Marie Connolly | PubMed Health

PubMed2006

Up front and personal: confronting dynamics in the Family Group Conference.

The Family Group Conference is a participatory model of decision making with families in child protection. It is a legal process that brings together the family, including the extended family, and the professionals in a family-led decision-making forum. Bringing together extended family and professionals to discuss child protection concerns can create a highly charged dynamic. Workers are challenged by family, family are challenged by workers, and family members challenge each other. Practice is also exposed to wider scrutiny as professionals also challenge the work. This article briefly describes the development and practice of family group conferencing as a family-centred legal process in Aotearoa, New Zealand. It then examines the findings of a study exploring the dynamics emerging from family group conference practice from the perspective of the coordinators who convene them. Family group conferencing as a family strengthening practice is discussed.

Decision Making↗

PubMed2004

Reflexivity, reflection, and the change process in offender work.

This study explores the therapeutic engagement experiences of men who have sexually offended against children and who are involved in a prototypical prison-based group treatment programme. The study examined factors relating to the therapeutic engagement of the offender in treatment, and in particular, the impact of the "out-of-group" time between sessions. The findings, although tentative, suggest that between formal therapy sessions, clients of the programme make significant movement either toward or away from engagement in the therapy. The implications of these processes with respect to clinical practice and the development of offender services are discussed.

Adult↗