Reflections on My 1969 Smith College School for Social Work Thesis: Children’s Use of Humor in Psychotherapy

ABSTRACT

I had wanted to do my thesis on family’s use of humor in therapy. My first lesson was that that was too complicated a project—a lesson in practicality, which influenced my entire future career. My thesis also gave me the chance to focus on children’s resourcefulness and resilience, rather than just on their problems and psychopathology. After graduation, my advisor proposed that I publish my thesis. Her generosity in mentoring me toward publication was an extraordinary boon. I had no idea how to go about submitting something for publication, and she guided me through the process, giving me confidence to proceed professionally. I believe practitioners need to be encouraged, as I was, to push their ideas and insights into expanding theory and practice for the benefit of our communities for the future. We have a great need to push the boundaries of support, change, healing, and transformation.

KEYWORDS:

• children
• thesis
• voice

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Monica McGoldrick

Monica McGoldrick, MSW, PhD (hc), is Director of the Multicultural Family Institute and on the clinical faculty of the Psychiatry Department at the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. She has an international reputation as a trainer and author. Her books include Ethnicity and Family Therapy (3rd ed.), Guilford Press, 2005; The Expanding Family Life Cycle (5th ed.), Pearson, 2016; Genograms (3rd ed.), W. W. Norton, 2008; Living Beyond Loss (2nd ed.), W. W. Norton, 2005; Re-Visioning Family Therapy: Race, Culture and Gender in Clinical Practice (3rd ed.), Guilford Press, in press; Women in Families, W. W. Norton, 1991; and The Genogram Journey: Reconnecting With Your Family (2nd ed.), W. W. Norton, 2011. Her newest book is The Genogram Casebook (2016), published by W. W. Norton.