‘I Just Don't Agree’: A Voice-Oriented Analysis of An IFPS Case of Alleged Child Maltreatment

Abstract

In contrast to the many outcome studies of Intensive Family Preservation Services (IFPS), little is known about the underlying personal and relational dynamics of family crisis interventions. This article focuses on the core evolving dynamics of the changing self-presentations of a parent involved in an intensive home-based family preservation case of alleged child maltreatment. Three key family intervention sessions were videotaped and transcribed including both verbal and nonverbal behavior. The Listening Guide Method – a theoretically flexible, qualitative, relationally oriented method of in-depth interpretative analysis – served as our guide for this case analysis. In the processes of change toward a jointly constructed meaningful narrative on responsibility and self-care, two key elements emerged as playing a pivotal role: (1) the momentum of a potential referral of children to out-of-home care that precedes the start of an IFPS intervention and (2) the rhizomatic or root-like intertwinement of the voices of both parent and therapist with respect to the rationale for any involvement of society in the family. We argue that discourses on imminent placement in the context of family preservation deserve a genuine and valuable position in the initial discourse of a family therapist when entering a family in the context of crisis intervention. Both in understanding and driving any processes of change, we may need to reconsider our own willingness to step into the blending interplay of discourse and counter-discourse with our clients on the subject of our often drastic intervention. Consequently, we may read this narrative analysis as an invitation to reflect on the conceptualization of ‘client readiness’ in psychotherapy and to shift our thinking on preconditions for therapy from a client's readiness toward a therapist's attentiveness to listen.

Keywords::

• narrative analysis
• family preservation
• child maltreatment
• Listening Guide Method
• qualitative research

Acknowledgments

We highly appreciate the feedback we received on an earlier draft of this article from Professor Valentin Escudero (Universidad Là Coruna, Spain) and from Ms Shelley Leavitt (Institute for Family Development, Seattle, WA) as well as their close monitoring and supervision we ceaselessly could count on throughout the research process. The intense encounters with Professor Caroll Gilligan on the Listening Guide Method in the fall of 2011 were key in the progress of our research. We are particularly grateful to all family therapists of the IFPS teams in Flanders and the Brussels Capital Region, ‘Crisishulp aan Huis’, for their courageous involvement in this research project. This publication would have never been possible without their commitment. The research is funded by the research board of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Hubert Van Puyenbroeck

Hubert Van Puyenbroeck is a family therapist in a private practice and research assistant at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is involved in policy research in the field of parenting support, child welfare, special youth care and child maltreatment. Address: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Elsene, Brussels. [E-mail: [email protected]]

Gerrit Loots

Gerrit Loots is professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and visiting professor at the Instituto de Investigaciones en Ciencias del Compartamiento (IICC), Departamento de Psicología of the Universidad Católica Boliviana ‘San Pablo’ in La Paz. He is running a research group on Interpersonal, Discursive and Narrative Studies in Psychology and Educational Sciences (IDNS – PE), and he is director of the Centre for Children in Vulnerable Situations. His fields of interests and research are: infant psychology, psychosocial well-being of children affected by war, migration, poverty and social exclusion, and psychotherapy with a focus on postmodern family therapy. He has been practising family therapy since the 1980s in different counselling and therapeutic settings. Address: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Elsene, Brussels. [E-mail: [email protected]]

Hans Grietens

Hans Grietens is full professor at the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, and is Professor II at the Regional Centre for Child and Youth Mental Health and Child Welfare of the University of Trondheim (Norway), and Guest teacher at the Université Paris-Ouest La Défense Nanterre (France). He has expertise in research in the field of child welfare, foster care, child maltreatment, trauma and children's perspectives. Address: Grote Rozenstraat 38, 9712 TJ, Groningen. [E-mail: [email protected]]

Wolfgang Jacquet

Wolfgang Jacquet is professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and has published in the field of Engineering, applied and computational mathematics, statistical analysis, data processing, computer science and data optimization. Address: Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Elsene, Brussels. [E-mail: [email protected]]