Viewing Volume 11 Issue 1 Spring 2008
A FAMILY RESILIENCE FRAMEWORK: INNOVATIVE PRACTICE APPLICATIONS
An abstract of Froma Walsh article in Family Relations 2002; Vol. 51. Issue 2, p 130
Over the past 2 decades, the field of family therapy has refocused attention from family strengths (Nichols & Schwartz 2000.) This shift rebalances the longstanding overemphasis on pathology and assumptions of family casuality in the field of mental health heavily influenced by the medical model and psychoanalysis. The therapeutic relationship has become more collaborative and empowering of client potential, recognizing that successful interventions depend more on tapping into family resources than on therapist techniques. Assessment and intervention are redirected from how problems were caused to how they can be resolved, identifying and amplifying existing and potential competencies. Therapists and clients work together to find new possibilities in a problem-saturated situation and overcome impasses to change and growth. This positive, future-orientated stance focuses on bringing out the best to enhance functioning and well-being.
A family resilience approach builds on these developments to strengthen family capacities to master adversities (Walsh, 1996, 1998b). A basic premis guiding this approach is that stressful crises and persistent challenges influence the whole family, and in turn, key family processes mediate the recovery and resilience of vulnerable members as well as the family unit. Interventions aim to build family strengths as problems are addressed, thereby reducing risk and vulnerability. As the family becomes more resourceful, its ability to meet future challenges is enhanced. Thus, each intervention is also a preventive measure. Here an overview of a research-informed family resilience framework is presented and discussed to guide intervention and prevention efforts.
The Concept of Family Resilience: Crisis and Challenge.
Resilience - the ability to withstand and rebound from adversity - has become an important concept in mental health theory and research over the past 2 decades. It involves a dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of significant adversity (Luthar, Cicchetti & Becker, 2000). Researchers have found increasing evidence that the same adversity can result in different outcomes. For example, although many lives are shattered br childhood trauma, others emerge from similar high-risk conditions able to live and love well, evident int he finding that most abused children do not become abusive parents (Kaufman & Zeigler, 1987).
To account for these differences, early studies focused on personal traits associated with resilience, or hardiness, reflecting the dominant cultural ethos of the rugged individual. Resillience was viewed as inborn or aquired on one's own, as in the "invulnerable child" thought to be impervious to stress because of inner fortitude or character armor (Anthony & Cohler, 1987). As research extended beyond situations of parental mental illness or maltreatment to multiple adverse conditions (e.g., socioeconomic disadvantages, urban poverty, community violence, chronic illness and catastrophic life events), resilience came to be viewed in terms of an interplay of risks and protective processes over time, involving individual, family and larger sociocultural influences (Garmenzy, 1991; Masten, Best & Garmenzy, 1990; Rutter, 1987, Werner, 1993). Notably, emerging studies of resilient individuals remarked on the crucial influence of significant relationships with caring adults and mentors,such as coaches or teachers, who supported the efforts of at risk children, believed in their potential, and encouraged them to make the most of their lives (for a review see Walsh, 1996). However, the prevailing narrow focus on parental pathology blinded many to the resources that could be found and strengthened in family relational networks, even where a parent is seriously impaired. Attention focused on building extra familial resources, often dismissing the family as hopelessly dysfunctional.
A family resilience perspective fundamentally alters that deficit-based lens from viewing troubled families as damaged and beyond repair to seeing them as a challenged by life's adversities. Rather than rescuing so called "survivors" from dysfunctional families, this approach engages distressed families with respect and compassion for their struggles, affirms their reparative potential and seeks to bring out their best. Efforts to foster family resilience aim both to avoid or reduce pathology and dysfunction and to enhance functioning and well-being (Luther et al, 2000) Such efforts have the potential to benefit all potential to benefit all family members as they fortify relational bonds.
A family resilience framework can serve as a valuable conceptual map to guide prevention and intervention efforts to support and strengthen vulnerable families in crisis.
Family resilience involves more than managing stressful conditions, shouldering a burden, or surviving an ordeal. This approach recognizes the potential for personal and relational transformation and growth that can be forged out of adversity.
By encouraging key processes for resilience, families can emerge stronger and more resourceful through their shared efforts. A crisis can be a wakeup call, heightening attention to what matters. It can become an opportunity for reappraisal of priorities, stimulating new or renewed investment in meaningful relationships and life pursuits.
In fact, families report that through weathering a crisis together their relationships were enriched and more loving than they might have been otherwise (Stinnett & DeFrain, 1985). In other words, members may discover untapped resources and abilities they had not recognized.
By:Froma Walsh
Abstract