The Family Cycle in Supervision: Enhancing Clinician Mentalizing in Work with Highly Stressed Families

ABSTRACT

In the last two decades there has been significant growth in the use of mentalization theory to conceptualize and organize the therapeutic practice of clinicians working with complex and multi-stressed families. In this paper we describe the supervisory use of the Family Cycle – a clinical activity designed to promote mentalizing in parents and children participating in an intensive home visiting program aimed at avoiding child/adolescent psychiatric hospitalization. We describe the Family Cycle in the supervisory context as a structure that facilitates fostering safety and regulation in the supervisory relationship, all in the service of mentalizing the experience of the families in therapy. We highlight barriers to working effectively with mentalization-based techniques and emphasize how supervisors can effectively model the mentalizing stance through interactions with clinicians. We end with a supervisory vignette illustrating concretely how one would go about applying this technique to supervision.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We refer the reader to Stob et al. (2019), for a full description of the Family Cycle.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Victoria Stob

Victoria Stob, M.A., is a licensed clinical social worker and Assistant Clinical Professor of Social Work at the Yale Child Study Center. Victoria specializes in integrating social-science-based research and theory into practicable clinical applications for highly-stressed children and families.

Arietta Slade

Arietta Slade, Ph.D., is Professor of Clinical Child Psychology at the Yale Child Study Center, and Professor Emerita in the doctoral program in Clinical Psychology at the City University of New York. An internationally recognized theoretician, clinician, researcher, and teacher, she has published widely on reflective parenting, the clinical implications of attachment theory, the development of parental mentalization, and the relational contexts of early symbolization, and regularly presents her work to national and international audiences.

Line Brotnow

Line Brotnow, M.Sc., M.A., is a licensed clinical psychologist in outpatient practice with children and adolescents in Oslo, Norway. She is an associated researcher working with Intensive In-Home Child and Adolescent Services (IICAPS) at the Yale Child Study Center.

Joseph Woolston

Joseph Woolston, M.D., is the Albert J. Solnit Professor of Child Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Yale University School of Medicine. In 1996, he co-founded Intensive In-Home Child and Adolescent Services (IICAPS), an innovative blend of home-based, system of careservice approach with a medical model.