Luton Youth Offending Service – Family Therapy
IYPP PROJECT
6. Case Studies
Names and other details have been changed to maintain confidentiality.
Our description of these two cases rather over simplifies the complex and difficult circumstances surrounding the families we have worked with. However, we hope to show how Family Therapy has the potential to reconnect families to their shared wishes to make things work for the better and can give families an increased sense of their resourcefulness.
Both these studies serve to indicate the importance of bringing the wider family, locality and cultural perspective into focus.
Case study 1: Brown Family
The Brown Family consists of father and five children aged 10 to 25 yrs of age. The family is white working class. This family was chosen as a case study because of the clear connection between the unresolved grieving of the mother’s death and offending behaviour. Additional reasons for choosing to describe our work with this family were the distinct gender issues in respect to the way the father adopted his parenting role to care for the family and the implications this had for the eldest daughter.
Mrs Brown died 2 yrs ago following a long illness. Colin who is 16 yrs old has had episodes of violence to other young people and was involved in car theft. James aged 25 has a diagnosis of schizophrenia and is due to be released from prison in a few months. He received a six -month custodial sentence for violent behaviour. Kate is currently finishing a course at her local FE College and will be looking for full-time employment. Peter is failing to attend school on a regular basis. Jane is apparently doing very well at school and is not currently showing any signs of distress.
Mr Brown’s employer has allowed him time off over the past two years, but he feels increasingly “stressed” and unable to keep control.
Other agencies involved were the Social Services; Education Welfare and Housing departments and Police and mental health services.
Therapeutic session took place over eight monthly meetings in the family’s home. Three meetings were with the whole family, one meeting with the male members of the family, one with the female family members and the remaining three consisted mainly of the oldest daughter and the two younger siblings.
The focus of this work was on the way the mother’s bereavement had rarely been talked about in the family, but was having an enormous impact on each family member. It could be argued Colin’s behaviour finally brought about a context in which the impact of the mother’s death could be explored in detail.
In the first session Colin described how his continuing his studies at his local FE College now hung in the balance since Colin had attacked and assaulted another student. Colin described how the student had been “dissing” his mother calling her a “slag” and in an instant reaction Colin found himself hitting out and kicking this student. Until this session Colin had not brought into focus the connection between what the student had said about his own mother and Colin’s violent reaction to it. The connection in the moment of this session appeared obvious to Colin and perhaps for the first time he faced how angry he was feeling. This connection proved to be a turning point in helping Colin to recognise his strong feelings and the need for him to work to prevent his reactive behaviour.
The work broadened out to discuss with all family members (except James who was in custody) how they had been differently affected by their mother’s death in respect to their ages and stages of childhood/adolescent development. These conversations witnessed the many abilities the family developed and increased their awareness of their strengths and appreciation for each other, especially Mr Brown and Kate in respect to the efforts and sacrifices they had made to support the family on a day-by-day basis. Kate during this time started to write poems in appreciation of her mother, herself and her family. She hoped to publish them to help other young people who suffered trauma or bereavement.
Case Study 2: M Family
Mrs & Mr M emigrated to the UK from X African country and their two daughters Silvia age 21 and Natasha age 17 were both born in Luton. Mr M died a few years ago. This family was chosen as a case study because of the way the family culture played a large part in the way meaning was constructed in respect to the daughter’s offending and the way the extended family played a significant part in restoring the break down of relationship between mother and daughter.
Natasha’s behaviour was the reason identified for the referral of this family to the Family Therapy service.She became involved with Luton YOS after being given a Final Warning. The person doing the final warning assessment referred Natasha’s mum to the parenting team for parent support. After a more detailed parenting assessment, Mrs M was referred to the Family Therapy team for family work.
The work consisted of two sessions only with a follow up appointment arranged in two months (at the time of writing this report). In the first session Mrs M outlined the current break down in communication between herself and Natasha and their lack of trust and respect for each other. Mrs M was also very concerned about Natasha’s friendships and one person in particular who the mother saw as a very bad influence. Natasha had also accrued a very large mobile phone bill and Mrs M was the account holder.
Tracking back in time we explored how there had been a very good and harmonious family atmosphere. The simple action of connecting back to happier times seemed to be like a person suffering from chronic back pain being able to really feel what a pain-free time had felt like and a sense of sadness developed for the loss and pain experienced over the last year and the deleterious effect this had on the whole family. We left this session with a sense that mother and daughter had reconnected and shared a real desire to make things work. We had also asked “who in the family was most likely to help keep things on track” the answer was rather surprising, Mrs M saying how she was now going to invite her mother (living in X African country) to join them for a while and help the family reconnect still further.
The second session lasted only half an hour. As we stepped in the door a new and relaxed atmosphere was very apparent. Grandma had arrived and was currently helping Silvia (Natasha’s sister) with her daughter. In the interval between these two sessions Mrs M and Natasha had done a good deal of talking and rebuilt their trust for each other. We wondered as to how sustainable this rapid change could be, so we asked many questions to test out how hypothetical future challenges would be managed. Natasha answered these questions with an assured sense of maturity resulting in Mrs M hearing these responses and openly being appreciative of her daughter’s abilities and re-found strength of purpose. Natasha’s responses illustrated a different mind set. Our being curious about how this new mindset would be seen in action provided the opportunity for Natasha to describe in detail how she intended to maintain her focus and make good judgements.
In our view our work in relation to the family system and reflecting on the importance of culture and the extended family, played a significant part in the success of this case. Success here being defined as restoration of positive family relationships following a major relationship break down, as well as no further offending. The therapy also seemed to have an empowering effect on Mrs M who developed a greater appreciation and respect for how her daughter manages to keep her self safe and out of trouble. It also seemed to enable mother and daughter to have a greater awareness of their skills, qualities and abilities.