Multifamily therapies: Historical development and current state

Journal title PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE
Author/s Sabrina Signorini, Walter Paganin
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/2 Language Italian
Pages 22 P. 245-266 File size 250 KB
DOI 10.3280/PU2023-002004
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Multifamily therapies (MFT) represent an innovative therapeutic tool that deserves to be better known by health professionals and families. MFT are particularly useful in severe mental disor-ders and used in some organic disorders and problematic social situations and in different clinical and cultural contexts (hospitals, mental health centers, clinics, schools, homes, prisons, communi-ties and social centers). Multifamily therapies consist in bringing together several patients with their families around a specific health problem, and the therapeutic attention is focused simultane-ously on the individual, on the families and on the relationships among families. Some of the techniques shown in this review can orient the clinician among the various forms and experiences of MFT. The birth and development of MFT, with its scientific, theoretical and clinical aspects, are examined using clinical and narrative sources, the PubMed database and gray literature until November 2022. The various multifamily therapies models developed over the years, increasingly varied and articulated, are described. The common goal of MFT remains the involvement of fami-lies in the care of the patient (or of the "identified patient"), the improvement of family communi-cation, the promotion of awareness of family interactions, and the clarification and definition of family and marital roles and expectations. The therapeutic effects of MFT are promising, but fur-ther studies to evaluate its effectiveness by comparing it with other psychotherapeutic techniques are needed.

Keywords: Multifamily therapies; Multifamily groups; Interfamily therapy; Mente ampliada; Multifamily psychoanalytic groups

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Sabrina Signorini, Walter Paganin, Le terapie multifamiliari: evoluzione storica e stato attuale in "PSICOTERAPIA E SCIENZE UMANE" 2/2023, pp 245-266, DOI: 10.3280/PU2023-002004