, described, redefined and contructively applied. The focus is to highlight the use of the reframed element of uncertainty in empowering the therapist in the therapeutic process of family therapy. It is outlined how uncertainty can also be of value to empower the therapist to evolve an own unique therapeutic style. / Social work / M.A. (Geestesgesondheid)

This study is an endeavour to demonstrate the applicability of constructivist epistemology in different contexts. The black family is presented as one of such contexts. The study is further a demonstration of the role of a symptom as part of a recursive process of interaction in the context of a black family. It reflects an orientation rooted in cybernetics, ecology and systems theory. Therapy is presented as a context through which the therapist becomes incorporated and, therefore, adopting and speaking the language of the family's particular form of symptomatic communication in order to engender change. A literature study presenting a conceptual framework is presented. A case study presenting the research data is presented. Transcripts from video-taped sessions with the family are presented in the addendum. The implications of constructivist framework for the field of family therapy in the context of a black family are, therefore, outlined. / Social work / M.A. (Mental Health)

Text in English / The training of psychotherapists not only determines what new therapists learn about the practice of therapy, but influences significantly their identity and the development of a professional self. This dissertation explores the professional development of a trainee therapist, taking into consideration the training context and training approach, the trainee's unique training needs and the influence of own interactional style. The study was undertaken from an action research perspective, therefore emphasising solving a problem in the field and feeding this information back into the system during the course of the research project. The researcher describes how the training context (in this case, the Agape Healing Community in Mamelodi, South Africa), the training approach (systemic family therapy), and his personal style shaped his professional sense of self. He found however, that it was the process of action research which encouraged movement from feelings of inadequacy to competence in his professional development. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The development of the concept of irreverence is examined in terms of its historical, theoretical and metatheoretical contexts. The underlying assumptions of the concepts of neutrality, curiosity, and irreverence are distinguished and contextualised. Neutrality is discussed with reference to Milan systemic therapy and first- and second-order cybernetics, while curiosity is examined in the light of constructivist and narrative approaches to psychotherapy. It is argued that these two concepts represent two sides of a dualism, which is transcended through irreverence. Irreverence is interpreted as a postmodern stance, involving the questioning and relativising of therapists' basic assumptions. The pragmatic components of an irreverent stance, namely self-reflexivity, orthogonality, flexibility and accountability, are explored with reference to related concepts in the work of other authors. Throughout the text metalogues are used in an attempt to engage reader and author in a collaborative enterprise of acknowledging and reevaluating their own basic assumptions. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The mini-dissertation explains how systems theory provided a healing context for me in my training as a clinical psychologist over two years. The emergence of my authentic voice is narrated in an autoethnography (five act drama) about what happened. The main theoretical bases for the dissertation are – constructivism to understand the learning and teaching I experienced; learning as a collaborative endeavour and the emergence of my authentic voice with help from more skilled others. Systems theory informs the entire study at every theoretical level. Bowen’s family therapy theory is significant for the differentiation of the self and his I-position is equated with the emergence of an authentic voice. Myth, epic narratives, the hero’s journey amplify my interpretation of the differentiation of self. The raw data for the qualitative research were observations, interviews, creative writing, photocollage, a collection of readings, songs and dialogues. The themes emerging from the autoethnography were about obstructions because of the authoritarian nature of my upbringing, life and work. These themes lessened in force in clinical training until my authentic voice emerged in relation to self and as a clinical psychologist. A recommendation from the dissertation is that autoethnography provides a good vehicle for reflection and intense interior scrutiny needed to become a practising clinical psychologist; the autoethnographical exercise could be used by training clinical psychologists more extensively on their journey to maturity. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Much of the current academic literature on the practice of homeschooling has revolved around the individual academic, social, and psychosocial outcomes of homeschooled youth. As such, the relational and systemic implications of homeschooling have been neglected in the current body of research, thus leaving the practice’s long-term outcomes on family and relational functionality up to heuristic assumption by homeschooling families and the general public. The current study sought to address this gap in the literature by introducing a family systems perspective to the assessment of homeschooling families and homeschooler’s relational functionality. Comparisons between homeschooled (<i>n</i> = 145) and non-homeschooled (<i>n</i> = 147) adults found that, after controlling for demographic differences, homeschooled adults reported that their families had higher levels of unbalanced Enmeshment and Rigidity, along with lower levels of unbalanced Disengagement, than non-homeschooled participants within the Circumplex Model of Marital and Family Functioning. Homeschoolers also displayed greater levels of Differentiation-of-Self in the domains of Emotional Reactivity and I-Position taking than non-homeschoolers. These results, however, were found to be closely connected to homeschooled participants’ reports of how many years they were homeschooled, the degree of structure in their homeschooling environment, as well as the strength of several different common rationales they believe motivated their family to choose to homeschool, with certain factors emerging as significant predictors of whether homeschoolers reported a more functional family environment and higher Differentiation-of-Self. The clinical and research implications, limitations, and future directions for studies of this kind, are discussed.

Although addiction is treated by means of different treatment programmes in South Africa, the researcher discovered that the level of self-actualization and changes in addicts relationships, are questionable. A preliminary literature review indicated that the family of origin could be the cause of addiction. The above prompted the researcher to compile a treatment programme that addresses the family of origin as a cause of addiction. The treatment programme was divided into three phases. Phases one and two were included to provide therapists with guidelines on how to assist clients to reach abstinence, as well as how to function effectively in their life-worlds, while phase three addressed the family of origin as a cause of addiction. The family systems and relations theories served as the theoretical framework of the study. Phase three of the treatment programme was implemented by therapists during an empirical investigation to determine the effectiveness of the treatment programme. / Teacher Education / D Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of dynamic relationships within families, and indicating how the decision to divorce may result from a family's difficulty in adjusting to new changes and stressors. Thus, divorce results in the redefinition of a nuclear system. This study made use of social constructionism as its epistemological framework. By means of in-depth one-on-one interviews, the researcher was able to hear the narratives of all six participants. Hermeneutics was used to analyze the data. The participants' stories were reencountered through the researcher's own frame of reference in which common themes of the divorce process were co-constructed. These themes were later elaborated on and a comparative analysis was undertaken to link them to the available literature. The information gained from the study could contribute to existing research on the impact of divorce, family reorganization following a divorce, and offer a new perspective in understanding family systems. / Clinical Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

The present study explored the effect of the birth of a child with a cleft lip and palate on family functioning within the context of family systems theory. Five families, each with a child who was born with a cleft lip and palate, were included in the study. The five couples were all married and they were the biological parents of their children whose ages ranged from two months to five years. All five sets of parents were initially interviewed together and then had separate individual interviews where the Family Assessment Measure-III was administered. The results reflected each family's distinctive patterns of interaction and how they adapted to the birth of a child with an orofacial cleft. Factors found to affect family functioning included: External support systems, individual coping skills, family rules and boundaries, open communication and cohesion among family members. / Psychology / M. A. (Psychology)