Webinar on Child Psychiatry Therapies by Emilda Judith Ezhil

Hi All,

sharing details of a webinar on Child Psychiatry Therapies organized by Sri Ramachandra Hospital on 15th Aug 2020 at 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm, which was free of cost. There were two speakers who spoke on two different topics, i have already posted the first part of session by Dr Poongodi Bala, in this post you will find the second part of the session presented by Dr. Emilda Judith Ezhil, Clinical Psychologist.

I must say that for some reason, her voice throughout the presentation was not clearly audible, hence i could not make out her explanations given for her slides. However, since i have captured screenshots of the slides thought of sharing the same here, as it could be of some use to others.

Family Therapies – A Parental Perspective

1) The Layout

Family > Theory > Therapies > Emergence > Parenting > Dysfunction > Therapy with Inclusion > Take Away

2) What is a family ?

A Family is a group of two or more people who define themselves as related by blood, marriage or some other bond. Family plays a central role is Psychology and Psychological Health. Mental health professionals place a strong emphasis on understanding the ways in which a person’s family with whom a person grows-up has affected them in context of relationship, marriage and friendship.

3) Functions of Family?

• Provide support to each other
• Establish autonomy and independence for each person in the system
• Create rules that govern the conduct of the family and its members
• Adapt to change in the environment
• Communicate with each other.

4) Types of Family

• Nuclear Family
• Extended Family
• Reconstituted Family
• Single Parent Family
• Boomeranged Family
• Symmetrical Family
• Grand parent Family
• Homosexual Family
• Blended Family
• Adopted Family

5) Family Theory

• Family system Theory
• Family developmental theory
• The life course perspective
• Social exchange theory
• Ecological theory
• Feminist Family theory

6) Family Therapies

• Structural Therapy
• Strategic Therapy
• Systemic Therapy
• Narrative Therapy
• Transgenerational Therapy
• Communication Therapy
• Relationship Councelling
• CBT

7) Assessing Family

a) Development – APGAR
A – Adaptation, P – Partnership, G – Growth, A – Affection and R – Resolve
b) Functional – SCREEM
S – Social, C – Cultural, R – Religious, E – Economics, E – Education, M – Medical.

8) Family Cycle

• Child Generation (Birth, School, Teenage years, Enter Workforce)
• Parent Generation ( Marriage, New Parent, Children Grow up, Middle age, Retirement)
• Grand Parent Generation ( Elderly parents, children gets married, Grand parenthood, Old age)

9) Family and Parenting Role

• Authoritative
• Neglectful
• Permissive
• Authoritarian

10) Where does one learn the parent ?

It is through sub conscientious actions and not intentional.
Children learn from combined parenting i.e. Spouse 1 parenting and spouse 2 parenting.

11) The Math

Family Function and Structure + Family Cycle and Stage of Growth + Parenting Style Affect = Function / Dysfunction

12) Who came first … The chicken or the Egg?

Did the childhood disorder is created through developmental delay or it is created by the family structure.

13) The dysfunction

A) The Family

• Lack of communication
• Lack of empathy
• Prone to addiction
• Mental illness
• Controlling behavior
• Perfectionism
• Criticism
• Lack of independence
• No emotional support
• Violence and abuse

B) The child

• Guilt ridden
• Feels responsible
• Tensed
• Poor Communication Skills
• Anguish
• Harsh to self
• People pleasers
• Perfectionist

9) The Checklist

A) Key Factors to address..

• Parental Alienation
• Blaming parents
• Developmental stage of each member
• Helplessness
• System Dynamics

B) The to do list

• Taking responsibility
• seeking help
• get creative
• build trust
• mending the family system

10) The Stages and therapy decisions

• Young Child ( Attachment perspective)
• School Age ( Social system perspective)
• Adolescents ( Overlap of Individual Lifestyles)

11) Child in Family Therapy

a) Family based behavior therapy ( Child management – problem solving skills)
b) Family based behavior treatment (Parent only) – (Lifestyle Modelling, Identifying reward, Implementing Consequences)
c) Functional Family Therapy (FFT) – (Reducing negativity in household, reducing problematic behavior)
d) Multi dimensional family therapy (MDFT) – (Family Centered, Individual, ENvironmental, Coping, Problem SOlving, Decision making, Family learning)
e) Multi system therapy (MST) – (System, individual, family, peer, school, community influence)
f) Behavior Family Therapy (BFT) – Parental management training (PMT)

12) Additional Giving

Common cost by parent:
” I am unable to control my parent / Family or in laws role in my child’s parenting” . Hence, the family system in therapy is shown to have better outcome than traditional with children therapy

13) The COVID Math
Family Function and Structure (Functional boundaries / disrupts structure) + Family cycle and stage of growth ( Stage of growth each member) + Parenting style affect ( Need more strategies) = Dysfunction

14) Emperical Outcomes..

• Family therapy is a tool to help treating adolescents diagnosed with Schizophrenia – Guy Diamond and Allen Josephson
• Family therapy is amazingly under utilized – Journal of american academy of child and adolescent psychiatry
• Full system approach creates lasting changes – Patterson

15) Psycho education is a more powerful tool than one realizes

Regards,
Saranya and Karthik
karthiksaranyaparents@gmail.com