More family therapy needed to nip social problems in the bud

Family therapy is very important to support individuals facing problems within their family and wider settings. It should be available at the community level in interdisciplinary teams, to address social problems at their initial stages and help prevent them from becoming complex and reaching a crisis stage.

This argument was made by Maryanne Gauci, manager of adult and family services at Appoġġ at a recently held ceremony marking the graduation ceremony of 33 students in applied systemic therapy from the Tavistock Institute, London.

The Appoġġ family therapy service deals with varying situations including children with difficult and challenging behaviour that families are unable to cope with, severe parent-teenage conflicts, and couples in crisis who want to safeguard their relationship, among others.

The family therapy approach looks at the family relationship dynamics of the individuals seeking help, giving importance to all family members and providing them with the opportunity to work together on their relationship with one another and overcome stumbling blocks together as a family.

The Appoġġ family therapy service has been organising training courses in family therapy for the past 11 years in collaboration with the Tavistock Institute and co-organising tutors Angela Abela and Clarissa Sammut Scerri and other Maltese tutors.

Addressing the graduates, Dr Abela said the Tavistock courses were a new culture in methods of working with the family. She added that the high number of people from diverse professional backgrounds taking part in such courses year after year prove how much the Maltese have family welfare at heart.

Besides professionals from the Foundation for Social Welfare Services, participants have come from the Cana Movement, Education Department, Caritas, and from private practice.

Family psychotherapy and systemic practice is a specialised postgraduate field of therapy and such courses give professionals an opportunity to gain a new language for therapy (including theory and practice) in working with individuals and families. The Tavistock postgraduate certificate and diploma courses are aimed at psychologists, social workers, general practitioners, psychiatrists, guidance teachers, counsellors, psychotherapists and nurses.

The training provides participants new ways of understanding family dynamics to enable them to be better equipped to deal with problems presented by individuals and families in different contexts including schools, general practice, and social work.

The Tavistock courses have been accredited since 2004 and this is the second group of students to have successfully completed the postgraduate certificate and diploma in systemic theory since the accreditation process.

Such courses represent the Appoġġ's commitment to continuous training of staff and professionals and also help strengthen the profession by making it possible for successful diploma candidates to apply and read for a Masters programme in family therapy and systemic thinking.

For further information on the Appoġġ family therapy service, access the website www.appogg.gov.mt.