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Die Grundthese dieses Beitrages ist, dass sich psychologische und familiendynamische Prozesse im Zusammenhang von Mobilität, Migration, Flucht und Vertreibung durch das Vorhandensein von Informations- und Kommunikationstechnologien (IKTs) nicht mehr in der gleichen Art und Weise konzeptualisieren lassen wie vor der Digitalisierung.

Knowledge regarding digital practices in the field of systemic therapy is poor. A few surveys have been conducted in non-European countries investigating the provision of digitally based therapy, counselling, training, and supervision by systemic family and couple therapists (SCFTs). Thus, a survey aiming to investigate the use of information and communication technology (ICT) among European SCFTs was launched in 2017. A sample of 220 SCFTs was included in the survey. The majority were residents in Greece, France and Italy. Descriptive analysis compared SCFTs’ digital practices and concerns from the above three countries with those from the rest of Europe. Results showed that 81.4 per cent of European SCFTs used ICT for clinical purposes and 47.7 per cent in training and supervision. Main concerns among European SCFTs related to the quality of therapeutic relationship, ethical and legal issues, and a lack of national and transnational regulation. Practitioner points: ICT use and e-therapy increase access to mental health services and maintain therapeutic contact Systemic individual therapy, supervision and training are workable online settings Legislation regulating ICT use in therapy, supervision and training (e.g. General Data Protection Regulation) has to be respected Training and continuous education in online practices enhance therapists’ and clients’ options, and ensure digital safeness and effective treatment.

In this chapter, we discuss the Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) or Stimulated Recall Interview (SRI) as a method and show its usage in investigating systemic couple therapy processes in two international research projects. IPR/SRI has been designed as a process-focused interview method for training and supervision, expanded into clinical, especially psychotherapy process research: patients and/or therapists watch video (segments) of the therapeutic situation and comment on their experiences during the session. The aim of the presented analysis is to study the mutual dynamic between the couple therapists’ references to their professional practices and to their personal experiences during the interview. To achieve this aim, we employed two methodological approaches: dialogical analysis to investigate the distinction between the therapist’s professional and personal selves, and the narrative storytelling approach in order to describe the therapist’s positioning in terms of his or her discursive identities being displayed in the IPR/SR interview. We discuss the results in three aspects, describing (1) the therapists’ discursive practices of presenting their professional and personal identities; (2) the shifting of their attention between the video episode from the session and displaying their mental state in relation to it; and (3) the thinking aloud phenomena as enhancing the insight into psychotherapeutic processes. We conclude with methodological reflections.

This introductory chapter explicates the conceptual background of the volume. It describes the tradition of the Qualitative Research in Mental Health (QRMH) conferences and illuminates the transdisciplinary field of mental health as well as the current discourse of mental health as global challenge. Innovative elements of the book chapters are pointed out and related to main features of qualitative research in general and in mental health research specifically, like power issues and ethical considerations, the meaningfulness of process research and naturalistic settings, how to accumulate knowledge by doing metasynthesis and how research can become an intervention. Finally, the chapter gives an outline of the book’s structure.

In this article, we aim to introduce the special JMFT section on discursive research methodologies for couple and family therapy research. These are qualitative research methodologies which resonate with the systemic emphasis on the semantics and the pragmatics of therapy discourse. First, we provide a brief overview of such methodologies and their use in the family therapy field. We then introduce the context and the content of the special section, where four approaches, including conversation analysis, discursive psychology type of discourse analysis, poststructurally informed discourse analysis (subject positioning analysis), and semantic analysis, are introduced by means of analyzed extracts from a Tom Andersen consultation session with a couple in distress and their therapist. We conclude with implications for the field. For Tom and Michael.

Publication about family therapy and family therapy research has changed a great deal since the early days of couple and family therapy. This chapter will speak to several key aspects of publication today, presenting three of the most prominent family therapy journals: Family Process (United States; editor: Jay Lebow), Journal of Family Therapy (United Kingdom; Reenee Singh, outgoing editor; Philip Messent, present editor), and the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (editor: Glenn Larner). The editors-in-chief describe background and history of the journals, trends and areas of publications, relation between research and practice, reviewing processes, and challenges for authors.

This chapter presents a couple therapy session from four different research perspectives: The verbal dialogue was analysed with the Dialogical Investigations of Happenings of Change method, the embodied reactions of each participant were analysed by examining the electrodermal activity of each participant, and nonverbal synchrony was observed between the participants. Stimulated Recall Interviews, conducted individually after the session, were used to gain insights on the participants’ thoughts and feelings concerning particular moments in the session. We wished to determine what could be learned from the embodied reactions of the participants in couple therapy, including whether the data obtained via the different research methods were telling the same or different story about the same moment within the couple therapy session.

Die Integration moderner Bindungs- und narrativer Theorie mit ­systemischer Theorie und Praxis bietet einen reichen Erklarungs­rahmen fur Beziehungsdilemmata und -notlagen und zeigt uns, wie in der Therapie vorgegangen werden kann ( Dallos & Vetere 2009 2014 ). Das ­Attachment-Narrative-Projekt hat viele fur die Praxis ­nutzliche Ideen hervorgebracht, die in der systemisch-therapeutischen ­Arbeit mit ­Individuen, Paaren und Familien angewendet werden ­konnen. ­Wichtige Arbeiten, die sich ebenfalls mit diesem Thema befassen, stammen z. B. von Pat Crittenden (2006) und Susan Johnson (2008) .

Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird ein europaisches Forschungsprojekt zur systemischen Paartherapie vorgestellt. Dabei kommen ­sowohl ­Forscherinnen bzw. Forscher als auch Therapeutinnen bzw. ­Therapeuten zu Wort. Ein Praxisbeispiel verzahnt die beiden Ebenen.

This paper outlines the development of pan European systemic thinking and practice. This development has been enabled and supported with the establishment of the European Family Therapy Association (EFTA). EFTA has evolved over the last decade from an organisation of individual members to an organisation of organisations—representing also national associations of family therapy and family therapy training institutes across 28 European countries. There are three sections to this paper: (1) a brief summary of the development of family therapy practice in Europe; (2) a brief summary of the work of the national associations of family therapy in EFTA; and (3) a brief summary of current concerns of some senior family therapists and family therapy trainers within the EFTA organisation.

This chapter brings together two global developments: the increasing number of transnational families and the expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs). It is assumed that we as family/systemic therapists and trainers have to react to these changes by providing new concepts as well as new methods. “World families” make visible how globalization becomes embodied in marital and family relations; this model criticizes explicitly the “methodological nationalism” (Beck and Beck Gernsheim 2010) usually applied in family studies.

In this chapter, my aim is to introduce a qualitative research method named Objective Hermeneutics into psychotherapy research. First, an outline of my theoretical background is given. Then the main principles of the method are presented. By carrying out a step-by-step sequential analysis of a short interaction between Victoria and Alfonso during the first therapy session, the application of Objective Hermeneutics in systemic research is shown. This microanalysis is subsequently embedded into the therapy process. The chapter ends with a discussion and conclusions for couple and family therapy practice and research.

Throughout the book, there is an awareness of the complexity of multi-actor sessions. The final chapter points out that all the different approaches the authors used for their analysis have a right of their own. The different research approaches and tools presented illustrate only some perspectives we can take on couple therapy. They demonstrate the usefulness of studying therapeutic sessions in their specificity in order to deepen our understanding of the conversational processes we call “couple therapy.”

Although there is an increased interest in looking at psychotherapy in terms of discourse, narrative and dialogue, most psychotherapy research is still quantitative and psychotherapy research in the field of marital and family therapy (MFT) is rather scarce. While qualitative research (QR) is appreciated in the fields of sociology, pedagogy and anthropology, for instance, in the fields of clinical psychology and psychotherapy it has just started to be accepted as a valid kind of research.

EFTA is a unique organisation which brings together in its three chambers the leading national family therapy organisations of each of around 30 European countries (with more than 50,000 family therapists throughout Europe), 125 of the training institutes of around 30 countries and 1100 individual member practitioners of high standing (2016). It works politically to support the profession and practice of family therapy throughout Europe and has a collaborative relationship with a number of like-minded organisations all over the world.

In this final chapter we use the inspiration from the 12 chapters to suggest five areas in which we see family therapy and systemic practice developing. We juxtapose a selection of material from the reports of original developments in our chapters under these headings to draw out the connections between them. The headings are: The political context of our work; Developments in family therapy theories; Novel practices in therapy and training; Developments within systemic theory and practice; and Wider resources and contexts of application. While the material drawn from this book illustrates the current liveliness of systemic couple and family therapy thinking and practice, the sections progressively point to wider resources that could be a foundation for future originality.

In this chapter, we present the case that will be studied from different perspectives in this book. We will introduce the couple, the context in which the therapy took place and give an overview—session by session—of what happened in the therapy. Throughout the book, the process of therapy will be the background for the different analyses, but only in this chapter the whole development in the four sessions is described.